Obamacare

Trump to take health insurance hostage – by sabotaging ‘Obamacare’ – unless he gets his way

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When I posted about this the other day, Obamacare subsides to continue while House v. Price remains in limbo, Greg Sargent of the Washington Post was so hopeful that he wrote In the battle over Obamacare’s future, Trump just blinked. Bigly.

That was then, this is now.

Just two days later Greg Sargent now writes, Trump has a strange new plan to threaten Democrats. It’s a sick joke.

President Trump likes headlines that portray him as a man of action, so he’s probably pleased with the barrage of Thursday headlines about his latest move on health care. ABC News, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, and many others all inform us that Trump is “threatening” to sabotage the Affordable Care Act to force Democrats to make a deal with him on its future. “Threaten” is a verb that is laden with action, purpose, and intimations of concealed leverage and power. Awesome!

Americans whose health, and for some whose life, depends upon Obamacare health insurance are a mere afterthought, they are simply collateral damage in “the art of the deal.” People must die so “Dear Leader” can claim his “victory.”

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Obamacare subsides to continue while House v. Price remains in limbo

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I recently posted about this pending Obamacare lawsuit in Obamacare: ‘The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated’:

[T]his bizarre lawsuit that could still blow up the ACA insurance markets:

A pending court case, House v. Price (née House v. Burwell — and so much turns on the name change), has given the administration a bomb it could use to blow up insurance markets across the country. At stake is the legality of the payments the federal government makes to insurance companies to help cover the medical expenses of low-income people.

Destroying those markets, however, carries huge political risks. Trump’s full-throated support for a reckless replacement bill has convinced millions of Americans that he’s intent on taking away their insurance. If their insurance does go away, they’ll probably blame him. It’s his presidency, and his problem.

By moving to defuse House v. Price, the Trump administration could signal that it means to make the best of Obamacare. At the same time, however, the case may represent the last best chance to rip the statute up from the roots. Skittish insurers are watching closely to see what the administration will do. Time is short: Insurers will have to decide very soon whether they want to participate on Obamacare’s exchanges in 2018.

The New York Times reports today, Trump Administration to Pay Health Law Subsidies Disputed by House:

The Trump administration says it is willing to continue paying subsidies to health insurance companies under the Affordable Care Act even though House Republicans say the payments are illegal because Congress never authorized them.

The statement sends a small but potentially significant signal to insurers, encouraging them to stay in the market.

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Obamacare: ‘The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated’

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FactCheck.org reported, GOP’s Obamacare Obituary: Premature:

In reality the law — specifically the ACA marketplaces for those buying their own coverage — is ailing, but still very much alive.

Federal officials announced a few days ago that 12.2 million people were signed up to be covered by Obamacare health insurance policies sold through the federal and state ACA marketplaces, or exchanges, this year — down less than 4 percent from the 12.7 million who signed up during the same period a year earlier. That’s a pretty lively corpse.

Furthermore, this year’s sign-up figure is expected to rise; it doesn’t include “waiting in line” sign-ups that California and three other states allowed for people who had started the enrollment process before the Jan. 31 cut-off. Also, part of the difference is due to Louisiana’s recent expansion of Medicaid, which now covers some who had obtained coverage in 2016 through the Obamacare exchanges.

Indeed, independent experts predict that the Obamacare exchanges — should the GOP Congress fail to repeal the law as promised — likely will remain stable for many years.

“If nothing else changed they would probably stabilize at a lower level of enrollment,” says Mark V. Pauly, a professor of health care management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

That’s also the judgment of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which said in its analysis of the House bill to replace Obamacare that the market for individuals to purchase policies “would probably be stable in most areas under either current law or the [GOP replacement] legislation.”

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Kansas is a cautionary tale for Arizona: pigs do fly – again!

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Back in February I posted about something truly remarkable that happened in the state legislature of Brownbackistan fna Kansas: it passed an income tax increase to begin repairing the fiscal damage to the state caused by Governor Sam Brownback and Tea-Publicans’ religious experiment in creating a faith based supply-side “trickle down” utopia in America’s heartland. Kansas is a cautionary tale for Arizona: pigs do fly!

Of course, trickle-down high priest Sam Brownback vetoed the income tax increase, and his veto was sustained by just enough Tea-publican trickle-down acolytes. Kansas Lawmakers Uphold Governor’s Veto of Tax Increases. Brownbackistan continues to circle the drain.

This week, something truly remarkable happened again in the state legislature of Brownbackistan fna Kansas: The Kansas Senate voted 25-14 to send a Medicaid expansion bill to Gov. Sam Brownback about a month after the Kansas House passed the same measure 81-44. Holy shit, pigs do fly! After five years, KanCare expansion advocates celebrate. Once again, the bill faces a certain veto from trickle-down high priest Sam Brownback.

Over the last five years, Sheldon Weisgrau has given more than a hundred presentations in dozens of Kansas counties urging support for Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act.

He was told often that he and other advocates were wasting their time — that expansion would never get the votes in the Legislature. Not in a red state like Kansas.

Then, on Tuesday, it did.

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BREAKING: GOP’s ‘Obamacare’ repeal bill is pulled for a lack of GOP votes

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John Boehner, the “TanMan,” was the “Worst. Speaker. Ever.” He was weak and ineffectual, and could not herd cats in his caucus, i.e., the radical right-wing GOP House Freedom Caucus. The lunatics eventually forced him to resign from his Speaker position.

John Boehner’s successor, “the zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin” and Ayn Rand fanboy, Paul Ryan, is giving the “TanMan” a challenge to his title as “Worst. Speaker. Ever.” He also is weak and ineffectual, and cannot herd cats in his caucus, i.e., the radical right-wing GOP House Freedom Caucus. It is now an open question whether he also will be forced to resign from his Speaker position.

And then of course, there is “The Donald,” the self-proclaimed master of “the art of the deal.” White House Press Secretary “Baghdad Sean” Spicer said during his daily briefing that Trump had personally lobbied 120 lawmakers, either in person or on the phone. Trump had “left everything on the field.” Asked whether the president would continue to fight for the bill if it does not pass Friday, Spicer said, “This is it.”

The GOP’s “Obamacare”repeal and replace bill, now “Trumpcare 3.0,” was scheduled for a vote at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Instead, at 3:33 p.m. the House was recessed with the bill subject to call.

The Washington Post reports, House Republican leaders abruptly pull their rewrite of the nation’s health-care law:

House Republican leaders abruptly pulled a Republican rewrite of the nation’s health-care system from consideration on Friday, a dramatic acknowledgment that they are so far unable to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

“We just pulled it,” President Trump told the Washington Post in a telephone interview.

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