Senate Takes Major Step Toward Repealing Obamacare

[Spike]

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans took their first major step toward repealing the Affordable Care Act on Thursday, approving a budget blueprint that would allow them to gut the health care law without the threat of a Democratic filibuster.

The vote was 51 to 48.

Republicans needed a simple majority to clear the repeal rules, instructing committees to begin drafting repeal legislation, through the upper chamber, with the vote falling largely along party lines.

The approval of the budget blueprint, coming even before President-elect Donald J. Trump is inaugurated, shows the speed with which Republican leaders are moving to fulfill their promise to repeal President Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement — a goal they believe can now be accomplished after Mr. Trump’s election.

The action by the Senate is essentially procedural, setting the stage for a special kind of legislation called a reconciliation bill. Such a bill can be used to repeal significant parts of the health law and, critically, is immune from being filibustered. Congress appears to be at least weeks away from voting on legislation repealing the law.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/12/us/politics/health-care-congress-vote-a-rama.html?_r=0

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Muh Legacy!

 

[deljzc]

This is such a complex issue that ties into so many other failed policies of the Obama White House and even many from Bush, Congress, et. al.

By far the best way to pay for insurance is the employee/employer paid system that buys from an open and unrestrained market of different insurance companies. Insurance companies that are allowed to compete in all markets (and should be required to) and that don't collude with each other to divvy up the country into regions.

But so many things done by our electorate has undermined this:

1. The growing acceptance of "part-time" workers that don't qualify or have to be given benefit packages by employees.
2. The colluding and monopolistic nature of insurance companies and the failure of our legislature to stand up to them (they give a lot of money)
3. The use of true and accurate costs of medical procedures. Part of this is due to the conglomeration of hospitals for profit and how they negotiate with insurance companies to rig the system (what procedures are overdone or not done enough that increase profits).
4. The growing number of "unemployed, disabled and out-of-the-workforce" people in this country that are uninsured.

In general, no "comprehensive health care reform bill" is going to work unless each of these is tackled HARD by our elected officials.

Obamacare didn't do it at all and just decided (through a smoke-and-mirrors subsidy system) to pretty much just pay, right out of our fiscal budget, the health care of 20 million people that SHOULD be working full time and getting employee/employer insurance but don't. That is a very hard cat to get back into the bag because you can't just move these people into the employee/employer system overnight.

Costs can only go down if ALL the insured people in this country, in a pure capitalistic environment, contribute to the total pot of each insurance company. And competition between insurance companies should lower their profits to 7-8%.

Cost must also be controlled by serious oversight into the collusion of insurance companies/hospitals (and to some degree doctors) into the costs, fees and payments of procedures. And doctors must do a better job of controlling the costs of what they see as treatment.

We can only get people into the system if we get more people working good, full-time jobs that use the employee/employer system and then and only then will a government alternative for the few that don't (or can't use) this system be effective.

In conjunction with this, there is the strong possibility that lowering the age medicare kicks in from 65 to 55 could be used as an alternative. That would greatly increase federal spending, but would really lower cost of insurance for ages 20-55 people and most of our work plans. So we would be getting taxed more but insurance should (in theory) cost less.

 

[Spike]

Trump: Drug companies 'getting away with murder'

Drug stocks tanked after President-elect Donald Trump, in his first press conference since the election, complained about big price increases and put the industry on notice.

Trump said that many companies were "getting away with murder" and that there would be more competitive bidding practices for federal contracts in his administration.

Dow component Pfizer (PFE) stock fell more than 2% immediately after the comments. Mylan (MYL), which has already come under Congressional scrutiny for dramatic prices hikes of its life-saving allergy medication EpiPen, fell 3.5%, and Bristol-Myers Squibb dived 4%.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/11/investing/donald-trump-press-conference-markets-economy/index.html

 

[Steelin]

The limits on FSA/HSA consumer-choice driven payroll deductions is idiotic. Let me decide how to spend some discretionary health care dollars. The taxing of over the counter medicines was also a big hit. The disallowing of employer incentives via wellness, plan refusal, etc also chapped my ***. All things that can lower and cause more efficient usage of health care dollars. WTF???

 

[DBS1970]

Trump: Drug companies 'getting away with murder'

Drug stocks tanked after President-elect Donald Trump, in his first press conference since the election, complained about big price increases and put the industry on notice.

