The beginning, middle and end of Trumpcare:
The GOP health bill would completely wipe out the predicted coverage gains (+23M) from the ACA.
This piece of evil tax cut legislation, masquerading as a Healthcare Replacement for Obamacare would :
Give the richest a tax cut
while TAKING AWAY HEALTHCARE TO 23 MILLION AMERICANS.
Beginning with 14 MILLION by 2018.
14 MILLION WITHIN THE NEXT YEAR
14 million by 2018
21 million by 2020
24 million by 2026
Five million from Medicaid-GONE in 2018.
This bill would gut the access given by the subsidies
Medicaid – out of there
Punitive towards the elderly.
This would be a disaster for rural areas.
All the jobs that have been created by Obamacare….gone.
Junk Policies with high deductibles would be back
The help for those with mental illness…gone
The help for those with addictions….GONE.
CBO estimates monthly health insurance premium for a single 64-year-old who makes $26,500 would jump more than 700% (from $1,700 to $14,600)
This is an AGE TAX
Here’s are the highlights of this heinous piece of legislative evil (hat tip Balloon Juice):
Nothing to add.
@RepJoeKennedy @RepJoeKennedy pic.twitter.com/J1MlFpbzRF
— Andy Slavitt 🇮🇱 🇺🇦 (@ASlavitt) March 13, 2017
The fight continues.
Call.Call.Call.
The Zombie Eyed Granny Killer has 23 votes to spare in order to get to 18.
There are 23 GOP Representatives from Districts that WENT FOR HILLARY CLINTON IN 2016.
We need, in addition to pressuring your own Rep…call them.
This is an AGE TAX.
This is tax cut for the RICH, and taking away from the working class, the poor, and the Elderly.
https://twitter.com/TheRoot/status/842073016544702469
OK folks,
Us common folk gotta have our own discipline when talking about the Healthcare nightmare.
Whether blogs, tweets, Facebook or calling your Reps/Senators, never forget the following:
1. Always call it TRUMPCARE
2. Always bring up the 24 MILLION that will lose healthcare
3. Always bring up that they’re losing healthcare so that the rich can get a taxcut
4. Always call it an AGE TAX
Put these sociopaths on the defensive.
GOT IT!
Paul Ryan won’t escape blame for failing on health care
03/14/17 12:56 PM
By Steve Benen
About a week ago, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a harsh critic of the House Republicans’ health care plan, said something interesting about the state of play within his party.
I didn’t think much of this at the time, but Rand Paul may have raised a legitimate point.
It’s not unreasonable to conclude that Donald Trump is an easy mark. Love the president or hate him, the amateur politician has no working understanding of public policy in any area, especially health care, and as recently as late October, Trump made clear that he hates the Affordable Care Act despite not understanding the basics of how it works.
……………………………………..
And second, it’s hard to overstate how much blame Ryan will take if/when his health care plan fails. The House Speaker took it upon himself to oversee every step of this process, and he managed to do just about everything wrong, writing a secret bill behind closed doors, seeking no input from his ostensible allies, getting no buy-in from the industry or stakeholders in the system, and crafting a wholly inadequate blueprint that seemed slapped together, despite seven years of effort.
On health care, Republicans find themselves lost without a map
03/14/17 11:11 AM—UPDATED 03/14/17 11:20 AM
By Steve Benen
Imagine being a House Republican right now. You hate the Affordable Care Act – at least, that’s what you’ve told your constituents – and you’re inclined to stick with your party leadership, but you’ve also seen a striking rise in progressive activism in your district. You’re probably a little more concerned about next year’s campaign cycle than you might otherwise would be.
And then the Congressional Budget Office releases a devastating report that says your party’s health care plan would push tens of millions of Americans into the ranks of the uninsured.
Given these circumstances, how inclined would you be to follow House Speaker Paul Ryan’s lead and vote for the American Health Care Act (“Trumpcare”)?
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a critic of the House GOP legislation, had an interesting conversation with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos over the weekend. This exchange, in particular, stood out for me:
As health care debate intensifies, GOP takes aim at empiricism
03/14/17 10:15 AM—UPDATED 03/14/17 10:59 AM
By Steve Benen
The Republican campaign against the Congressional Budget Office, an office headed by a Republican, has been ongoing for months, and the ferocity of the criticism intensified last night in response to the CBO’s score of the American Health Care Act (“Trumpcare”). It’s worth pausing, however, to note something important about Congress’ official scorekeepers:
The CBO is not perfect. It’s run by people relying on the best information availabile, which officials use to make estimates shaped by models. Sometimes those projections are excellent, sometimes they’re close, sometimes they’re wrong. Far-right Republicans are going after the CBO now, but there have been all kinds of instances in recent years in which these same partisans – including Donald Trump – accepted CBO data as gospel when it suited their purposes.
