Republicans Fail to Reform ObamaCare

by Jack

In a strongly divided vote, Republican Senators failed to suspend ObamaCare and introduce a replacement plan, just as the Democrats predicted. It was an embarrassing and terribly disappointing moment yesterday for registered Republicans across America. The Senators went back on their campaign promises to repeal and replace the horrendously expensive ObamaCare. Instead, they offered the excuse that they needed more time to craft a bi-partisan healthcare reform. I guess for the last 7 years they’ve apparently been in a coma, unable to think or put pen to paper?

“Regretfully, it’s now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of Obamacare will not be successful,” McConnell said in a statement. ” Well, fine… then regretfully our marriage is over and we want a divorce! We’re keeping the Trump’s and the big House too. Start packing, McConnell, you bums are over! It’s time for you to find a real job, because clearly you are not suited for the one you have. And good luck finding another job that pays you $175,000, plus benefits, ONLY to be present 133 days a year. And when you are out here in our world we hope you get ObamaCare or are forced to see a VA doctor. Ah, now that would be justice!

Speaking on behalf of all REAL conservatives we really do hope the door hit’s your fanny on the way out.

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47 Responses to Republicans Fail to Reform ObamaCare

  1. Libby says:

    Never mind all that. I just found out why our Prezzy has gone so quiet. The WSJ ripped him a new one yesterday with an editorial that had to have been in the works and making the rounds for a week at least. Choice bits:

    “Even if the ultimate truth of this tale is merely that Don Jr. is a political dunce who took a meeting that went nowhere — the best case — the Trumps made it appear as if they have something to hide,” the articled added. “They have created the appearance of a conspiracy that on the evidence Don Jr. lacks the wit to concoct. And they handed their opponents another of the swords that by now could arm a Roman legion.” …

    “Impeachment will be a constant undercurrent if not an active threat. His supporters will become demoralized,” the board predicted.

    “Mr. Trump somehow seems to believe that his outsize personality and social-media following make him larger than the Presidency. He’s wrong. He and his family seem oblivious to the brutal realities of Washington politics. Those realities will destroy Mr. Trump, his family and their business reputation unless they change their strategy toward the Russia probe. They don’t have much more time to do it,” the Journal concluded.

  2. Libby says:

    “I guess for the last 7 years they’ve apparently been in a coma, unable to think or put pen to paper?”

    You, Jack, have hit the nail precisely on the head. That 7-year hissy pitched by the U.S. House of Representatives had nothing to do with Obamacare … and everything to do with Obama. This is now baldly exposed for all the world with brains that work to comprehend.

    This country is going to have universal health care. We know you don’t want to pay for it but that is just tough.

    • Tina says:

      Obamacare is a horrible failure on every conceivable point. It costs more than they said it would. People can’t afford to use the insurance (high premiums and deductibles). Doctors are retiring at a faster pace and students are not taking up the profession. People prefer to pay the fine than buy something that expensive which means the insurance companies can’t cover the sick without huge influxes of cash from the taxpayer o top of the taxes in Obamacare. More people are dumped into a failing system, Medicaid, putting stress on that system and that is celebrated as a plus.

      How often are those failures discussed in the daily media conversation?

      How quick are the Democrat to admit the failures and apologize to the people…and, duly chagrined, vow to work with Republicans to rid the nation of this debacle?

      The leftist fix for this mess is doubling down for single payer…more of the same.

      How stupid, suicidal, is that! How stupid do they think we are?

      While we rightly bash Republicans for not being able to agree on how to fix this complex mess it should also be recognized that Democrats made it.

      They lied to the people to get it done.

      It took them more than a year and they had a super majority!

      Did any of the media outlets that are being very critical of Republicans on performance criticize Pelosi or Reid for dragging their feet and not being able to stable the holdouts in their party?

      Did any of them mind when bribery was used to win the holdout votes?

      Were they snarky with Pelosi when she declared they had to pass it to see what was in it?

      Did they notice when the debt, which they said would not rise, began to rise? citizens have lost their providers leaving them without insurance?

      Did they give a rip, blame and shame the Democrats, when people had insurance they couldn’t use because the cost was too high?

      Have they been appalled at all by the terrible conditions the Democrats created and stubbornly sustained over ten years?

      The double standard in the media makes the Republican failure appear even bigger than it is. The double standard doesn’t serve the people or support the Congress to work in the best interests of the people.

      I should also remind us all (especially our Republican leaders) that after Obamacare passed and was signed, the legislation was altered over 90 times…around 75 of those were done by executive order. Thousands of pages of regulations were added by HHS.

  3. Tina says:

    At this point I’d prefer to keep them around and subject them to hours and hours of footage of ordinary Americans expressing their frustration, disappointment, and anger at being betrayed…again….then we can throw the bums out.

    Libby, you were right that I would be disappointed. Too bad you are too ignorant to understand that your position leads to everything you hate.

    And if Chuck Schummer thinks he and his colleagues are somehow vindicated he can think again. They should also be subjected to hours and hours of footage of ordinary Americans expressing how Obamacare ruined their lives. Hours while the American people express their anger and frustration at being subjected to loss of insurance they liked, plans they can’t afford, lost jobs, high deductibles, and doctors that are angry, frustrated, and retiring over the mounds of paperwork that takes time away from patient care. They can sit their butts down and be told again and again that putting more people into a system (medicaid) that was already broken was no fix for the uninsured at all…and it’s no justification for the disaster called Obamacare now.

