Obamacare going strong

[billvon 3,131]

It seems like only yesterday that Trump was saying he would repeal "failing Obamacare" immediately upon entering office. "We will immediately repeal and replace ObamaCare - and nobody can do that like me. We will save $'s and have much better healthcare!"

And yet here we are, six months into his presidency - and not only can he not repeal it, Obamacare is doing better than ever. People are getting healthier, and as a result healthcare costs are declining. Republicans who support its repeal are cowering from their constituents, afraid to hear what the public has to say. And for the few of them to brave going out in public, they are getting an earful.

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A Republican Congressman Meets His Angry Constituency

Russell Berman May 11, 2017 Politics
The Atlantic

WILLINGBORO, N.J.— Representative Tom MacArthur knew well what he was getting into when he showed up in this Democratic stronghold on Wednesday.

The second-term lawmaker who had almost single-handedly resuscitated the House Republican health-care bill would hear from the constituents who now despised him for playing hero at their expense. He had come back to face a particular kind of music—the cacophony of boos, jeers, and deprecatory chants that make up the 21st century congressional town hall.

But MacArthur was determined to play his own song first. He would tell the health-care saga of his family: his biological mother who died of cancer when he was four, his step-mother who died of cancer many years later, and the most wrenching of all, his daughter Gracie who died at age 11 after struggling her entire brief life with a rare brain condition. A wealthy insurance executive before entering politics, MacArthur would use Gracie’s story as an ice-breaker, a reminder to the 200 or so antsy and angered constituents seated around him that he knew something about their anxiety over hospital bills and preexisting conditions, and to explain that he struck his deal with House conservatives because he genuinely wanted to improve the nation’s health insurance market.

He wanted to disarm them, but they did not want to be disarmed. And they did not want to hear Gracie’s story.

“Shame!” one constituent yelled almost as soon as MacArthur uttered his late daughter’s name.

“We’ve heard this story!” shouted another. “We know all about you!”

. . . .

One by one, over a nearly five-hour marathon of questions, MacArthur’s constituents berated him in visceral terms over the health-care bill—and to a lesser extent, his steadfast support for President Trump. Not one of the dozens who spoke on Wednesday night praised either the AHCA or the president.

“I have sympathy for your mother. I have sympathy for your daughter. But you did not listen to the lessons they were trying to teach you,” Geoff Ginter, a 47-year-old medical assistant wearing his hospital scrubs, told MacArthur. Ginter described how his wife, who has a preexisting condition as a result of having survived breast cancer, would now have renewed fear because of the possibility that he could lose his insurance and cause her rates to skyrocket under the loophole MacArthur’s amendment could create. “You came after my wife,” Ginter said, his voice slow and rising. “You have been the single greatest threat to my family in the entire world. You are the reason I stay up at night.” When Ginter initially suggested he would not relinquish the microphone, two police officers began to edge closer to him. MacArthur allowed him to speak for 10 minutes, after which Ginter told him he didn’t even want to hear his response.
===========================
As GOP moves toward repeal, a government report shows Obamacare is working well

Michael Hiltzik
LA Times
July 3 2017

New data have been released contradicting Republican propaganda about the “failing” Affordable Care Act. What may be more embarrassing to the hardliners pushing repeal is that it comes from the government, specifically the Department of Health and Human Services.

Under Secretary Tom Price, the department has been a fount of anti-ACA rhetoric. But in an annual report about the ACA’s risk-management provisions issued Friday, Health and Human Services established that the key programs are “working as intended,” protecting insurers from unexpectedly large risks and moderating premiums for consumers.

Not only that, the data “would seem to refute the commonly held belief that the marketplace population is becoming sicker,” observes health economist Timothy Jost, writing in Health Affairs. In fact, according to the figures from 2016 in the latest report, the customer base is getting healthier and the risk pools have been stabilizing.
=================
McConnell says GOP must shore up ACA insurance markets if Senate bill dies

By Juliet Eilperin and Amy Goldstein July 6 at 8:44 PM
WaPo

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday that if his party fails to muster 50 votes for its plan to rewrite the Affordable Care Act, it will have no choice but to draft a more modest bill with Democrats to support the law’s existing insurance markets.

