Obamacare

‘Trumpcare’ bill was DOA in Congress, so a desperate attempt at ‘Trumpcare 2.0’

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Tea-Publicans in Congress want to hold a vote on their “Obamacare” repeal bill aka “Trumpcare” on Thursday for one reason, and one reason only: it is the seventh anniversary of President Obama signing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law. The post-policy nihilism of the GOP is all about empty symbolism and marketing to the conservative media entertainment complex for them.

Just one problem: Tea-Publicans do not have the votes to pass their own bill among their own members in Congress. The radical House Freedom Caucus demands nothing less than a straight-up repeal of the entirety of the ACA (something these lunatics apparently do not realize cannot be done under the budget reconciliation process, which this bill is proceeding under). Concessions to these far-right radicals will lose the mythical moderate Republicans who have the ACA’s expanded Medicaid in their states and who are afraid of voters turning on them for taking away their health care (looking at you Rep. Martha McSally).

The so-called American Health Care Act aka “Trumpcare” bill drafted by the GOP’s alleged boy genius, “the zombie-eyed granny starver from the sate of Wisconsin” and Ayn Rand fanboy Paul Ryan, is dead on arrival (DOA) in Congress. He does not have the votes and he desperately wants to avoid a defeat on Thursday which would demonstrate just how weak a Speaker of the House he is.

So boy genius last night rolled out “Trumpcare 2.0” to try to sway enough GOP members of Congress to go along in the House to avoid an embarrassing defeat. (This new version is no more likely to pass the Senate than the original bill). It is all about saving face, the one thing that really matters to boy genius.

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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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Alleged ‘Boy Genius’ Paul Ryan doesn’t know how insurance works

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Wow. This actually happened this week.

The GOP’s alleged boy genius, the “zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin” and Ayn Rand fan boy Paul Ryan, gave an “explainer” explaining his RyanCare TrumpCare repeal of ObamaCare in which he said Obamacare in a ‘death spiral’ because healthy people are forced to pay for sicker people (video).

Even a late-night comic, Jimmy Kimmel, could see the obvious flaw in boy genius’s argument. Jimmy Kimmel Sums Up the Problem with Paul Ryan’s Obamacare Replacement:

Kimmel reserved his most damning comments for House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has been trying to defend his party’s plan. “He said the reason Obamacare doesn’t work is because it makes healthy people pay for the care of sick people,” Kimmel explained. “Isn’t that how all insurance works?”

“Imagine trying to buy car insurance,” Kimmel continued. “’Hey, my car is fine. I’m not paying for those people who got in accidents.’ It’s like saying the lottery doesn’t work because only one person hits the jackpot.”

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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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