    If Democrats in the populace had a clue, they too would show their leaders the door. But Democrats never take responsibility for the negative outcomes of their meddling; they just push for more government control which eventually leads to an elitist group of government and corporate heads living in luxury while the population lives with less and less.

    Congress is a failure. It’s been a failure for decades! It’s given us massive government expansion and debt and it’s destroyed as much as it has fixed.

    Chuck Schummer said this morning that the (health insurance) market under Obamacare was “stabilizing”. This is a total crock! The market is collapsing! It will continue to collapse without HUGE and CONTINUING government bailouts (more and higher taxes- increased corporatocracy). Poor economy, less opportunity to work, greater dependence on government. It will continue to deny healthcare to people that buy the insurance but can’t afford to use it! It will continue to lock out healthy younger people who refuse to buy and expensive product that includes services they don’t need or want!

    The only thing that would save us is the people getting finally wising up and demanding relief from big government/big corporate interference. Scrap Obamacare…hell, scrap the entire regulatory library and start over with something as clear and succinct as the constitution itself!

  4. Libby says:

    “They should also be subjected to hours and hours of footage of ordinary Americans expressing how Obamacare ruined their lives.”

    It’s alternate reality time again. Are you actually thinking that this is what’s driven Republican representatives to abandon the “Town Hall” meeting?

    With such willful ignorance there is nothing to be done.

    • Tina says:

      Willful ignorance is as willful ignorance does.

      The die has been cast. You tossed the die. You own Obamacare and so have no ground on which to stand to make such a ridiculous assertions.

      When liberals attend a town hall and refuse to allow a representative to speak or even answer their questions what would be the point? Your great resistance movement is rabble; it is not responsible civic participation.

      Anger and frustration at my party doesn’t excuse the unchallenged mess your party has made. (The mess also doesn’t get them elected thus far)

  5. J. Soden says:

    GOP would’ve been smart just to do a straight REPEAL with no replacement instead of a massive unworkable, unreadable pile of dreck.
    RINO leadership in BOTH houses of Clowngress need removal.
    And a massive dose of Eric Cantor Treatments should be applied during the next primaries – on BOTH sides of the aisle!

    • Chris says:

      GOP would’ve been smart just to do a straight REPEAL with no replacement instead of a massive unworkable, unreadable pile of dreck.

      Is there any better evidence of Libby’s theory than callous statements like this, which have been embraced by our president?

      Repealing the ACA with no replacement would cause millions of people to lose their health insurance. This is a fact. J. Soden evidently doesn’t care about that, nor does our president. All they care about is sticking it to Obama. That’s why Trump has not been out there advocating for the bill–he doesn’t know what’s in it, nor does he care. He just cares about a “win,” and the same is true for anyone else who was rooting for this bill to succeed despite being opposed by doctors, medical associations, health insurance companies, and anyone who can do basic arithmetic.

      • Tina says:

        Repeal causing millions of people to lose their healthcare is a problem for you?

        Obamacare has already caused people to lose their healthcare in several states! Millions of others can’t afford to use the Obamacare plans they have.

        That hasn’t bothered you a bit! I suspect you don’t care any more now about people losing their insurance…you’re just hoping for single payer, as deceitful a plan as Obamacare has been!

        What would happen with repeal?

        Medicaid would continue so those people forced into that program would be no better or worse off.

        The current insurance is a year long contract so that would continue and could easily be extended if needed. (Obama did it..EO)

        Insurance companies would be free to offer coverage with lower premiums and dedictibles because they would be free to create alternative plans…offer the consumer choices. (Call it diversity in insurance)

        Democrats say cuts are being proposed for Medicaid. That’s a big fat lie…a slight of hand. What has been proposed is a lesser increase in spending! The plan would have MORE money not less!!!!!

        The sky is falling is another phony leftist illusion!

        Your party is deceitful and irresponsible.

        My party is inept.

        The people lose.

        • Chris says:

          Repeal causing millions of people to lose their healthcare is a problem for you?

          Obamacare has already caused people to lose their healthcare in several states!

          I need numbers, Tina.

          Yes, some people lost health care under the ACA. But the net result was 17 million more people insured. The net result of the latest Republican “repeal and replace” scam, according to the CBO, would be 22 million people losing insurance.

          So yes, the Republican alternative is, at this point, clearly much worse than the ACA.

          If you have more reliable numbers, you’re welcome to present them. But “Oh yeah! Some people lost insurance under the ACA” is not a good argument. There will be winners and losers under any policy; the goal is to maximize the number of winners.

  6. Peggy says:

    Don’t forget the democrats have had control of both the House and/or the Senate for the last seven years and did absolutely nothing to fix the problems they knew existed with ObamaCare, the unaffordable health care plan. They weren’t in a coma. They chose to do nothing because it was designed to fail so the country would be forced to go to a single payer/gov’t plan. The problem occurred when Hillary didn’t win so the plan could be carried out. Trump did which threw a monkey wrench into their socialist takeover plan.

