What is going to come of Obamacare?

[Uncle Ted]

Senate Republicans take first step to repeal Obamacare

The Senate voted mostly along party lines Wednesday to take the first official step toward repealing President Barack Obama's signature health care law.
The 51-48 vote was a procedural motion to start debate on a budget resolution that Republicans hope will result in overhauling the Affordable Care Act, and came after President Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Mike Pence visited Capitol Hill to rally their respective parties.
GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only senator to break with his party; he joined Democrats in opposing the motion. A Paul spokesman said he did not support the bill because it doesn't balance the underlying budget.
[...]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/03/politi...re-resolution/

Pelosi gives her response...

“The most privileged person in America has better health because if everyone has health, everyone is in the loop.” What?

It seems she hasn't sobered up yet from the election.

[Goatnapper'96]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/03/politi...re-resolution/

Pelosi gives her response...

“The most privileged person in America has better health because if everyone has health, everyone is in the loop.” What?

It seems she hasn't sobered up yet from the election.

This type of obstructionism is unparalleled. When did our country invent the idea of an opposition party?

[byu71]

This type of obstructionism is unparalleled. When did our country invent the idea of an opposition party?

I think she speaks in secret code and only really smart people like Mylie Cyrus get it. Like, you have to pass the bill in order to know what's in it. All the really bright people knew what that meant.

Maybe more than those understand it and just us old white grouchy males don't.

Edit: I forgot privileged

[Goatnapper'96]

I don't like the Republican plan to repeal first and then replace.

Primarily, it is a weasily way to go forward. Put your plan on the table and develop a plan to replace this mess. Additionally, while Obamacare is a very bad law and Democrats have paid a very high price since passing it without any Republican support at least they tried to do something. Unfortunately for them what they did was figure out a way to have those already with health insurance pay more so that those too poor to afford health insurance but wealthy enough to not qualify for medicaid could get health insurance. It is massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the poorest class. That is why people are pissed. Nothing was done to drive down the cost of health care and with the new regulations and perverse incentives from this bad law the increases were even higher than they had been for the 15 years leading up to the passing of Obamacare. Democrats dumbly passed the law and took complete ownership of the healthcare industry and because the root issues were not addressed the problems the majority of people who vote in this country, most of whom already had health insurance before the government showed up to help, cared about wrt health insurance, namely the rising cost of premiums, got no relief. Ergo Democrats were punished. So the political dynamics of this is to avoid owning health care in the minds of the people unless you do something about the increasing cost of health insurance. Politically, it is not the 20 million poor who found health insurance it is the many, many millions more of middle class voters whose premiums continued to skyrocket even faster than before. But something has to be done with the 20 million and the folks with pre-existing conditions and the folks who only show up for insurance when they are sick because of the perverse incentives.

Democrats want Republicans to repeal it without any Democrats support because then in the minds of the people Republicans own the mess. Just as Republicans had done nothing to fix the issue when they were in charge the Democrats took all the blame from them when they passed Obamacare.

Can the issues be fixed? That is the real question. I think so but it is going to take time, there will be disruptions and some of the incentives that are extremely unpopular must become increasingly more unpopular. People must be moved closer to their actual cost of healthcare for this to work. For that to be accomplished rationally there is going to have to be bi-partisan support. The only way to fix our current mess, which in my opinion goes way beyond Obamacare as that was just a transfer of wealth from middle class to poor and the Democrats gladly putting the albatross of the US health care system around their neck, is with a law that has bi-partisan support so neither and both parties own it. The only way to reasonably accomplish that is to replace at the same time as repeal. Sadly, it has such an emotional aspect to it that to many on the right they are so consumed with repealing it to satisfy their thirst to beat the namesake. I am hopeful that perhaps 3 Republican Senators dig in for demanding a replacement along with repeal. It sounds like Sen Rand Paul is on that beat - I am thinking because the Democrat Kentucky Governor got a pretty successful exchange set up and my guess is most of the Kentucky Republicans like parts of their Obamacare.

[Dwight Schr-ute]

LOLz. Just like Mexico and the fence WALL.

Embedded Tweet

[Topper]

I don't like the Republican plan to repeal first and then replace.

Primarily, it is a weasily way to go forward. Put your plan on the table and develop a plan to replace this mess. Additionally, while Obamacare is a very bad law and Democrats have paid a very high price since passing it without any Republican support at least they tried to do something. Unfortunately for them what they did was figure out a way to have those already with health insurance pay more so that those too poor to afford health insurance but wealthy enough to not qualify for medicaid could get health insurance. It is massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the poorest class. That is why people are pissed. Nothing was done to drive down the cost of health care and with the new regulations and perverse incentives from this bad law the increases were even higher than they had been for the 15 years leading up to the passing of Obamacare. Democrats dumbly passed the law and took complete ownership of the healthcare industry and because the root issues were not addressed the problems the majority of people who vote in this country, most of whom already had health insurance before the government showed up to help, cared about wrt health insurance, namely the rising cost of premiums, got no relief. Ergo Democrats were punished. So the political dynamics of this is to avoid owning health care in the minds of the people unless you do something about the increasing cost of health insurance. Politically, it is not the 20 million poor who found health insurance it is the many, many millions more of middle class voters whose premiums continued to skyrocket even faster than before. But something has to be done with the 20 million and the folks with pre-existing conditions and the folks who only show up for insurance when they are sick because of the perverse incentives.