Trump said that many companies were "getting away with murder" and that there would be more competitive bidding practices for federal contracts in his administration.

Dow component Pfizer (PFE) stock fell more than 2% immediately after the comments. Mylan (MYL), which has already come under Congressional scrutiny for dramatic prices hikes of its life-saving allergy medication EpiPen, fell 3.5%, and Bristol-Myers Squibb dived 4%.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/11/investing/donald-trump-press-conference-markets-economy/index.html

Drug companies are getting away with murder because of government regulations though. You and I can't start a company to make medications that the pattens have expired on. The reason being is because even though were using the right ingredients the right manufacturing processes and the qualified formula for the drug we still have to spend $50 million getting it through FDA trials.

 

[Spike]

Vote-a-Rama Ends with Senate Passing Obamacare Repeal


The Senate is already rolling back President Barack Obama’s legacy. It passed the continuing resolution, S. Con.Res. 3, that tears away the fees, taxes and subsidies from the 201o Patient Protection and Affordable Cart Act, Obamacare, shortly after 1:25 Thursday morning, 51-to-48.

All Republicans, except for Sen. Rand Paul (R.-KY), voted for the resolution. Paul criticized the budget resolution for not addressing the federal debt and for not having a companion replacement bill. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D.-CA), who is recovering from a scheduled medical procedure was absent from the chamber.

As senators waited for their names to be called by the clerk, Paul approached the clerk’s desk from side and whispered: “No.”

All Democrats and the two Independents who caucus with Democrats voted against the resolution.

Soon after they voted, virtually all Republicans left the floor. Among the handful staying behind were Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R.-KY) and Majority Whip John Cornyn (R.-Texas), along with Sen. John R. Thune (R.-S.D.), Sen. Roy Blunt (R.-MO) in the front. McConnell sat quietly at his desk, but Cornyn stood tall in the well watching the votes come in.

All of the Democrats did not respond with their names were called off and they sat glumly with their armed crossed or their chins resting on their hand.

When the Republicans were done, led by Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D.-N.Y.), each Democrat attempted to make remarks with their vote.

The presiding officer, Sen. Cory Gardner (R.-CO) repeatedly ruled the Democrats out of order: “Debate is not in order during a vote.”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-govern...-amendment-set-derail-rapid-obamacare-repeal/

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Whiny loser ******* just want to run their mouths.

Nobody cares!

 

[Tibs]

 

[CharlesDavenport]

The government has already ****** up this market so badly that the private sector is no longer able to service the need. The private market adjusted to the new reality and can't just dial it back. IMO the only way to unfuck this clusterfuck is to put the private sector on alert that the government will be stepping out completely in 2 or 3 years, and to prepare business plans for a clean cutover at some date. Until that time it has to stay as is. There will be some new constraints and some new freedoms that the private market will need to adjust to before they come up with sustainable business models.

I fear that this will not happen, because the government never realizes a mistake and just clears out. This will be a ******* mess.

 

[Ron Burgundy]

The government has already ****** up this market so badly that the private sector is no longer able to service the need. The private market adjusted to the new reality and can't just dial it back. IMO the only way to unfuck this clusterfuck is to put the private sector on alert that the government will be stepping out completely in 2 or 3 years, and to prepare business plans for a clean cutover at some date. Until that time it has to stay as is. There will be some new constraints and some new freedoms that the private market will need to adjust to before they come up with sustainable business models.

I fear that this will not happen, because the government never realizes a mistake and just clears out. This will be a ******* mess.

I agree but just the same, we can't keep on going the way it is either.

 

[oneforthebus]

I agree but just the same, we can't keep on going the way it is either.

Yep...all these people screaming about losing Obamacare need to realize something...it was going to be gone (or at least radically altered)regardless. It was already in the process of collapsing becsuse it's unsustainable. One can only imagine what Hillary might have done to "improve" it.

 

[hamster]

Yep...all these people screaming about losing Obamacare need to realize something...it was going to be gone (or at least radically altered)regardless. It was already in the process of collapsing becsuse it's unsustainable. One can only imagine what Hillary might have done to "improve" it.

No, they would find ways of sustaining it. They always do. Guess who get's the bill?