The problem with the ongoing attacks is not that the CBO should be shielded from any and all criticism; the problem is that Republicans are trying to delegitimize any neutral source of independent information. The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent put it this way yesterday:
There Is No Grand Strategy to Repeal Obamacare
by Nancy LeTourneau
March 14, 2017 9:23 AM
Late yesterday afternoon the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released their report on the projected effects of the Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare. The top line news was startling: 24 million people would lose their health insurance by 2026. Most notably, the people who would be disproportionately impacted would be those who are older and/or poorer.
I’d like to highlight what we’ve seen from conservatives/Republicans/the White House since then. If anyone can see a grand strategy here, I’d like to hear about it.
HHS Sec. Tom Price and OMB Director Mulvaney said you can’t believe what the CBO says.
Speaker Paul Ryan praised the CBO report.
The White House produced a report that was even worse than CBO’s – suggesting that 26 million people would lose coverage.
Someone leaked the WH report to Politico.
Breitbart validated the CBO report by broadcasting the news that Paul Ryan’s plan would result in 24 million people losing their health insurance.
Almost simultaneously, Breibart released a tape from last October in which Ryan said he was abandoning Trump forever and wouldn’t support him.
Trump is telling conservative Republicans that he’ll work with them to make the bill even worse by speeding up the changes to Medicaid and basically saying, “who cares if that makes it less likely to pass the Senate, we’ll deal with that later.”
Let’s note one thing right away. The plan to rally right-wing media around the idea that the CBO report cannot be trusted has completely gone off the rails. When everyone from Ryan to Breitbart to the released White House report are validating it, that simply isn’t going to fly.
https://twitter.com/jonathanjewel/status/841685257246064641
Uh huh
https://mobile.twitter.com/kharyp/status/841522901270511616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Remember those Medicare ‘cuts’ Republicans deemed outrageous?
03/14/17 09:28 AM
By Steve Benen
Paul Ryan’s speech at the Republican National Convention in 2012, when the Wisconsin congressman was his party’s vice presidential nominee, was one of the most dishonest displays of political rhetoric I’ve ever seen. Nearly five years later, however, one portion of that speech seems newly relevant
Even at the time, Ryan’s rhetoric was ridiculous. Not only did the Affordable Care Act strengthen Medicare without undermining benefits, but listening to far-right Republicans who are desperate to privatize Medicare pretend that they’re somehow the system’s champions was a bit much.
But Ryan wasn’t alone. Republicans, well aware of Medicare’s broad national popularity, invested heavily in attack ads, accusing Democrats of “slashing” Medicare when the Affordable Care Act became law. “Let’s save Medicare,” the NRCC said in an attack ad during the 2012 cycle. Similar GOP ads ran in 2010 and 2014.
Whatever happened to those Medicare “cuts”? Well, it’s a funny story.
After Paul Ryan vowed to reverse the policy, he ended up including the same Medicare savings in his budget plan. As Josh Barro explained the other day, the House Speaker has now also included the same policy in his health care reform plan.
Yesterday, the story got just a little worse: according to the Congressional Budget Office’s report, the Republicans American Health Care Act cuts the deficit, but only because it keeps those Medicare “cuts” Paul Ryan and others pretended to find outrageous.
The Art of the Steal: How the GOP Hired a Con Artist to Steal Our Election and Obamacare https://t.co/wW0ViZsQT0 via @docrocktex26
— Propane Jane™ (@docrocktex26) March 12, 2017
From Mayhew at BJ, about how, under Trumpcare, what most will be able to afford is the Bronze plan.
Bronze is a great age
by David Andersonat5:59 am on March 14, 2017. It has 14 Comments.
I want to look at one element of the CBO score. It is the offered actuarial value of plans. Under the House Bill, out of pocket maximums would be fixed but there would be no age banding. The CBO sees this having an interestingly low effect.
Mechanically, under the House bill without a follow-on phase 2 or phase 3 bill, insurers can probably design plans that have at least 55% actuarial value (AV) coverage as the minimum level of coverage. Bronze right now is 60% +/-2 points of AV.
It will be very hard for people to buy a non-Bronze plan because insurers won’t offer them except at exorbirant prices. Let’s work through my logic.
Why would anyone want to settle for Bronze, when they can go for the GOLD?
Quick Takes: What Ryan Likes About the CBO Report
by Nancy LeTourneau
March 13, 2017 5:38 PM
* Speaker Paul Ryan issued a statement about the CBO report that tells us a lot about his priorities.
Of course Ryan loves the tax cuts for the wealthy and the fact that their plan decimates a fundamental entitlement program (Medicaid). But because of those massive tax cuts for the wealthy, it merely saves $337 billion over 10 years.