Democrats want Republicans to repeal it without any Democrats support because then in the minds of the people Republicans own the mess. Just as Republicans had done nothing to fix the issue when they were in charge the Democrats took all the blame from them when they passed Obamacare.

Can the issues be fixed? That is the real question. I think so but it is going to take time, there will be disruptions and some of the incentives that are extremely unpopular must become increasingly more unpopular. People must be moved closer to their actual cost of healthcare for this to work. For that to be accomplished rationally there is going to have to be bi-partisan support. The only way to fix our current mess, which in my opinion goes way beyond Obamacare as that was just a transfer of wealth from middle class to poor and the Democrats gladly putting the albatross of the US health care system around their neck, is with a law that has bi-partisan support so neither and both parties own it. The only way to reasonably accomplish that is to replace at the same time as repeal. Sadly, it has such an emotional aspect to it that to many on the right they are so consumed with repealing it to satisfy their thirst to beat the namesake. I am hopeful that perhaps 3 Republican Senators dig in for demanding a replacement along with repeal. It sounds like Sen Rand Paul is on that beat - I am thinking because the Democrat Kentucky Governor got a pretty successful exchange set up and my guess is most of the Kentucky Republicans like parts of their Obamacare.

I like the Alaska plan of creating federally funded high risk subsidies for the very sick and eliminating mandates so that premiums can be reasonable for the healthy.

[beefytee]

I like the Alaska plan of creating federally funded high risk subsidies for the very sick and eliminating mandates so that premiums can be reasonable for the healthy.

When you say very sick, do you mean those with expensive chronic or terminal illnesses?

Do you have a link to the Alaskan plan?

[Topper]

When you say very sick, do you mean those with expensive chronic or terminal illnesses?

Do you have a link to the Alaskan plan?

The Alaska plan involves funding the high risk pools with state and federal subsidies so the very ill can have coverage but so the rates needed for the very ill do not unnecessarily increase the rates for healthy patients.

Here is a blog discussing its benefits.
http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2016/0...-developments/

[Uncle Ted]

[Northwestcoug]

Did Jimmy Kimmel singlehandedly save Obamacare?:

I know his story doesn't really relate to many problems with coverage, but man that is an emotional video. With republicans already skittish on changing healthcare in any meaningful way, something viral like this could galvanize public opinion.

[Northwestcoug]

And you knew that Obama would capitalize on Kimmel's story:

Embedded Tweet

I would too.

[Uncle Ted]

Yet another nail into the Obamacare coffin...

Trump agrees to let insurers sell cheaper health plans than ObamaCare

The Trump administration on Wednesday said it will allow insurers to sell short-term health care plans as a cheaper alternative to ObamaCare, but the policies will not cover maternity care, prescription drugs or pre-existing conditions.


President Trump has touted the plans as “much less expensive healthcare at a much lower price” and said they would provide coverage to millions of Americans who don’t require extensive coverage and don’t want to pay the higher premiums that come with ObamaCare.
[...]

https://nypost.com/2018/08/01/trump-...han-obamacare/

But, but, but... that is unconstitutional or something!

[Uncle Ted]

Embedded Tweet

Let me get this straight... Obama said it wasn't a tax. In fact, it was initiated in the senate (tax bills are initiated in the house). The supreme court said, because of the mandate, it was a tax and, therefore, constitutional. Now, because the recent tax reform that removed the mandate Obamacare has now been ruled unconstitutional. I wonder if the supreme court (including Judge Kavanaugh) will agree.

[All-American]

Embedded Tweet

Let me get this straight... Obama said it wasn't a tax. In fact, it was initiated in the senate (tax bills are initiated in the house). The supreme court said, because of the mandate, it was a tax and, therefore, constitutional. Now, because the recent tax reform that removed the mandate Obamacare has now been ruled unconstitutional. I wonder if the supreme court (including Judge Kavanaugh) will agree.

Probably not. The mandate is unconstitutional but the case that it is unseverable is thin.

[Northwestcoug]

Unless there's a 'shitty health care policy' thread, I'll post this here:

Recently we had a dinner with our billing company representative. She matter of factly told us that one of the largest health insurance companies in the US automatically denies claims for bone marrow interpretations performed in Texas. Why, you may ask? Because health insurance in the US is so shitty that of all claims denied, a third of patients will not ask for an appeal for their claim. So they end up only having to pay around two-thirds of those claims, just because patients throw their hands up in the air and don't fight for their coverage.

Shitty and unethical insurance policies. Love it!