    Premiums and deductibles have risen every year since 2010 to make it completely unaffordable. While doctors are closing their private practices and going to work at hospital where they can just clock in.

    I hear McConnell is already targeting conservative members by withholding funds for the 2018 election and is supporting candidates who will pledge their allegiance to him and his DC establishment club. Trump as the leader of the RNC, like Obama was for the DNC, should take control of those funds. He’s going to need to get the members in congress that represent the people that elected him in 2016 and will again in 2020. And not more McConnell supporters like McCain and Graham.

    • Chris says:

      Don’t forget the democrats have had control of both the House and/or the Senate for the last seven years and did absolutely nothing to fix the problems they knew existed with ObamaCare, the unaffordable health care plan.

      This is a remarkable lie. Democrats have been working on improving the law. Republicans blocked them every step of the way. Look at the failure of Republican-led states to expand Medicaid, which was a direct attempt to sabotage the law in a way that hurt their own constituents.

      Premiums and deductibles have risen every year since 2010 to make it completely unaffordable.

      In reality, premiums rose more slowly after Obamacare then they did before Obamacare.

      • Peggy says:

        Excuse me Chris, but when and what did the democrats do since 2010 to improve ObamaCare? Obama’s executive orders, exemptions and delaying/postponing original start dates do not count. Are you counting the fact he even granted congress members and their staff to be exempt? If the plan wasn’t good enough for them why did they force the rest of the country on it?

        That’s a flat out lie that premiums rose slowly after 2010 compared to before it. When premiums go up 49% over the previous year which had gone up 32% over the previous year’s cost it’s compounding an increased cost each and every year. To find the actual increase you’d have to go back to 2010.

        2016 Obamacare Premium Increase Tracker:
        https://freedompartners.org/latest-news/2016-obamacare-premium-increases/

        Deductibles have risen so much many families can’t afford them resulting in a plan they can’t afford and care they aren’t getting.

        2016 Obamacare Deductible Increase Tracker:

        “This year, Americans in 41 states face higher health care deductibles under the Affordable Care Act. Seventeen of those states are experiencing deductible increases in the double digits.

        In many states consumers face deductibles of $3,000 or more.”

        https://freedompartners.org/latest-news/2016-obamacare-deductible-increase-tracker/

        Here is a detailed report listing both premium and deductible cost increases by metal tiers.

        “The months preceding the release of 2017 rates and deductibles for Affordable Care Act plans have been filled with worrying reports of massive rate increases in some regions,1 the loss of health insurance companies from various government marketplaces,2 a significant increase in counties with only one insurer option,3 and the continued collapse of the CO-OP health insurance companies.4 It is against that background that HealthPocket examined the government’s release of 2017 Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) health plan data. HealthPocket’s analysis provides a detailed overview of market conditions facing consumers who have neither premium subsidies nor subsidies for healthcare out-of-pocket costs.

        Averages By Metal Tier
        Below is the comparison of 2017 average premiums across the United States. The averages are compiled according to the four standard metal tiers for Affordable Care Act health plans. Note that the premium and cost-sharing averages assume a nonsmoking individual insurance applicant and does not include any government subsidies that might be applied.
        Comparative 2016 average premiums are based on the same type of government landscape data files that were used for the 2017 average premiums.5 Since market conditions are evaluated in this study rather than consumer behavior in response to those conditions, no weighting by enrollment was performed on the health plan data.

        Individual and family averages are provided for deductibles as well as the annual limits on out-of-pocket costs for covered medical services delivered by in-network healthcare providers (labeled in the tables as “Max Out-of-Pocket Costs”). In 2017, the maximum allowable cost-sharing (including out-of-pocket costs for deductibles, co-payments, and co-insurance) is $7,150 for self-only coverage and $14,300 for families.6”
        https://www.healthpocket.com/healthcare-research/infostat/2017-obamacare-premiums-deductibles#.WXBAXIWcHwo

        Please note the following from the above report.

        “The average premium nationwide for 2017 silver plans is 17% higher than the year before. In terms of actual dollars spent annually on health insurance, a 40 year-old nonsmoker, for example, will pay over $716 more on premiums in 2017 if her premium amount matched the annual trends for the last two years.

        The average 2017 deductible for silver plans experienced more than double the rate of year-over-year cost increase as compared to the increase observed for bronze plans. The 2017 average deductible for individuals ($3,572) is approximately 15% more expensive than 2016’s average of $3,117. Likewise, the average family deductible is up to $7,474 in 2017 as compared to $6,480 in 2016.

        Conclusion
        With respect to 2017, it is immediately evident that the market conditions facing the unsubsidized are getting considerably worse. The percentage increase in average premium for each category of Obamacare nationwide is in the double-digits. Deductibles among bronze and silver plans, the plans more likely to be purchased by people without subsidies, are still considerably beyond what the average family has saved for medical bills. A recent Bankrate survey found that only 37% of Americans had $500 to $1,000 in savings to cover an unexpected emergency bill.9 Against that fiscal reality, the average bronze plan deductible of $6,092 and silver plan deductible of $3,572 blur the lines between being insured and uninsured. While for years the plight of the unsubsidized population was largely ignored, HealthPocket’s 2016 study10 estimating their size in the tens of millions has begun to sensitize journalists11 to the insurance affordability challenges they face. Hopefully, in turn, these journalists can widen future political dialogue about health care reform to include their plight.”