 

[Steeltime]

No, they would find ways of sustaining it. They always do. Guess who get's the bill?

Uhhhhh, Obama??

ROGULSKI: Why are you here?
WOMAN #1: To get some money.
ROGULSKI: What kind of money?
WOMAN #1: Obama money.
ROGULSKI: Where's it coming from?
WOMAN #1: Obama.
ROGULSKI: And where did Obama get it?
WOMAN #1: I don't know, his stash. I don't know. (laughter) I don't know where he got it from, but he givin' it to us, to help us.

 

[Tibs]

This should get interesting.

[h=1]Donald Trump may have just destroyed the Republican effort to repeal Obamacare[/h]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...l-obamacare/?tid=sm_fb&utm_term=.483df57a8ee8

“We’re going to have insurance for everybody,” Trump said. “There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us.” People covered under the law “can expect to have great health care. It will be in a much simplified form. Much less expensive and much better.” …

“It’s not going to be their plan,” he said of people covered under the current law. “It’ll be another plan. But they’ll be beautifully covered. I don’t want single-payer. What I do want is to be able to take care of people,” he said Saturday.

We should begin with the assumption that nothing Trump says can be taken at face value; the “plan” that he claims is being devised could be no more real than the secret plan to defeat the Islamic State he used to claim that he had formulated. But that’s not the point. What matters is this: Donald Trump just emphatically promised universal health coverage. That’s an absolutely gigantic promise, and it’s one that Republicans have no intention of keeping.

But now they’re stuck with it. Democrats will be saying, “President Trump promised that everyone would be covered!” every day for as long as this debate goes on. Every time a congressional Republican is interviewed on this topic, they’ll be asked, “President Trump said that everyone would be covered. Does your plan do that?,” and they’ll have to bob and weave as they try to avoid admitting the truth.

That’s because the Republican plan, in whatever final form it takes, will absolutely, positively not cover everyone. Universal coverage isn’t even one of their goals. Republicans believe it’s much more important to get government as far away from health care as possible. In place of the ACA’s expansion of Medicaid and subsidies for the purchase of insurance that have extended coverage to 20 million more people than used to have it, they’ll be offering some tax credits and health savings accounts, which would be very good for the healthy and wealthy, but not so great for other people.

They call this “universal access,” which is meant to sound like “universal coverage” but is actually nothing of the sort. The truth is that there are really only two ways you can achieve universal coverage: by having the government cover everyone in some form of single-payer, or with a set of extremely coercive mandates to carry coverage, much more coercive than the ones in the ACA. Republicans would rather pluck out their own eyes than agree to either one of those. So the trick is to make the public think they won’t take away coverage from tens of millions of people, while doing just that.

That requires some rhetorical subtlety, which is something Trump is just not capable of. Here’s more evidence: Trump’s insistence that the Republican plan will give people “much lower deductibles” is absolutely false — in fact, every extant Republican plan promotes higher deductibles, as a way of forcing people to become aggressive health-care shoppers because they have “skin in the game” and, thereby, through the magic of the market, driving down costs.

If Trump understood the political and policy challenges Republicans face, he’d know that high deductibles are supposed to be complained about and wielded as evidence that the ACA is a failure, but you’re not supposed to actually promise that any Republican plan will lower them. You want people to assume that, of course, but you don’t want to promise it directly, because then you might be held accountable for that promise.

But Trump says whatever comes into his head, and whatever seems like it might be popular. People hate out-of-pocket costs, so he promises low deductibles. People don’t like the idea of tens of millions losing their coverage, so he promises that everyone will be covered.

And now, congressional Republicans are going to have to answer for breaking a promise they didn’t even make. At a moment when opposition to the repeal of the ACA is gathering strength, this was the last thing they needed.

 

[RollRed]

There is never going to be a solution to the healthcare situation in this country until someone addresses what the real problem is.... the enormous cost. The healthcare industry enjoys a luxury no other provider of goods and services enjoys... they sell a product people have to purchase. When you wake up in the middle of the night unable to breathe or you suddenly experience intense pain in your abdomen or some other medical emergency, the last thing on your mind is whether or not you can afford the enormous cost you and your family are about to incur when you go to the hospital. At that point, the hospital knows it can charge whatever it wants and you are going to agree to those terms.