From Krugman:
There will be no Obamacare replacement
https://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/krugman/2017/01/10/there-will-be-no-obamacare-replacement/?referer=https://t.co/7hCroaa1kW
In individual market, CBO is saying that premiums would go down by 10% over the decade because older people will flee the market. pic.twitter.com/AFDr7kJY9y
— Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) March 13, 2017
@sangerkatz “Older people will flee the market” is @SpeakerRyan terminology for “This is our last chance and they’ll all be dead by then.”
— JOBoomr (@JOBoomr) March 13, 2017
More on defunding @PPact — it would lead to several thousand more births, mostly among low-income patients. pic.twitter.com/XOSYZ97WXW
— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) March 13, 2017
CBO says one-year defunding of @PPact will mostly affect low-income patients. “About 15 percent of those people would lose access to care.” pic.twitter.com/qN9Xa25XLm
— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) March 13, 2017
More on this disaster
https://mobile.twitter.com/ddiamond/status/841384550257348608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
#Trumpcare ends all the ACA #BlackLungBenefits….but don’t worry, Trump is bringing back #coal jobs….you can’t make this shit up. pic.twitter.com/gbmXg4pAZ7
— Bruno Amato (@BrunoAmato_1) March 14, 2017
1/ Current HHS Secretary Tom Price doesn’t believe the CBO numbers on #Trumpcare #AHCA https://t.co/ODUeSfirg6
— T. R. Ramachandran (@yottapoint) March 14, 2017
3/ Tom Price is one of the people who praised and picked the current CBO Director Keith Hall https://t.co/zPS33WO8ac
— T. R. Ramachandran (@yottapoint) March 14, 2017
Official report exposes GOP health care promises as falsehoods
03/14/17 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
Let’s review the top eight most brazen Republican falsehoods exposed by the CBO’s report.
1. Donald Trump vowed, “We’re going to have insurance for everybody…. Everybody’s going to be taken care of.” That’s now obviously ridiculous, with the Congressional Budget Office concluding that the ranks of the uninsured would grow by 14 million by next year, and that number would expand to 24 million by 2026.
2. Trump said, “I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid.” As the CBO score makes clear, the Republicans’ American Health Care Act would gut Medicaid, effectively ending the program as we know it.
3. Trump promised the Republican plan would cover consumers with “much lower deductibles.” While the CBO report points to a range of cost changes, based largely on age, it also found millions of Americans would pay more for care.
4. Paul Ryan’s official Q&A on his health plan asks, “Won’t millions of Americans lose their health insurance because of your plan?” Ryan then answers his own question, “No.” Some may want to have a semantics argument about the meaning of the word “lose,” but we’re looking at a dynamic in which many consumers have insurance, want insurance, but will no longer be able to afford insurance. When they’re forced to go without, they have, in practical terms, lost their coverage.
5. HHS Secretary Tom Price vowed that “nobody will be worse off financially” as a result of the Republican plan. So much for that idea.
6. Price also said the GOP plan “will, in fact, cover more individuals than are currently covered.” The CBO report obviously points in the opposite direction.
7. Practically every Republican official involved in the process insists the Affordable Care Act is currently imploding. That’s not what the Congressional Budget Office found.
8. Trump said his approach to health care would “end [the] opioid epidemic in America” and “dramatically expand access to treatment slots.” The CBO didn’t specify exactly how many Americans would lose access to addiction treatment, but it nevertheless made clear that the Republican plan would make this national crisis worse.
Why the White House isn’t sharing health care numbers of its own
03/14/17 08:41 AM—UPDATED 03/14/17 08:58 AM
By Steve Benen
……………………….
The answer, according to this interesting Politico report, is that Team Trump’s numbers are actually worse.
t’s worth noting that the White House insists that the Politico piece is misleading. According to Sean Spicer, the report in question is real, but it was an administration effort to project what the Congressional Budget Office was likely to conclude, ahead of the CBO score’s release. In other words, we’re supposed to believe this document was the White House’s best guess as to what the CBO would say – and officials were pretty close.
Is Team Trump’s pushback true? I have no idea, but given recent history, these folks clearly haven’t earned the benefit of the doubt. There is, however, good reason for skepticism about the White House’s line. Indeed, we’re left with three possibilities:
1. The White House is lying and its internal assessment really did show the ranks of the uninsured growing by 26 million people.
2. The White House has a different set of numbers that it doesn’t want the public to see (which would suggest the findings are equally embarrassing for supporters of the Republican plan).
3. The White House is so indifferent towards the substance of this debate that it didn’t bother to put together its own figures.
So, Team Trump, which is it?