Key Senate Sponsors
Impact Page from GOP Playbook
Talk One Way, Act Another, Always Hurt the Needy
Major Update and New Post:
Original
article for the following from here (NY Times) and a great piece
I might add). Of course Sen. McCain has now announced he cannot on good
conscience support the bill and gets hammered and especially from you-know-who –
part from here – fore…!
SOMERSET, NJ — President Trump on Saturday (Sep 23) morning lashed out at
Senator John McCain of Arizona for breaking with him and opposing Republicans’
latest plan to roll back the ACA (Obama-care) saying “… the senator had let his
state down and been deceived by Democrats into abandoning a promise.”
In a series of angrily
worded tweets sent from his golf resort in Bedminster, NJ, Trump argued that McCain,
whose announcement the day before that he would not back the health care
measure most likely doomed it, “…had knowingly misled members of his own party
about where he stood on the legislation.”
(Note: I personally called Sen. MCain and thanked him for his statement and
possible
Side note: Boy, Trump hates to lose anything or hear anyone criticize him for anything, and if they do “cross or insult” him in any way (at
least in his mind), well they better duck – his tweets as he remind us what he said in the campaign: “I’ll bomb the
sh*t out of them…”
Now
this excellent piece (from Paul Krugman – a very smart man) as we head for
the homestretch as it were, in part from Krugman (my emphasis
added and posted here previously): “Graham-Cassidy, the health bill the Senate may vote on
next week, is stunningly cruel. It’s also incompetently drafted: The bill’s
sponsors clearly had no idea what they were doing when they put it together.
Furthermore, their efforts to sell the bill involve obvious, blatant lies.”
The latest from Graham-Cassidy and a few Senate “leaders” – I call it the “Portrait of the Party of Gloom and Doom” –
congrats, you GOPers earned the title – now say cheese:
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Original
Post Starts Here:
Healthcare is “class war fare” despite GOP BS talk otherwise … examples in the new so-called Graham-Cassidy repeal bill (Chicago Tribune) – with no replacement are in these highlights = also coverage is here (CNN) and impact here (Commonwealth Fund site):
The bad keeps getting worse – details:
1. It would effectively strangle the efforts of states — predominantly Democratic — that have been most successful in extending coverage under the ACA’s Medicaid expansion, tax credits and cost-sharing reductions.
2. It would, conversely, lavish new funding on states — predominantly Republican — that have resisted the coverage expansion opportunities the ACA offered.
3. It would dramatically cut funding for states that have successfully extended coverage under the ACA in which California would effectively receive $28 billion and New York $19 billion less.
4. It would however dramatically expand funding for states that have largely ignored their uninsured and not expanded or gone alone with the ACA – i.e., Texas would increase by $8 billion over currently projected levels.
5. It would immediately — and retroactively — end the individual- and employer-mandate penalties, while offering nothing in return to encourage healthy enrollees to maintain coverage.
6. It would also do nothing to compensate insurers for the reductions they must make in deductibles and other cost-sharing for low-income enrollees, an issue that is currently driving up premiums.
7. It includes some funding that could be used to help stabilize insurance markets, but does not specify how the money would be used, and in any event, it provides too little money.
8. It would give additional funds and allow ACA-resistant states to do more to cover their uninsured, states would first have to establish programs to distribute the money. This would likely require state legislation, administrative rules and possibly the establishment of new agencies.
9. It would allow states to waive the ACA requirement that insurers must cover essential health benefits, such as prescription drugs or mental health and substance-use disorder services, as well as the ACA’s prohibition against insurers charging higher premiums to people with preexisting conditions.
10. States would have to describe how they intend “to maintain access to adequate and affordable health insurance coverage for individuals with pre-existing conditions,” but it is unclear what “adequate and affordable” means and difficult to understand how coverage could meet this standard if services to treat preexisting conditions are not available or if individuals with preexisting conditions can be charged higher premiums. Moreover, the bill contains no mechanism for revoking funding to a state if it fails in fact to meet its commitments.
11. It would allow states to spend up to 15 percent of their grants on covering traditional Medicaid enrollees through private insurance.
States could simply replace their traditional Medicaid expenditures with Graham-Cassidy funding or use the funds to make up for Medicaid shortfalls as other provisions in the bill limit federal funding of traditional Medicaid. This would reduce the money available to cover the low- and moderate- income people that the ACA now covers.
The kicker as it were: The entire block-grant program depends on private insurer participation, but insurers would face 50 different state regulatory and financing systems, each of which could change from year to year. Many private insurers may decide this is just too risky a market to play in.
My conclusion: Okay, see the pattern developing?
Simple: GOP is playing harsh partisan politics to keep their base in tow, get votes, and stay in power all the while hurting people in need and millions now with health care – some for the first time in their lives by ripping it away worse: puts pressure on states they say they are helping – yeah, selective helping for votes, power, money, and support).
Under this new law, if passed, it is quite possible that the individual insurance markets could totally collapse in some states before 2020.
Time is running out for millions of Americans about to get the shaft from the GOP – as they keep the gold mine.
Thanks for stopping by and oppose this any way possible.
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