    • Tina says:

      “Don’t forget the democrats have had control of both the House and/or the Senate for the last seven years and did absolutely nothing to fix the problems they knew existed with ObamaCare, the unaffordable health care plan. ”

      Excellent Peggy…and their media did not criticize them or hold them to account!

      • Libby says:

        I’m sorry, you people are crazy. Obama lost the House two years in. Said House spent six years holding ritual “repeal” votes WITHOUT EVER PROPOSING ANYTHING TO REPLACE IT WITH !!!

        Excuse the yelling, but, I mean really … you lie like dogs, and it is really very hard to take sometimes.

        • Tina says:

          Yeah, they lost the House. Democrats still did nothing but throw more money at a failing plan while LYING about how great Obamacare is. STILL ARE LYING!

          Excuse the yelling but you lie like rugs (unlike dogs, no brain at all) and instead of doing the responsible thing and admitting to the horrendously bad deal they made for Americans, they double down and lie some more!

  7. Post Scripts says:

    Peggy, the hidden agenda by democrats endorsing ObamaCare has to be single payer socialized medicine. ObamaCare was way too flawed for even the dems not to see it. So they were trying to get one over on us, clever and they almost did. The question now is what do we do? ObamaCare is not sustainable, it’s dying as I write. I am all for repeal and go back to the time before all this started. But, the Genie is out and that probably won’t happen.

    Now what?

    • Libby says:

      Hidden, nothing … that’s exactly what’s in the works, and I do wish Mr. Schumer would just grow some stones and say so. It’s going to be hideous, mind you, cause this is a democracy full of idiots, but … over the years … the Medicaid threshold goes up, the Medicare threshold comes down, and the private insurance companies are metamorphically, cosmologically, absorbed into the behemoth public reimbursement structure resulting therefrom.

      The nation’s governors and health insurers are, largely, down with it. And, frankly, if the Repugs cannot get their butts into gear, and develop legislation which facilitates all this, the nation’s governors and health insurers are going to get together and do it for them.

      There’s some federalism for you.

      • Tina says:

        “this is a democracy full of idiots”

        This is the accurate face of the typical radical left. they are soooooooooo phony. They pretend to be nice, compassionate, caring and loving when in fact they are control freak s with a high opinion of themselves and a very low opinion of others.

        Do we “idiots” need to remind this superior being that it is progressive, liberal, lefty thinking that has brought America to this state of rapid decline? Why yes…yes we do!

        You open the educational system. If we are a nation of “idiots” you made sure they learned nothing!

        Your phony compassion created a permanent dependency class that you purposely want to grow for a deceitful, undemocratic, evil reason…permanent single party (Democrat) rule.

        You disgust me.

        • Libby says:

          You are demonizing again, .. extravagantly.

          And like Chris says, what is so horrible about millions insured who were not insured before? I’ll be wanting an answer to that.

          (But we’ll let you off the “positive impact” as all the Repugs can lay claim to recently is hideous war, a crashed economy, and outrageous public debt.)

          There are structural issues with the ACA, but nothing we can’t deal with … if we want to, and this Republican administration most certainly does not … which is rather a problem. Although, you know, the political pressure is really mounting. Remember, none of these guys can show their faces in their districts without being accosted by anguished patients. But it needs leadership McConnell plainly is not up to. Have you guys been hearing about Senator Sasse? This is longish, but interesting:

          https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/07/the-wasted-mind-of-nebraska-sen-ben-sasse.html

    • Chris says:

      Obamacare is flawed, but it still resulted in 17 million Americans gaining insurance where they had none before. Name me a Republican policy from the past two decades that has had that kind of positive impact.

      • Tina says:

        See the map at the top of the cynical Krauthammer article that shows how many people have lost their insurance as providers quit Obamacare in May of this year.

        There’s no way to calculate the number of people that haven;t use their forced insurance because it’s too expensive.

        It also doesn’t count the number of people that lost the insurance at work that they liked and were forced due to income levels into medicaid, a failed system that doctors often refuse because it pays too low and forces treatments that delay what’s actually needed.

        Your argument at this point is a lame excuse.

      • Tina says:

        The Bush tax cuts saved American citizens a lot of money which they then spent and invested thus sustaining a decent economy during very difficult times.

        Obama extended those cuts (unacknowledged evidence that Reaganomics work) but unfortunately went back on his word to grow the economy and eliminate debt by imposing policies that squashed the economy, decimated the middle class, added to the number of poor and out of work, and doubled the debt!

    • Peggy says:

      Jack, now Trump needs to tell Pence, McConnell and Ryan he wants and up and down vote to see who supports repealing the bill or not. This will bring out the “closet” democrats who ran on and got elected on repealing the bill. Voters have a right to know if their elected reps have been lying to them or not. I want to know if LaMalfa is in lockstep with the establishment GOP elites or is he going to do what’s best for those he’s supposed to represent.

      As for the money, my understanding is the president is in charge of the RNC. It may be unofficially, but he/she is top dog. I could be wrong, but as the top CEO the chairperson serves at his pleasure. Trump recommended Ronna McDaniel and she was confirmed by election of its members. Again, I could be wrong but I believe Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigned at Obama’s request.

