Repealing the ACA under Trump

[knapplc]

It's the Democrats' fault!

 

 

 

 

 

(McConnell engaged in closed-door politics on this bill, and wouldn't let the Democrats see it until it was up for vote)

[Nebfanatic]

That's what irks me. Try putting the bill through an open debate and amendment process with the dems and maybe you'll get some support for the thing that comes out of that process

[NM11046]

It's the Democrats' fault!

 

 

 

 

 

(McConnell engaged in closed-door politics on this bill, and wouldn't let the Democrats see it until it was up for vote)

Turtle, turtle, turtle.

[Danny Bateman]

 

They've already lost 3 votes to proceed. Predictably, the moderates still hate the House bill.

 

Ok, so my understanding they may be able to repeal only with 50 votes but their replacement plan would absolutely require 60 votes. You can't fit a later healthcare replacement under reconciliation. According to this Times healthcare reporter, they wouldn't even be able to repeal without 60 votes:

 

[TGHusker]

How many of those commenters are real people, and how many work in a Russian intel operation?

[NM11046]

I'm surprised there's not a lot of talk about how the ones brave enough to stand up to this GOP bully-machine are all women? And from the day he took office these gals have voted against him on multiple things.

 

Thoughts?

[Danny Bateman]

 

I'm surprised there's not a lot of talk about how the ones brave enough to stand up to this GOP bully-machine are all women? And from the day he took office these gals have voted against him on multiple things.

 

Thoughts?

 

 

I applaud them.

 

I'd suggest maybe McConnell should've diversified his original group of 13 working on his healthcare bill:

 

 

[TGHusker]

We have an EPIC failure of Congressional & Presidential leadership and that leadership double downs on that failure as both Trump and The Turtle both say it is the Dem's fault. I think the reason Trump and Pence were playing with fire trucks the other day is because they knew it was going to fail and didn't want to be seen as a part of it. But they are in the center of it. You cannot not make a silk purse out of this sow's ear - the voters will see and should see this is an epic failure on the part of the repubs and their ability to lead.

Leadership welcomes opposition opinion and should be working with all sides to do what best helps all of us. So now the repubs want to do the same thing they accused the dems of - The Dems had ACA start after an election the Repubs want to repeal and not have a replacement until after an election. The Dems paid a price and now the Repubs will pay a price. By taking this on - they became the sole owners of the issue. They cannot point fingers. They said they had a plan when they had none. I don't know who in DC can be trusted.

And we are suppose to trust them with tax/budget reform that is coming up next. Fool me once... There will be no by me if these guys get turned out in 2018.

[TGHusker]

 

 

I'm surprised there's not a lot of talk about how the ones brave enough to stand up to this GOP bully-machine are all women? And from the day he took office these gals have voted against him on multiple things.

 

Thoughts?

 

 

I applaud them.

 

I'd suggest maybe McConnell should've diversified his original group of 13 working on his healthcare bill:

 

 

 

Should have been a mix from the full senate.

[Danny Bateman]

And we are suppose to trust them with tax/budget reform that is coming up next.

 

What's nuts is they were counting on passing their ACA repeal in order to eliminate a lot of revenue (in the form of the taxes that help fund healthcare) so their tax reform could be bolder and still be seen as revenue neutral:

 

Now, the crazy thing is that this first tax cut for the rich (in the form of Obamacare “repeal and replace”) would have made a second one (this one coming in the form of “tax reform”) look more affordable.

 

That's because, due to parliamentary rules, tax revisions can't lose any revenue outside the 10-year budget window if it's going to be permanent. The question, though, is lose revenue compared to what. If Republicans had repealed the Affordable Care Act's $1 trillion worth of taxes before they revised taxes, that's $1 trillion less they'd have to come up with to make it look like money wasn't being lost. Now, without those phantom savings, tax restructuring, Speaker of the House Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) admitted, will be “more difficult.” Not that it was ever going to be easy. After all, the $1 trillion they were trying to save with a “border adjustment tax” seems to be on political life support, since every major retailer, including big GOP donors such as Walmart, is opposed to it. And, as you might have guessed, there aren't an extra $2 trillion of savings lying around for them to replace the ones they thought they were going to get from this and repealing the Affordable Care Act.

 

Which is to say that Republicans will either have to scale back their ambitions for how deeply they will cut taxes or how long they will. Whatever they choose, though, the top tax rate isn't going to stay under 30 percent.

 

And for the GOP, that's the real tragedy of 24 million people keeping their health insurance.

[knapplc]

The Donald's current plan:

 

 

 

 

Except:

 

 

 

[ZRod]

And when it doesn't fail, then what?

[sho]

And when it doesn't fail, then what?

 

It will, mainly because of Congress and Trump. From my understanding, there are government contracts that have to be renewed to keep insurance companies in it. All Trump has to do is not renew those, and insurance companies will start bailing. Some already are because of the uncertainty of the contracts being renewed.

[BigRedBuster]

They'll make sure it fails.

 

Problem is, there are inherent problems with the bill and it's funding that would need to be fixed no matter what. But, they aren't willing to do that either.

 

So.....what we will have is a program that millions of people are benefiting from because they are getting health insurance. Meanwhile, it's melting from inside out.....nowhere close to how the Republicans claim it's failing.....but, there are things that need fixed.

 

Many Americans will benefit from this up until it fails. Once that happens, it's anybody's guess as to what happens next.....But, it's not going to be good.

[Red Five]

 

And when it doesn't fail, then what?

 

It will, mainly because of Congress and Trump. From my understanding, there are government contracts that have to be renewed to keep insurance companies in it. All Trump has to do is not renew those, and insurance companies will start bailing. Some already are because of the uncertainty of the contracts being renewed.

 

 

If will only "fail" if the administration stops funding the CSR payments and does not enforce the mandate.

 

Specifically regarding CSRs, the uncertainty around their funding is causing insurers to double/triple their rates:

 

Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina said the company decided to more than double their requested premium increase due to the CSR uncertainty.

 

The company has requested a 22.9% increase for the average premium in 2018, but said that if the CSR payments were guaranteed, that would only by 8.8%.

 

"The latest news came earlier this week as the Trump Administration delayed a decision on whether to fight the House lawsuit," Brian Tajlili, the director of actuarial and pricing services for Blue Cross NC, wrote in a blog post on Thursday explaining the decision. "As a result, insurance companies can’t count on being paid for reducing cost-sharing for eligible ACA customers."

 

Tajlili went on to tie the increase directly to the uncertainty surrounding the CSR payments, saying more clarity on the ACA's future from lawmakers could have driven the premium increases even lower.

 

"In other words, with the right actions coming out of Washington to stabilize the market, the rate increase from Blue Cross NC would have been between 5% and 6%," Tajlili wrote. "That looks a lot different from the 22.9% we filed."