The remarks, made at a Rotary Club lunch in Glasgow, Ky., represent a significant shift for the veteran legislator. While he had raised the idea last week that Republicans may have to turn to Democrats if they cannot pass their own bill, his words mark the first time he has explicitly raised the prospect of shoring up the ACA.
==============
Four GOP senators say they can't vote for current Republican health care bill

By Miranda Green, Phil Mattingly and Ashley Killough, CNN
Updated 1:51 AM ET, Fri June 23, 2017

Washington (CNN)Four conservative Republican senators announced Thursday that they opposed the current version of GOP Senate leadership's health care bill as written.

Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah said in a joint statement they're "not ready to vote for this bill."

"Currently, for a variety of reasons, we are not ready to vote for this bill, but we are open to negotiation and obtaining more information before it is brought to the floor," the senators said. "There are provisions in this draft that represent an improvement to our current health care system, but it does not appear this draft as written will accomplish the most important promise that we made to Americans: to repeal Obamacare and lower their health care costs."

Republicans can only lose two members of their 52-senator caucus in order to pass their proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare.
===============

[Stumpy 284]

Repealing Obamacare has never been about any inherent problems with the plan (although there undoubtedly are some, the replacement options generally make them worse not better.) As with so many Trump agenda items, its primarily about undoing what obama did, regardless of merit.

Never try to eat more than you can lift

[jumpsracer 6]

Weren't you the one who predicted killary would win?! Obummercare is imploding on itself as more insurance companies withdraw from the exchanges. It's just a matter of time before the sucking sound you hear is obummercare flushing down the toilet.

[SkyDekker 1,465]

jumpsracer

Weren't you the one who predicted killary would win?! Obummercare is imploding on itself as more insurance companies withdraw from the exchanges. It's just a matter of time before the sucking sound you hear is obummercare flushing down the toilet.

Reports from your current government don't agree with you.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-trump-administrations-own-data-says-obamacare-isnt-imploding/

[PhreeZone 20]

The reason insurance companies are leaving the market place is due to the unpredictability in receiving payments from the government on the premiums they are owed. Trump has been floating the idea about just stopping the payments for those subsidies and I would not blame anyone for dropping a customer that starts walking around telling everyone that they just don't know if they want to keep paying their bills or not.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[yoink 321]

jumpsracer

Weren't you the one who predicted killary would win?! Obummercare is imploding on itself as more insurance companies withdraw from the exchanges. It's just a matter of time before the sucking sound you hear is obummercare flushing down the toilet.

What time frame are we talking about? Pick a date.

[billvon 3,131]

>Obummercare is imploding on itself

The Trump administration disagrees with you. People are healthier since they are getting better care now, and that's lowering costs. I can understand why the republicans would want to change that; how will some of their biggest donors make any money if people are healthy?

>It's just a matter of time before the sucking sound you hear is obummercare flushing down the toilet.

The only sucking sound I hear right now are the votes being sucked away from Trumpcare.

The republicans now have a majority in the House, the Senate and the Supreme Court. And the President is a republican. And they STILL can't get a healthcare bill passed. You can't fail any more completely than that.

[kallend 2,175]

jumpsracer

... killary ... Obummercare ... obummercare .

Well, your opinion is about as well informed as your 6th grade name calling is adult.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[JerryBaumchen 1,471]

Hi Eric,

Quote

due to the unpredictability in receiving payments from the government

Long before Congress passed the ACA, they passed the Prompt Payment Act. This act requires the federal gov't. to pay its bills in a timely manner.

I remember once at work, a contract adminstrator failed to pay on time, resulting in interest being paid on the billing.

Our financial dep't. nearly reamed that contract administor a new a-hole for the additional costs to the agency.

I have no idea if this act applies to the ACA as I have not worked for the feds since 1999.

Jerry Baumchen