      Every member of congress is required to solicit donations for their parties’ war chest. McConnell used those funds to unseat Cruz and support the democrat that ran against Matt Blevin is McConnell’s home state.

      Trump needs to redirect those funds to get members elected who will support him and not work with democrats, the media and the GOP establishment elite members to have him removed from office now or by 2020. As an outsider he’s not one of them and never will be. He’s a threat to their existence with his draining the swamp and they are unifying against him.

      Just look at how little he’s been able to get done in six months. A supreme court justice and a bunch of executive orders doesn’t work toward winning in 2020. I don’t trust McConnell or Ryan. Look at how all of those congressional committee hearings ended without any concrete actions being taken place during Obama’s terms. How many subpoenas were never issued and not enforced. They weren’t interested in getting to the truth. They were only interested in maintaining their seat at the table.

      I expect them to continue to act in the same self-preservation behavior when it comes to acting on the repealing and replacing of ObamaCare.

      • Chris says:

        “Just look at how little he’s been able to get done in six months.”

        Wait, I thought he said he’s signed more legislation than any other president at this point in their tenure?

        Could it be that he’s…lying to you?

        Could it be that he’s gotten so little done because he has no earthly idea what he’s doing, because he’s totally unqualified for the job, as we told you over and over again (even though you should have seen that yourself)?

        • Peggy says:

          Chris, I believe he was referring to the number of executive orders he’s signed reversing Obama’s executive orders. Plus, his rollbacks on regulations that have strangled our growth and energy independence, like the pipelines finally being built.

          You have to admit what he did with the VA was awesome. Unless you like seeing our vets dying in the streets and committing suicide at 22 a day because they couldn’t get the help they deserved. Did you hear about the vet that committed suicide in his car in the VA parking lot?

          Could he be lying? Sure, but we all know Obama was such a big liar WashPo awarded him Liar of the Year for all of the lies he told the country about ObamaCare. Let’s see if WP awards Trump the same honor. Even though I didn’t vote for him I’m at least willing to see what he does before condemning him. Are you?

          No, I don’t believe his not getting more done is because he’s not qualified. I do believe the democrats and their “Resist” and obstruction are the reasons. They want him to fail and have set out to stop him when they can and slow him down at every opportunity.

          Have you heard about the “blue slip” delays democrats are using? If not you can read about it here.

          Senate Democrats hold blue slips, delay Trump’s federal judicial nominees:

          “No Democrat has yet returned a “blue slip” signaling acceptance of President Trump’s federal judicial picks — an ominous sign for Republicans, who fear it signals an upcoming attempt to slow-walk the administration’s plans to reshape the federal judiciary.

          Democrats have suggested that blame lies with the White House. They say Mr. Trump’s aides haven’t done enough to consult with them before announcing nominations to fill federal appeals court vacancies.

          The White House, though, said it has gone to great lengths to try to rope Democrats in early in the process, with frequent outreach, only to be met by dilatory tactics.

          “The administration has been seeking consultation from home-state senators for months — even as senators frequently fail to return our calls, don’t respond to our inquiries and otherwise avoid our constant overtures,” said a Trump administration official who asked not to be identified in order to speak about private communications.”
          http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jul/9/senate-democrats-hold-blue-slips-delay-judicial-no/

          Feinstein defends blue-slip tactic to block judges:
          http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2017/06/14/dianne-feinstein-blue-slip-block-judges-239554

          Blue slip:
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_slip

          I do agree he’s not familiar with the inner workings of DC and how things are done in the political world. But, that is the very reason millions of people voted for him. They were fed up with the corruption, backslapping, and pocket stuffing being done by both parties. People wanted a business man and even democrats who realized the country was going down the toilet with a $20 trillion debt and unfunded social and mandatory programs that were in the hundreds of trillion dollars. It was all completely unsustainable. We were on the road to becoming Greece.

          Ted Cruz was who I wanted for pres., but am glad he didn’t win. He had too many enemies in the Senate and even as smart as he is I believe McConnell and McCain would have done even worse to him than they are doing to Trump.

          My hope is if Trump is able to drain the swamp enough there may be an opportunity in the future for Cruz to step in and do clean up to reset our nation to be the Constitutional Republic our Founders left us, for as long as we can keep it.

  8. Tina says:

    An article by Sundance at Conservative Treehouse explains a lot about the fight to repeal Obamacare. Big lobby interest are already angry about losing hundreds of millions when Comprehensive Immigration Reform, TPP, and Common Core were rejected. Now they are slated to lose again should Obamacare be repealed.

    Today McConell said the path to repeal will be on the menu next week…not holding my breath.

  9. Libby says:

    Again, you may have a point about media persecution. This administration is inspiring some of the most virulent prose I’ve ever read. Bob Cresca of Salon is just having a high old time:

    “Frankly, if I were Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell or Speaker Paul Ryan, I’d strongly consider cutting bait with Trump given the way he has repeatedly set them up to fail while doing little to exercise any kind of meager leadership. Without a substantive ally in the White House, it becomes less likely they’ll continue to tolerate and backstop his uneducated, rookie gibberish and social media outbursts, embarrassing the party and tainting it with the stink of his failed administration. How much longer will they continue to tolerate Trump playing honk-honk-goes-the-truck and tweeting on the john while they spend valuable political capital on legislation he barely understands and, despite his marketing acumen, has repeatedly fumbled?”

