Posted on 07/19/2017 3:37:25 AM PDT by IBD editorial writer
Health Reform: There were lots of celebrations on the left side of the aisle after the Senate GOP bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare died. The good times will be short lived, because one way or another ObamaCare is going away, and it's not at all clear that Democrats will gain additional leverage over what comes next by waiting for its collapse.
It was amusing to hear Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer say, after the Senate bill failed, that Republicans should "work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long-term stability to the markets and improves our health care system."
Lower premiums, stabilize insurance markets, improve health care? Wasn't that what ObamaCare was supposed to do in the first place?
While Schumer and company were busy calling Republicans mass murderers, here's what was actually happening with ObamaCare.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reports that the number of insurers applying to participate in ObamaCare exchanges next year plunged by 38% compared with last year, and is half what it was in 2016.
CMS also reported that 40 counties in Indiana, Ohio and Nevada are at risk of having zero insurance companies in their ObamaCare exchanges next year. The Kaiser Family Foundation put the number of at-risk counties at 38.
In addition, CMS reported that 2.4 million enrollees in 40% of the nation's counties will have just one insurance company in their area.
The average increase in premiums next year for a Silver plan in eight states will be 18%, according to Avalere. One of the last ObamaCare insurers in Iowa has put in for a 43.5% hike. In Washington state, the average boost is 22%. In Tennessee, the proposed rate hikes range from 21% to 42%. And so on.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Last sentence in the article. “Plus, as the ObamaCare exchanges continue to crumble and as more states chafe at Medicaid’s costs, it will be easier for Republicans to get what they want on their own — if Republicans are smart enough to seize the opportunity, that is.”
Republicans aren’t smart enough to seize and opportunity
Even if there is a movement to primary RINO’s in 2018, few will actually be defeated in the primary. They have the money from special interests and the party. Challengers have trouble raising the big money needed to run a campaign. As a result, most of those responsible for the O’care repeal debacle will be carrying the GOP flag in the fall of 2018.
The big question for 2018 will be the long suffering conservative Republican base voter. When it comes to Election Day will those voters once again go to the polls and vote for their back stabbing RINO representative in order to keep a Democrat from winning. Or, will those voters have reached the conclusion there is really no difference between a Democrat and RINO. If the latter, there may be a Democrat takeover of the House and Senate because enough of the Republican voter base stays home in disgust.
Doubt it. The Dems will not be blamed; the Reps will get the full blame for not “fixing” it. On to single payer which is the goal of the uniparty anyway.
Enforce obamacare as passed by the democrats.
Trump needs to revoke ALL of Obama’s exceptions.
“Challengers have trouble raising the big money needed to run a campaign.”
Yea, somebody forgot to tell that to David Brat while everyone was singing the same conventional wisdom that you just espoused.
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/2014-virginia-primary-big-money-eric-cantor-107699
Trump beat the machine just as Brat did, with message, message, message.
I think this is the play-act of both parties....dance enough, fake people out enough, and just stall until twenty-percent of the nation has no options on health insurance, and then waltz in and deliver single-payer. I would give single-payer about five years of ‘life’ before the public agrees that it’s a failure but there’s nothing left in the bag of tricks except marginal healthcare for the public. Once people said that it needed to be affordable....they opened up the only direction left...poor healthcare that is affordable.
Exactly, it will get to “We have no choice but to take over this failed system.”
I’m leaning toward asteroid impact or Yellow Stone caldera eruption in 2018. Nothing else seems to faze the uniparty.
You and I have opposite positions but agree in principle.
Obama made some unions and campaign donors more equal than others by giving them WAIVERS.
We agree that everyone should be treated the same.
You say nobody should get waivers.
I say EVERYBODY should get waivers. Trump/Price/Velma have the power to make Obamacare and all its mandates and regulations voluntary on everyone, on doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, drug companies, and ordinary citizens.
Then we would see how many people democratically vote for or against Obamacare.
That's what Trumpcare was supposed to do as well, and it had zero chance of doing that. So government health-care intervention has been doomed ever since they got involved.
For decades that Rats have openly taken the position that *everything* that goes wrong in this country is the GOP's fault. ObamaCare is no exception.
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
1. It covers everyone.
2. It covers everything.
3. It doesn't cost very much.
In other words, Americans want a health care system that is built on delusion. This is why ANY plan developed by ANYONE in Congress was always destined to fail.
Yes. The reality s closer to the classic line about business: “High quality, Low price, Speedy execution — pick any two.”
But everyone always wants it all.
Absolutely, and the media and Democrats will attack the Republicans continually until Americans end up blaming Republicans for the Democrat-passed Obamacare.
