[Discussion] Health Policies and ACA Reform/Repeal

The existing health thread is for discussion on how changes to current policy will/have personally affected you or those you know. This thread is for more general discussion of the subject.

Except Congress is totally dysfunctional and will probably do nothing of the sort.

He’s already tweeted that he is against the subsidies bill after all.

A Bipartisan Fix for Obamacare? Who F***ing Knows?

Health Insurance Suddenly Just Got Cheaper for a Lot of People

2017 is a strange year to buy health insurance. Some weird and bad things have happened, and it seems like we should expect insurance plans to become more expensive. But it turns out that a lot of people may now be able to get cheaper insurance, and for an odd reason.

Here’s why: some government funny business around CSR payments means silver plans are way more expensive than usual. But the government also gives subsidies to help low and middle income families pay for insurance—and the dollar amount of those subsidies is based on the price of silver plans. So the subsidies are now also huge.

This means that, if you get a subsidy, your silver plan will likely be about the same out-of-pocket price as last year. But that means you could also save money by buying a cheaper bronze plan instead. For many people, the subsidies are large enough they can get a bronze plan for free.

Which is also why stopping the CSR payments was actually going to cost the government more money.

The Evidence for Abstinence Only Sex Education is Scant

Why the f*ck can't they leave this alone?

Individual mandate repeal to be included in Senate's tax bill

Republican senators will include a repeal of Obamacare's individual mandate in the revised version of the chamber's tax overhaul to be released by the Senate finance committee Tuesday afternoon, according to two GOP aides. The committee's Republicans were unanimous in their support for adding the repeal.

Can someone explain who is driving this? With the tax bill there have been reports that major donors want something passed so I can see why Rs are pushing ahead but who is the group demanding they keep trying to destroy the ACA?

I don't believe for a second they have a deeply held belief that the ACA is bad for their constituents so who are they trying to appease?

All in all it just reminds me that the ACA is going to be killed because they will keep trying different ways to chip away at it forever.

Man, they are dipsh*ts. Although, are they doing this because they recognize the tax reform they’re trying to pass is going to fail so they can conviently blame their failure on the ACA yet again? Or is that this bling too much?

They can get about, what, $450B in funds for the tax rebate from killing the mandate, so that's been on the agenda as a pre-req since before Trump came in. Simple as that.

I still haven't managed to wrap my head around how killing the mandate generates $450B. Is that because they're estimating that enough people will decide to not buy insurance, and that means we don't have to pay subsidies for them to get insurance?

Chaz wrote:

I still haven't managed to wrap my head around how killing the mandate generates $450B. Is that because they're estimating that enough people will decide to not buy insurance, and that means we don't have to pay subsidies for them to get insurance?

TL;DR: Yes

Are they factoring in that dead people don't pay taxes?

Chaz wrote:

I still haven't managed to wrap my head around how killing the mandate generates $450B. Is that because they're estimating that enough people will decide to not buy insurance, and that means we don't have to pay subsidies for them to get insurance?

The CBO puts it at $338 billion in savings over ten years. That comes from having an estimated four million Americans in 2019 opting not to get insurance with that number going up to 13 million people in 2027.

I used a number I heard in an NPR report; that may be the *optimistic* Republican claim that was cited, based on wishes, misplaced hopes, and vists to that lady who has the "Read Your Future" shop on New York Avenue near the Capitol...

Sounds about right.

On the Senate floor last week, just hours before Republicans passed a $1 trillion tax cut, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown challenged Senate Finance Committee Chair Orrin Hatch: Why were Republicans about to pass tax cuts for corporations and business owners while the Children’s Health Insurance Program remains unextended?

Hatch reacted with fury. “Nobody believes more in the CHIP program than I,” he shot back. “I invented it. We’re gonna do CHIP. There’s no question about it in my mind, and it’s gotta be done the right way. The reason CHIP’s having trouble is we don’t have any money anymore.”

Then Hatch got himself into some trouble.