    I mean, that is harsh. True, but harsh.

    It’s also a good deal more cogent that the stuff your Treehouse Guy writes. I really don’t think that lobbyists work on a contingency fee basis, like personal injury attorneys. Now, the entities they lobby for have paid some money for nothing, but them’s the breaks.

    And what is so “booga-booga” about “the health care industry” taking an interest, through lobbyists, in any modifications to the ACA? The whole post reeks of paranoia.

    • Tina says:

      Salon is as phony as you are.

      Did they care when Obama, Pelosi and Reid set the American people up with lies to promote and sell Obamacare?

      You, Salon, and your party have no principles…at least none for which you can openly brag.

      • Libby says:

        What are you talking about? … lies? They tell me I can have Kaiser coverage for $101.28 per month, and that’s what I’ve got. Mind, I live in California, which is managing it very well. Other people in other states are not having such a good time, but that’s what you get for electing Republican administrations. I REALLY feel for the poor folk in Kentucky, who have been royally screwed over by theirs.

        But I highly admire those Republican Senators who have decided: “no, I’m am not going to toss my state’s poor people off Medicaid. This is what Ryan and McConnell are asking me to do, and I’m not gonna.”

        • Tina says:

          It’s working for you so the rest of the country is fine and all is well?

          Typical.

          • Libby says:

            Don’t be absurd. If I were running the show, the Republican Governor of Kentucky would not have been permitted to dump his state’s Medicaid patients into the gutter.

            Alas, I do not run the show.

  10. Peggy says:

    Here is a model for solving the health care problem designed to provide good patient doctor coverage for $10 a month for children and up to $100 a month for adults. Sure beats $1600 a month premiums, $6000 deductibles, and no doctors available.

    2016 Health Care Heroes Administrative Excellence: Josh Umbehr, Atlas MD:

    “Dr. Josh Umbehr saw an opportunity to share his business model for providing insurance-free medical care with other physicians.
    Umbehr, founder and CEO of AtlasMD Concierge Family Practice, views it as a way to help drive change in the health care industry and allow providers to focus on patients rather than paperwork.

    “This is changing your entire business model,” Umbehr says.

    It’s an approach that has caught the attention of various practice groups locally. Atlas added 14 users in July.

    “We now have over 200 physicians using the platform,” he says.
    At Atlas, patients pay a monthly membership fee — from $10 to $100 per month. Members have access to doctors in person, by phone or through social media channels.

    The membership also gives patients access to diagnostic procedures, such as bone scans or pulmonary function tests, at no additional charge. Atlas has 2,200 members and is preparing to add its fifth physician. The practice opened a westside location last year.”
    https://www.bizjournals.com/wichita/feature/2016-health-care-heroesadministrative-excellence.html

    Dr. Josh Umbehr on the Concierge Medicine Revolution:

    “Americans are rightly concerned about the rising costs of health care and the monstrosity known as ObamaCare. As patients are looking for better ways to manage their health care, doctors are seeking innovative ways to offer their services. One type of medical practice growing in the marketplace is “concierge medicine,” in which patients pay a doctor or group of doctors a set fee (usually paid annually or monthly) in exchange for a defined package of care.

    Concierge medicine typically pertains to “family-practice” medicine for routine care—checkups, stitches, drug prescriptions, nutrition advice, and the like—as opposed to specialized care such as heart surgery or MRI scans. A typical concierge doctor sees far fewer patients than does a doctor in a typical office and is thus able to spend substantially more time with each patient. In a typical concierge practice, once a patient signs up for care, he may visit the doctor’s office regularly—in some practices, as often as he likes—and contact his doctor via telephone and email. Because patients pay doctors directly, many concierge doctors do not accept health insurance and thereby avoid the costs associated with its red tape and paperwork.”
    https://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2013-fall/dr-josh-umbehr-on-concierge-medicine-revolution/

    • Post Scripts says:

      I’ve heard about this and it beats the heck out of me why we don’t do it? Do you think somewhere in this healthcare mess there is a hidden (profit) motive by somebody in government colluding with the insurance companies?

      • Tina says:

        Ya think? Once politicians went down that road all was lost. A smaller federal footprint is the cure but good luck weaning the people off the free but very very expensive big government models.

        The only thing I see is a need for catastrophic insurance in addition to this GP plan. It works for me. It’s the way we lived before but those plans still need to be affordable. Hopefully we would also allow the selling of insurance across state lines and cover preexisting conditions but if they don’t get rid of forced coverage for non-catastrophic coverage (massage, elective surgeries etc.) in the basic packages there won’t be a way to lower the cost of insurance.

      • Libby says:

        I belonged to one for a while. They are, in essence, little Kaisers … except no medications, no hospital coverage. You don’t get any hospitalizations for $100 a month. For that you have to have a government willing to pitch another $500 into the pot.

        You’ll learn. It is plainly going to take a while, but hopefully you will.

        • Tina says:

          Your concerns are the purpose of insurance on top of the $100. , Libby.

