Obamacare

GOP sabotage of ‘Obamacare’: delay for 90 days during the plan filing period

by

I previously gave you a backgrounder on the House GOP lawsuit House v. Price (née House v. Burwell) for which the next status report to the Court is due today.

Politico reports that instead of filing the status report, the White House seeks 90-day delay in Obamacare subsidy suit:

The Trump administration and House of Representatives Monday asked a federal court for another 90-day delay in a lawsuit over Obamacare insurance subsidies, undermining the future of the health care marketplaces as insurers look for certainty from the government before committing to offer coverage next year.

“The parties continue to discuss measures that would obviate the need for judicial determination of this appeal, including potential legislative action,” the House and White House wrote to the court.

If the request is approved, the parties would have to file another update in 90 days.

“We continue to work with the Trump administration on a solution,” said AshLee Strong, spokeswoman for Speaker Paul Ryan.

Read more

The GOP sabotage of ‘Obamacare’ may come to a climax next week

by

There are a two events scheduled to occur next week on the “Obamacare” front that could affect the status of both “Obamacare” and the awful American Health Care Act passed in a rush by the Tea-Publican House a couple of weeks ago.

I previously gave you a backgrounder on the House GOP lawsuit House v. Price (née House v. Burwell) for which the next status report to the Court is due on Monday, May 22.  The Trump administration could opt to sabotage “Obamacare” by not funding the cost-sharing reductions (CSRs) and blowing up health insurance markets across the country.

The second scheduled event is the release of the nonpartisan Congresssional Budget Office (CBO) score for the American Health Care Act (AHCA), which is scheduled to be released on Wednesday, May 24. The CBO score for the Zombie Trumpcare bill is widely expected to be far worse than for the Trumpcare 2.0 bill.

And there is another complication that that “the zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin” and Ayn Rand fanboy, House Speaker Paul Ryan, did not seriously consider when he forced a House vote on the AHCA without the benefit of the CBO score.

NBC News reports, Uh-Oh: The House May Need to Vote on Health Care (Again!):

Speaker Paul Ryan confirmed on Friday that that the House may need to vote on the American Health Care Act a second time before the Senate can take up the bill, even as he stressed it was unlikely.

Republicans are using the budget “reconciliation” process to pass their health care bill, which allows them to push legislation through the Senate with a simple majority. But that depends on the bill meeting certain requirements — and one of them is that it reduces the deficit by at least $2 billion over the next decade.

The trouble is that Republicans voted on their House bill without waiting for the Congressional Budget Office, the federal agency that evaluates legislation, to finish its projections, which will be released on Wednesday.

Bloomberg News reported Thursday and NBC News confirmed that House leaders have not formally sent their bill to the Senate on the chance that it fails to meet the deficit requirements.

Read more

Think the Senate will save us from the disastrous House AHCA bill? Think again

by

The conventional wisdom is that the U.S. Senate intends to rewrite its own health care bill from the wreckage of the disastrous American Health Care Act (AHCA) passed by the House last week. The implication is that the Senate bill will be much better than the House bill.

The problem with conventional wisdom is that it is frequently wrong. There are Tea-Publicans in the Senate who are just as reckless and irresponsible, if not more so, than their counterparts in the House. Putting your faith in these “12 angry (white) men” and the Septuagenarian Ninja Turtle Mitch McConnell on the Senate AHCA working group is a foolish and risky bet.

AHCA Working Group

The Washington Post reports, Senate hard-liners outline health-care demands with Medicaid in the crosshairs:

Senate conservatives, once seen as an impediment to the Obamacare repeal push, are instead lobbying for changes that would drop millions of adults from Medicaid, limit the value of tax credits over concerns about funding abortion and weaken or cancel consumer protections.

Senators like Mike Lee (R-Utah) believe these changes will help reduce health-care spending, prevent tax-credit dollars from paying for abortions and expand access to health insurance by lowering premiums — all arguments supported by conservative advocacy groups.

And such changes are also looked on favorably by some House Republicans who don’t expect their version of the American Health Care Act to survive the Senate.

Read more

AHCA ‘tattooed to their foreheads’

by

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., warned Republicans who voted in support of the American Health Care Act: “What is happening today is a lose-lose situation for the Republicans. It’s a lose-lose for the American people, that’s for sure. But the people who vote for this will have this vote tattooed to their foreheads as … Read more

Rally to Stop Trumpcare on Tuesday – Tucson (Updated)

by

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) said “if it takes a Democrat” to explain House Republicans’ healthcare bill, he’s willing to do it. House Democrat offers to hold town halls for Republicans:

“Maybe a Democrat ought to go into every district where a Republican who supported TrumpCare won’t hold a town hall meeting, and do it for them,” he said during an interview on MSNBC.

“I think every Republican who voted for this thing ought to have to stand in front of their voters and explain it,” Maloney said.

“And if it takes a Democrat to go in and do it for them for a while, I’ll explain what’s in this bill, and if he doesn’t like it, he should stand up and explain it himself.”

Congressman Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) has taken up his challenge and he will hold a town hall in Tucson to explain the vote of Rep. Martha “Let’s get this fucking thing done!” McSally, the “cowardly lion” who is cowering in her chicken bunker too afraid to stand before her constituents to explain her vote to take away your health care. See op-ed by Dr. Matt Heinz, Martha McSally wrong on repeal of health law.

Screen Shot 2017-05-04 at 3.44.15 PM

What: Rally to Stop Trumpcare

When: Tuesday, May 9, 6:30 p.m. (doors open at 6:00 p.m.)

Where: Rincon High School, 421 N. Arcadia Avenue (5th Street and Swan Road), Tucson, AZ

RallytoStopTrumpcare

Read more