COVID-19 & Healthcare

CBO scores GOP ‘Obamacare’ repeal: 24 million would lose health care insurance (updated)

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Just as anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of health care policy had predicted, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) today scored the GOP “Obamacare repeal” bill aka Ryancare Trumpcare, and finds that the Obamacare revision would reduce insured numbers by 24 million:

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s proposal to revise the Affordable Care Act would lower the number of Americans with health insurance by 24 million while reducing the federal deficit by $337 billion by 2026*, congressional budget analysts said Monday.

[* This is dynamic scoring required by the Budget and Accounting Transparency Act of 2014 to make long-term budgetary effects appear better. See Paul Krugman on dynamic scoring, Selective Voodoo.]

UPDATE: The way the bill achieves the 10% lower average premiums has little to do with increased choice and competition. It depends on penalizing older patients and rewarding younger ones. According to the CBO report, the bill would make health insurance so unaffordable for many older Americans that they would simply leave the market and join the ranks of the uninsured. No Magic in How G.O.P. Plan Lowers Premiums: It Penalizes Older People.

The report from the Congressional Budget Office underscores the dramatic loss in health insurance coverage that would take place if the GOP health-care plan is enacted, potentially contradicting President Trump’s vow that the plan would provide “insurance for everybody” and threatening support from moderate Republican lawmakers.

Fourteen million people would lose health coverage next year alone, the report stated. Premiums would be 15 to 20 percent higher in the first year compared to the ACA, and 10 percent lower on average after 2026. By and large, older Americans would pay “substantially” more and younger Americans less, the report states.

No wonder Donald Trump does’t want the GOP plan to be called “Trumpcare.” White House: Don’t call it Trumpcare. This grifter and con man literally brands his name on every product imaginable, so how bad does this GOP bill have to be for him to say “sorry, no“?

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The post-truth politics of the GOP: there are no neutral arbiters of facts (it’s all just opinion)

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I have explained the “Foxification” of the news for years.

The concept of “fair and balanced” reporting requires that when someone says the Earth is round and revolves around the sun (a demonstrably provable fact), a counter argument that the world is flat and the sun revolves around the Earth must be presented, and both positions be treated equally and “fairly,” even though one is factual and one is utter nonsense.

“We report, you decide” simply means that facts no longer matter, everything is mere opinion, and whatever you believe — despite all factual evidence to the contrary –is equally valid. “Don’t bother me with the facts, I know what I believe!”

This is the very foundation of the post-truth politics “fake news” propaganda of  FOX News and the conservative media entertainment complex.

This explains what the editors of the Washington Post complain about today. The GOP’s mind-blowing hypocrisy on the CBO:

As House Republicans began work on their Obamacare replacement plan last week, they avoided addressing the likelihood that it would significantly increase the ranks of the uninsured and dodged questions about its fiscal responsibility by plowing ahead before Congress’s staff experts at the CBO had a chance to estimate the proposal’s effects. In the absence of sober-minded analysis, Republicans offered tricky rhetoric about expanding choice and freeing the market.

But they can avoid facing up to the negative consequences of their plan for only so long: The CBO will soon issue a report on their proposal, probably this week. So Republicans preemptively attacked the country’s designated budget scorekeepers. “If you’re looking to the CBO for accuracy, you’re looking in the wrong place,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer inveighed. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) sneered at the office’s “unelected bureaucrats.” Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.) declared that “CBO has scored everything wrong forever, so they’re a minor concern.”

These attacks are beyond galling.

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Trump supporters have the most to lose from TrumpCare (a bunch of broken Trump promises)

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Remember when Donald Trump promised that “We’re going to have insurance for everybody”, and his sycophant supporters believed this grifter and con man? Of course he lied to his supporters to get elected.  You’ve been played.

Nate Cohn explains Why Trump Supporters Have the Most to Lose With the G.O.P. Repeal Bill:

The people who stand to lose the most in tax credits under the House Republican health plan tended to support Donald J. Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, according to a new Upshot analysis.

Over all, voters who would be eligible for a tax credit that would be at least $1,000 smaller than the subsidy they’re eligible for under Obamacare supported Mr. Trump over Hillary Clinton by a seven-point margin.

The voters hit the hardest — eligible for at least $5,000 less in tax credits under the Republican plan — supported Mr. Trump by a margin of 59 percent to 36 percent.

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These estimates are based on data from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Cooperative Congressional Election Study (C.C.E.S.), a large survey of tens of thousands of Americans. Kaiser estimated whether individuals would gain or lose under the Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, based on their income, age and insurance market.

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GOP Obamacare replacement bill is even worse than everyone expected

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Last week, Senator Aqua Buddha, Rand Paul (R-KY), went all Indiana Jones in search of the top secret GOP Obamacare replacement bill being held under guard in a secure location in the Capitol. I kid you not. Rand Paul still searching for Obamacare replacement bill:

Thursday, Sen. Paul tried to track down a copy of the draft, but he said he was denied access to a room when aides inside told the senator there wasn’t a bill to see. At one point, a GOP staff member allowed House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, of Maryland, Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy and a dozen or so reporters into the room to inspect it themselves to see that it was, in fact, bill-less.

“This should be an open and transparent process,” Paul said Thursday following his search. “This is being presented as if it were a national secret, as if this was a plot to invade another country, as if this were national security. That’s wrong.”

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Paul wasn’t alone in his health care escapade. Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer went live on Facebook Thursday in search of the legislation and Rep. Nancy Pelosi also tweeted in support of the search.

“I’m looking for the House GOP’s secret ACA repeal bill since they are hiding it from Members and the public,” Hoyer posted on Facebook.

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On Monday, GOP leadership released its Obamacare replacement bill from its secret Capitol basement lair. They should have left it there never to be seen in public.

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Court of Appeals is skeptical of Tea-Publican legislators’ appeal of Medicaid (AHCCCS) expansion plan

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Our Tea-Publican state legislators were in court on Valentine’s day trying to reverse Gov. Jan Brewer’s Medicaid (AHCCCS) expansion plan that benefits over 400,000 Arizonans who now have access to medical care. They are represented by the “Kochtopus” Death Star, the Goldwater Institute.

It does not appear that things went well for our lawless Tea-Publican legislators. The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports, Court of Appeals hears challenge to Medicaid expansion affecting hundreds of thousands:

With former Gov. Jan Brewer watching over the defense of her legacy, a panel of appeals court judges grilled a lawyer who argued the Medicaid expansion Brewer shepherded into law is unconstitutional.

The Goldwater Institute, a non-profit that advocates for conservative and libertarian causes in the courtroom and Legislature, is challenging the expansion, arguing that a levy imposed on hospitals is a tax increase and required two-thirds approval of the Legislature, which it did not receive.

At stake is Medicaid coverage for up to 400,000 childless adults in Arizona.

Brewer, a GOP governor who pushed the legislation through against the opposition of the majority of Republican lawmakers, attended the oral arguments.

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