          We’ll learn? Learn what? To accept single payer and watch as our economy drags even more and debt climbs high above GDP? Who will be bale to afford healthcare and Rx then…only the elites in government and their wealthy partners in crime!

      • Peggy says:

        Oh yeah, big time profit. Heard a doctor a couple of months ago explain that chemo treatments for cancer patients only had a 3% cure ratio over those who do not get the chemo. He stated there was not another drug that would have been approved and so widely used with such a low rating.

        He went on to explain the reason it was used was because of the money everyone made off of it from the pharmaceutical companies to the doctors who are also getting a kickback.

        Dr. Umbehr said there were five doctors at his clinic and they all made a comfortable living while meeting the daily needs of their patients for everything except a catastrophic accident or illness. Patients are encouraged to have insurance coverage in case they need it. But, the clinic even does stitches and sets broken bones for less sever accidents.

        • Tina says:

          Hope Peggy. The drugs offered hope when nothing else was going to help.

          I understand and appreciate the statistics but I don’t think it’s fair to reduce the use of these treatments to profits alone. Those that did benefit are grateful and some of the profits are being used to find other cures. In the meantime investments are being made to find causes as well as cures:

          Healthland, “On the Horizon at Last, Cancer Drugs that Harness the Body’s Own Immune System”

          Medicaal News, “New genomic research partnership promises to redefine and transform cancer treatment”

          Medical Express, “Hope for better lung cancer treatment on horizon”

    • Peggy says:

      Update on Dr. Umbehr’s, Atlas MD health care plan.

      Monthly cost has dropped to $50 a month for adults. Still $10 for children. And approximately 400 Atlas clinics have opened across the country.

      Atlas MD:
      “If you miss the good old days where your doctor did house calls and treated you like a respected individual, you’ll be thrilled to join Atlas MD. We view the patient-physician relationship as being made up of a team of equals with a single focus to help you reach your healthcare goals.

      We have noble ambitions at Atlas MD, all of which revolve around giving you the most individualized care imaginable.

      We’re diligently working to change the face of family medicine to one that is uniquely focused on the patient.

      We desire to see fewer patients in the name of high-end medical care. We believe the best medical treatment comes from one-on-one interaction, so we’re eliminating the middle man and inviting you into our family. ”
      https://atlas.md/wichita/about-us/

      https://atlas.md/

  11. Peggy says:

    If you haven’t heard Trump’s remarks at the lunch meeting today it is worth watching.
    Scroll down for the full speech.

    https://www.chicksontheright.com/president-trump-meets-republican-lawmakers-discuss-health-care/?ref=Ads

  12. Pete says:

    “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.”
    – Winston Churchill

    I love this quote. It always makes me feel optimistic about our future.

  13. Tina says:

    Chris: “I need numbers, Tina.”

    It would be great if we could get them…allas that’s not possible for several reasons.

    Tell me exactly how we count people who buy the insurance but never use it because they can’t meet the deductible? How do we count those who would like to buy but can’t afford the deductible and high premiums? I think in any given year they should count.

    Then there are the people who have lost their insurance when their provider pulled out of Obamacare (the map linked above in my comment) which accounted for close to 5 million people at that time. (more closings scheduled)

    A 2014 article in Forbes asserts the number of newly insured under Obamacare is in question due to changes the Obama administration made in how they arrive at their numbers. The article concludes:

    It could be that most of what Obamacare does to address the “uninsured” problem is obligate a whole lot more people to Medicaid, a program that already suffers from severe access problems owing to years of underfunding relative to its expanding mission, and the chronic health needs of its mostly indigent population. Obamacare only adds to the program’s strains. At the same time, on the commercial side, Obamacare may be mostly creating churn — by displacing people from their employer-sponsored coverage and moving them onto the exchanges.

    It’s hard to know for certain, since the current figures – at least those released by Washington – can’t be compared to historical trends. The Census Bureau made a significant change in how it estimates the number of people who lack insurance, starting with its assessment for 2013. That means that after 2013, the results can’t be compared to those for prior years. The government’s new method conveniently results in a lower estimate of the total number of people without insurance.

    So far, even if you accept the most optimistic math, Obamacare is hardly the unmitigated success that its many apostles proclaim. Whatever minimal gains in the level of commercial coverage that’s been achieved has come at a huge fiscal expense. This is not to mention the massive growth in costly and restrictive regulation.

    A 2016 article at MarketWatch looks at the uninsured from another persepctive:

    1. Low enrollment. Many people would not have jumped on the Obamacare bandwagon if they had known the relatively small number of Americans who would actually be enrolled on the exchanges by 2016. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that between 9.4 million and 11.4 million signed up in 2016.

    In contrast, in March 2010, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that 21 million people would be enrolled on the exchanges.

    2. High numbers of uninsured. Under Obamacare, the number of uninsured was supposed to decline from 50 million to 22 million in 2016 and remain at that level. Instead, there are still 31 million uninsured, and the number is never projected to go below 29 million, according to CBO.

    The Kaiser Family Foundation (February 2016) says that around 10% of the population (32.3 million of 316 million Americans) lacks health-insurance coverage. If the goal of health-care reform is to extend insurance coverage to more Americans, there are surely more effective — and less costly — ways to achieve this goal.