“I have a rough time wanting to spend billions and billions and trillions of trillions of dollars to help people who won’t help themselves, won’t lift a finger, and expect the federal government to do everything,” he said. “Unfortunately, the liberal philosophy has created millions of people that way, who believe everything they are or ever hope to be depend on the federal government rather than the opportunities that this great country grants them.”

This is what "If you give a mouse a cookie..." was all about. They've spent decades brainwashing people into believing this crap, why is it surprise that it worked?

I can't hear Hatch over the sound of Rs clapping for him...

Kehama wrote:

Sounds about right.

On the Senate floor last week, just hours before Republicans passed a $1 trillion tax cut, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown challenged Senate Finance Committee Chair Orrin Hatch: Why were Republicans about to pass tax cuts for corporations and business owners while the Children’s Health Insurance Program remains unextended?

Hatch reacted with fury. “Nobody believes more in the CHIP program than I,” he shot back. “I invented it. We’re gonna do CHIP. There’s no question about it in my mind, and it’s gotta be done the right way. The reason CHIP’s having trouble is we don’t have any money anymore.”

Then Hatch got himself into some trouble.

“I have a rough time wanting to spend billions and billions and trillions of trillions of dollars to help people who won’t help themselves, won’t lift a finger, and expect the federal government to do everything,” he said. “Unfortunately, the liberal philosophy has created millions of people that way, who believe everything they are or ever hope to be depend on the federal government rather than the opportunities that this great country grants them.”

Republican advice to children in need of health insurance:

IMAGE(http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/92/927ded580288b24c93fc18362301e2de6d2115c35b69703d0c64a521f4aa5408.jpg)

“I have a rough time wanting to spend billions and billions and trillions of trillions of dollars to help people who won’t help themselves, won’t lift a finger, and expect the federal government to do everything,” he said.

Sounds exactly like corporate welfare to me. What a hypocrite.

Even if you believe healthcare is available to anyone who bothers to "work for it", you're still buying into the sins of the father mentality of letting children go without care just because their parents didn't "work hard enough". Even with their own twisted logic this would be cruel.

Pretty sure that what Hatch means is "I would love to help CHP, but we can't because we don't have enough money due to the billions and billions and trillions of dollars we spend on other programs that are not CHP."

Not defending that interpretation either, but I'm pretty sure that is what he is actually saying.

Yonder wrote:

Pretty sure that what Hatch means is "I would love to help CHP, but we can't because we don't have enough money due to the billions and billions and trillions of dollars we spend on other programs that are not CHP."

Not defending that interpretation either, but I'm pretty sure that is what he is actually saying.

Yeah. Of course, he then went and voted to add 1.5+ trillion to the deficit, so...

Yonder wrote:

Pretty sure that what Hatch means is "I would love to help CHP, but we can't because we don't have enough money due to the billions and billions and trillions of dollars we spend on other programs that are not CHP."

Not defending that interpretation either, but I'm pretty sure that is what he is actually saying.

So either "we can't help children that won't help themselves" or "we just cut the amount of money we're collecting so we don't have money for children's health care". Pretty sure there's no Lady in that choice, just a couple of Tigers.

Maybe it's because I'm playing XCOM2 right now, but is it possible the GOP is under alien influence?

How sure are you that the GOP aren't the alien influence?

Chaz wrote:

How sure are you that the GOP aren't the alien influence?

Anyone capable of interstellar travel would be significantly more capable?

Jonman wrote:
Chaz wrote:

How sure are you that the GOP aren't the alien influence?

Anyone capable of interstellar travel would be significantly more capable?

Depends on what your goal is. So far, we've managed to convince most of the developed world to carry devices that track your every movement and most of your communications, and we're working on getting people to install always-on audio and video surveillance devices in their homes. That's part way to a dystopia right there.

Sobering:
IMAGE(http://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/1512753328-healthcarecomic.png)

Stopping the Obamacare Cost-Sharing is Going to Cost a LOT of Money