The trouble with Yellowstone blowing is it would mainly take out the relatively sane center of the country and spare the libs. Properly sized asteroid in ocean might take out coastal libs without doing much to center. Once touted volcano collapse in Canaries might cleanse east coast. Cascadia generates magnitude 9+ quake roughly every 300 years and is overdue. That could cleanse NW coast.
Democrats don’t need to be concerned about being held responsible for the implosion of Obamacare.
The media will pin the blame for the failure of Obamacare on the republicans and paint the democrats as the heroes who struggled mightily against the mean republicans in an effort to save Obamacare for the little people.
For those who don’t want to support the pimping of his own blog as he always does, here’s the entire article....
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Health Reform: There were lots of celebrations on the left side of the aisle after the Senate GOP bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare died. The good times will be short lived, because one way or another ObamaCare is going away, and it’s not at all clear that Democrats will gain additional leverage over what comes next by waiting for its collapse.
It was amusing to hear Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer say, after the Senate bill failed, that Republicans should “work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long-term stability to the markets and improves our health care system.”
Lower premiums, stabilize insurance markets, improve health care? Wasn’t that what ObamaCare was supposed to do in the first place?
While Schumer and company were busy calling Republicans mass murderers, here’s what was actually happening with ObamaCare.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reports that the number of insurers applying to participate in ObamaCare exchanges next year plunged by 38% compared with last year, and is half what it was in 2016.
CMS also reported that 40 counties in Indiana, Ohio and Nevada are at risk of having zero insurance companies in their ObamaCare exchanges next year. The Kaiser Family Foundation put the number of at-risk counties at 38.
In addition, CMS reported that 2.4 million enrollees in 40% of the nation’s counties will have just one insurance company in their area.
The average increase in premiums next year for a Silver plan in eight states will be 18%, according to Avalere. One of the last ObamaCare insurers in Iowa has put in for a 43.5% hike. In Washington state, the average boost is 22%. In Tennessee, the proposed rate hikes range from 21% to 42%. And so on.
As we noted before in this space, these insurance defections and gargantuan rate hikes have nothing to do with the Republican’s repeal effort, but with the continued deterioration of the ObamaCare markets.
States are also starting to struggle with the costs of ObamaCare’s “free” Medicaid expansion. A report from the National Association of State Budget Offices said that the expansion will cost states nearly $9 billion next year, more than twice what it cost in 2016.
CMS reports that the per capita costs of the Medicaid expansion are 50% higher than expected.
Arkansas scaled back its Medicaid expansion in May, and Ohio lawmakers voted in June to freeze the expansion in that state. Oregon’s Medicaid expansion contributed a $1.6 billion gap in the state’s budget. In California, the Medicaid expansion will cost the state $1.3 billion this year, putting additional strain on the state’s budget.
As economist Herbert Stein once put it, if something can’t go on forever, it won’t.
That’s the reality facing ObamaCare. And it’s one Democrats have so far been able to avoid by focusing the public’s ire on the fumbling GOP efforts to come up with a replacement plan.
But with repeal-and-replace now off the table, all we have left is the self-destructing ObamaCare. Don’t be surprised if ObamaCare’s popularity suddenly nose-dives again.
So the GOP’s answer to Schumer should be: You had your chance to fix health care. You blew it. Twice. First when you passed ObamaCare, and second when you refused to admit that mistake and decided to cast Republicans as evil. Why should the GOP reward you with a third?
Plus, as the ObamaCare exchanges continue to crumble and as more states chafe at Medicaid’s costs, it will be easier for Republicans to get what they want on their own — if Republicans are smart enough to seize the opportunity, that is.
In my mind, the reality of Obamacare is unreported. Although I do not have numbers, my gut tells me that most Americans are pretty well satisfied with their health insurance. Most Americans by a large margin are covered at work or by Medicare.
While this majority would like lower premiums, the battles in the senate don’t really affect them. The number of uninsured in actual health care jeopardy doesn’t seem to be known. Or at least meaningful, verifiable numbers are not published.
Thus, there is no large pressure exerting constituency to apply adequate pressure to Republicans to force a solution. The decay and seeming unworkable death of Obamacare does not have any effect on the vast majority of Americans.
What to do about Obamacare is an academic problem. The reality is that too many academic problem solving senators can’t agree on a solution.
The Democrats are agreed. Library barbie Harf, spouted the party line on Bret’s panel, Shumer word for word.
The healthcare debate is like the diesel engine debate. Everyone wants a diesel engine which revolves around:
1. Clean emission
2. Durability
3. Performance
4. High mileage
You can’t have such an engine....without giving up one at least one of these features.
I think with healthcare...if you dissolved the state-line approach to it...you might buy some time. But both parties are moving to only one solution in the end...single-payer.
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