    There’s no good way to give you exact “numbers” Chris for various reasons. The remainder of the article, “7 Obamacare failures that have hurt Americans,” makes the greater case for dumping it before it can do anymore harm.

    Given all that’s going on, the point should now be how badly the ACA has failed the American people. It did not fulfill many of the promises made when it was sold. Your party lied to sell it including how much it would cost taxpayers and users. It’s authors deceptively pushed back tax increases so it would score well with CBO. It was changed again and again through regulations and EO’s after the fact. This is not how legislation should be done.

    “The net result of the latest Republican “repeal and replace” scam, according to the CBO, would be 22 million people losing insurance. ”

    Once again, how many of those would be thrilled because they hate being thrown into plans they can’t use?

    CBO can only “score” on conditions and information as they exist. If private sector insurance companies create plans they can afford to use that number will come down. And let’s face it, many young people will choose not to buy insurance while they are young , healthy, and unmarried. But there’s no way for CBO to determine what people will do in future.

    “There will be winners and losers under any policy; the goal is to maximize the number of winners.”

    How do we count the winners? Your party has been saying, “we won” to a country filled with unhappy people. it’s a line that’s typical of Democrats but often inaccurate.

    The following losing issue is also in that article in MarketWatch:

    The Office of the Actuary of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has projected that Obamacare will result in an additional $274 billion in administrative costs alone over the period of 2014 through 2022.

    That’s not a winner for our economy, jobs, or the rising debt!

    This legislation was never about the uninsured and it wasn’t about the American people “winning.” This legislation was designed to cause complaints and great distress…and it has!

    Instead of addressing the problems as they existed in 2008: the rising cost of insurance, uninsured patients with preexisting conditions, the high cost of liability insurance for some providers, the failing Medicaid program, excessive use of the ER for general care, Democrats wrote a bill as a stepping stone to single payer. So what if the ACA upended the things that worked, so what if the excessive cost was deplorable, so what if doctors were forced to do excessive paperwork, so what if doctors retired at a time when students were avoiding the profession, so what if it expanded the failing Medicaid program, so what if some people lost their insurance…as long as the party got what it wanted in the end! (They counted on Hillary and permanent Democrat Party control in Congress to push it through!)

    Your party doesn’t serve the people, it only pretends to serve the people as a means of gaining and keeping power. Instead of admitting to their own collassal failure in foisting Obamacare on the American people and working with Republicans to dismantle and fix the problems they resist…they make excuses…they lie some more and accuse Republicans of wanting to kill people. How do you stand being associated with such demonstrably dishonest, deceitful, scam artists!

    Don’t bother to answer I know the answer…Trump is worse…Republicans are worse. Well guess what? That’s what we have now…the PEOPLE have spoken. Your party is running against the will of the people.

  14. Peggy says:

    Remember when Obama exempted congress members and staff from ObamaCare? Wonder how fast it would take congress to solve the problems if they too were required to participate in the same plan as the public.

    Make Congress get insurance the same way the little people do? Hill denizens howl in fury:

    “In 2009, Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) decided that the principle deserved to be embedded in Obamacare, and he was able to insert a provision requiring all members of Congress and their staffs to get insurance through the Obamacare health exchanges. “The more that Congress experiences the laws it passes, the better,” said Grassley. Although his amendment was watered down before final passage to exclude committee staff, it still applies to members of Congress and their personal staffs. Most employment lawyers interpreted that to mean that the taxpayer-funded federal health-insurance subsidies dispensed to those on Congress’s payroll — which now range from $5,000 to $11,000 a year — would have to end.

    Democratic and Republican staffers alike were furious, warning that Congress faced a “brain drain” if the provision stuck. Under behind-the-scenes pressure from members of Congress in both parties, President Obama used the quiet of the August recess to personally order the Office of Personnel Management, which supervises federal employment issues, to interpret the law so as to retain the generous congressional benefits.”

    http://www.nationalreview.com/article/358550/congresss-exemption-obamacare-john-fund

  15. Peggy says:

    Second attempt to post.

    Remember when Obama exempted congress members and staff from ObamaCare? Wonder how fast it would take congress to solve the problems if they too were required to participate in the same plan as the public.

    Make Congress get insurance the same way the little people do? Hill denizens howl in fury:

    “In 2009, Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) decided that the principle deserved to be embedded in Obamacare, and he was able to insert a provision requiring all members of Congress and their staffs to get insurance through the Obamacare health exchanges. “The more that Congress experiences the laws it passes, the better,” said Grassley. Although his amendment was watered down before final passage to exclude committee staff, it still applies to members of Congress and their personal staffs. Most employment lawyers interpreted that to mean that the taxpayer-funded federal health-insurance subsidies dispensed to those on Congress’s payroll — which now range from $5,000 to $11,000 a year — would have to end.

    Democratic and Republican staffers alike were furious, warning that Congress faced a “brain drain” if the provision stuck. Under behind-the-scenes pressure from members of Congress in both parties, President Obama used the quiet of the August recess to personally order the Office of Personnel Management, which supervises federal employment issues, to interpret the law so as to retain the generous congressional benefits.”

    http://www.nationalreview.com/article/358550/congresss-exemption-obamacare-john-fund

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