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1/01/2017 6:23 am  #1


How About You go Ahead and Specify First

"Within hours of the new Congress convening on Tuesday, the House plans to adopt a package of rules to clear the way for repealing the health care law and replacing it with as-yet-unspecified measures meant to help people obtain insurance coverage."




Job No. 1 for a New Congress? Undoing Obama’s Health Law


WASHINGTON — Congress often waits for a new president to take office before it gets down to business. This year, Republicans will drop that custom in their dash to scrap the Affordable Care Act.

Within hours of the new Congress convening on Tuesday, the House plans to adopt a package of rules to clear the way for repealing the health care law and replacing it with as-yet-unspecified measures meant to help people obtain insurance coverage.

Then, in the week of Jan. 9, according to a likely timetable sketched out by Representative Greg Walden, Republican of Oregon, the House will vote on a budget blueprint, which is expected to call for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

Later, in the week starting Jan. 30, said Mr. Walden, incoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the panel will act on legislation to carry out what is in the blueprint. That bill would be the vehicle for repealing major provisions of the health care law, including the expansion of Medicaid.

Republicans in both houses of Congress have said that repealing the health law is a top priority for the first months of 2017. “The Obamacare repeal resolution will be the first item up,” said the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky.

President-elect Donald J. Trump has called the law an “absolute disaster,” and has said he is eager to sign a repeal bill like one vetoed by President Obama in early 2016.

Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader, said the rules devised by House Republicans were “their opening salvo” against a law that she said had been “successful in meeting its goals of reducing cost, increasing access and improving quality of care.”

In a last-ditch bid to save his signature legislative achievement, which has provided coverage to some 20 million Americans, Mr. Obama plans to visit a meeting of House and Senate Democrats on Wednesday to rally support for the law.

The Affordable Care Act, approved in 2010 without any Republican votes, provides tax credits to help people buy private insurance. It also allowed states to expand Medicaid eligibility, with the federal government paying most of the cost for new beneficiaries.

The law also saves hundreds of billions of dollars by reducing the growth of Medicare payments to hospitals, nursing homes, health maintenance organizations and other health care providers. Repealing the law would eliminate those savings and thus increase federal spending, the Congressional Budget Office says.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/31/us/politics/obamacare-congress.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Last edited by Goose (1/01/2017 6:23 am)


We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists. 
 

1/01/2017 10:32 am  #2


Re: How About You go Ahead and Specify First

Yeah.  I hope the millions who voted for Trump who are covered under the ACA are prepared to again go uninsured.  Maybe some will even die for lack of medical insurance or money to pay for it on their own.  What a great government we now have!

 

1/01/2017 10:39 am  #3


Re: How About You go Ahead and Specify First

I am sure their replacement will be great  ! 

BTW, if THAT is their number one priority we are in BIG TROUBLE (which we well may be) ! 

Last edited by tennyson (1/01/2017 10:40 am)


"Do not confuse motion and progress, A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress"
 
 

1/01/2017 3:11 pm  #4


Re: How About You go Ahead and Specify First

flowergirl wrote:

Yeah.  I hope the millions who voted for Trump who are covered under the ACA are prepared to again go uninsured.  Maybe some will even die for lack of medical insurance or money to pay for it on their own.  What a great government we now have!

“If sheep elect wolves to be their shepherds, then they deserve to be eaten.” 


We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists. 
     Thread Starter
 

1/01/2017 5:42 pm  #5


Re: How About You go Ahead and Specify First

I seem to recall a hurried Congressional  vote during a heavy northeast snowstorm in December of 2009 to pass the ACA.   The vote was delayed because swing vote Sen. Joe Lieberman of CT could not get to DC by ground or by air.

Congress and the public were told to pass this telephone-directory thick legislation without studying it--worry about the details later.

Can you say, "deja vu?"


Life is an Orthros.
 

1/02/2017 10:10 pm  #6


Re: How About You go Ahead and Specify First

Tarnation wrote:

I seem to recall a hurried Congressional  vote during a heavy northeast snowstorm in December of 2009 to pass the ACA.   The vote was delayed because swing vote Sen. Joe Lieberman of CT could not get to DC by ground or by air.

Congress and the public were told to pass this telephone-directory thick legislation without studying it--worry about the details later.

Can you say, "deja vu?"

The difference here is that the Republicans are basically doing a" Replace and Dawdle".

Meaning they'll pass a repeal but sunset it in three or four years.

Meaning its good politically but only half the job is done.

I think even the most anti-ACA person would still admit that there is some good in it.

And by letting the "replace" part of it hang out there, the Republicans are putting a level of uncertainty out there that isn't good for consumers or providers.

And that is a legitimate concern everyone should have.


I think you're going to see a lot of different United States of America over the next three, four, or eight years. - President Donald J. Trump
 

1/02/2017 11:00 pm  #7


Re: How About You go Ahead and Specify First

TheLagerLad wrote:

I think even the most anti-ACA person would still admit that there is some good in it.

OK, you know me pretty well, and I'm taking the bait!

Two good--correction--GREAT things:

1)  Eliminating "pre-existing condition" exclusions.

2)  Allowing adult children to be carried on parents' policies until age 26.

Two bad things:

1)  Absolutely no attempt at Tort reform.

2)  Absolutely no reining in or restricting of prescription drug advertising.
 


Life is an Orthros.
 

1/03/2017 7:30 am  #8


Re: How About You go Ahead and Specify First

Here's another good thing.
Remember those coal miners that Trump cares so much about?

Apparently a provision in the ACA makes it easier for longtime coal miners with black lung disease to get disability benefits..

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2016/12/27/these-coal-country-voters-backed-trump-now-theyre-worried-about-losing-obamacare/?utm_term=.32056e855145


We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists. 
     Thread Starter
 

1/03/2017 8:14 am  #9


Re: How About You go Ahead and Specify First

This will be the first real test to see IF the R-tribe can REALLY govern. My guess is NOT ! 


"Do not confuse motion and progress, A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress"
 
 

1/03/2017 8:47 am  #10


Re: How About You go Ahead and Specify First

Tarnation wrote:

TheLagerLad wrote:

I think even the most anti-ACA person would still admit that there is some good in it.

OK, you know me pretty well, and I'm taking the bait!

Two good--correction--GREAT things:

1)  Eliminating "pre-existing condition" exclusions.

2)  Allowing adult children to be carried on parents' policies until age 26.

Two bad things:

1)  Absolutely no attempt at Tort reform.

2)  Absolutely no reining in or restricting of prescription drug advertising.
 

The bad things you list are minor, in my opinion, compared to the creation of three size fits all insurance plans now available that severely limits the personalization of health plans and jacks up costs on those who don't qualify for subsidies.

As for the good things, I agree but they are just pieces of a carefully constructed program. If you take away the individual mandate for example, you may not be able to keep "the good things" because it throws the actuarial tables the insurance companies use all out of whack.

Look, if the people have spoken and they are asking congress to get rid of the ACA, so be it. They have every right to do so. But what they can't do is say they are repealing the ACA and then say they'll get to some sort of new version of it down the road. They owe it to the people to lay out an end to end plan now.


I think you're going to see a lot of different United States of America over the next three, four, or eight years. - President Donald J. Trump
 

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