"This will make your supporters hate you.
It will also protect criminal illegals with healthcare.
Because you are so dumb, I will take your place in four years."
Posted on 03/23/2017 2:30:21 PM PDT by VitacoreVision
A deal has not yet been reached between the White House and congressional Republicans on the American Health Care Act, the bill intended to repeal and partially replace ObamaCare. Many Republicans have been unable to rally around the bill, asserting that it breaks too many promises made to the American people during the 2012, 2014, and 2016 election cycles. The latest disappointment involves the removal of a provision intended to stop illegal immigrants from receiving health insurance coverage from the bill. The change has made an already widely unpopular bill even more so.
Reuters reports that the dropped provision would have opened up lines of communication between the Treasury Department and the Department of Homeland Security to ensure that all individuals receiving healthcare tax credits were U.S. citizens of legal permanent residents. Without it, the Department of Health and Human Services and IRS will not be able to check Social Security numbers to confirm that individuals are legal citizens.
Conservative author Daniel Horowitz said that the change is “a gift to illegal aliens,” adding that it makes even basic immigration enforcement impossible. In a piece for the Conservative Review, he explains,
The problem with this bill is that because it tweaks ObamaCare and creates a new massive entitlement system through the budget reconciliation process, it cannot have the statutory effect of mandating HHS and IRS work with Citizenship and Immigration Services to use the SAVE database because that issue is outside the jurisdiction of the reporting committees.
According to Reuters, removing the provision from the bill was “largely procedural,” as it was removed “after the Senate parliamentarian determined that the Senate Finance Committee, which handles tax credits under the bill, does not have purview over the Department of Homeland Security.”
Lauren Aronson, spokeswoman for the tax-writing House Committee on Ways and Means, has attempted to assuage concerns over the missing provision by stating that the bill maintains ObamaCare policies that permit only American citizens and legal permanent residents to receive tax credits.
But it has been widely reported that illegal immigrants had been receiving healthcare subsidies under ObamaCare, regardless of the law.
According to the 2016 Senate report by Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, as of June 2015, “The Administration awarded approximately $750 million in tax credits on behalf of individuals who were later determined to be ineligible because they failed to verify their citizenship, status as a national, or legal presence.”
And like Republicans who had promised to address this flaw in ObamaCare in their healthcare replacement bill, President Obama had promised that ObamaCare benefits would not be made available to illegal immigrants either. "There are also those that claim our reform efforts would insure illegal immigrants. This too, is false. The reforms I am proposing do not apply to those who are here illegally," Obama insisted during a 2009 speech.
What’s worse is that no efforts were made to recover the money, according to that same Senate report, which stated,
The information provided to the committee by the IRS and HHS reveals a troubling lack of coordination between the two agencies ... and demonstrates that the IRS and HHS neglected to consider how they would recover these wasteful payments.
The removal of the immigration provision from the American Health Care Act has further marginalized some of the stricter conservatives who already had a difficult time supporting the bill, which critics have dubbed “ObamaCare-lite.”
"I am concerned that the bill lacks sufficient safeguards for verifying whether or not an individual applying for health care tax credits is lawfully in this country and eligible to receive them," said Pennsylvania Republican Representative Lou Barletta. He announced that he can no longer support the bill as it stands.
He’s not the only one.
The conservative House Freedom Caucus maintained their hardline stance against the bill in a meeting with President Trump earlier today, despite reportedly being delivered a “final offer,” according to chief deputy whip Patrick McHenry. "This is the final offer," McHenry said. "We have a package, they have an offer, and they can accept or reject it."
Representative Andy Harris (R-Md.) said that despite some of the recent changes to the healthcare bill, including removing federal requirements that health insurance plans provide a basic set of benefits, he could not support it. “This legislation simply won’t lower premiums as much as the American people need, and lowering the cost of coverage is my primary goal,” said Harris, an anesthesiologist and Freedom Caucus member.
Though a vote is expected today on the healthcare bill, Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows said there's no deal yet. "There are not enough votes as of 1:30 p.m. today," he told reporters.
According to a Quinnipiac University poll, just 17 percent of American voters support the Republican health plan and that 46 percent of voters say they are less likely to vote for their congressman if he or she votes for the replacement plan. Just 41 percent of Republican voters surveyed in the poll supported the GOP bill.
The poll also shows that just 29 percent of voters approve of Trump’s handling of healthcare at the moment.
There is no longer a debate re. health insurance because Trump put the coffin nails into it. There is no such thing as health insurance. This is a debate over the size and scope of the government taxing and spending in the name of health care. It’s a debate Cons and Pubs are bound to loose. The surrender flag was flown by Trump and the rest of us might as well give it up.
You make excellent points, and even though administrative costs have increased dramatically over the last few decades - before the colonization of America by illegals, our healthcare and hospitals didn’t have an overwhelming issue with cost containment from the un-insured.
Thanks
since medic-aid admin will be sloughed off to the states, it will be the states who certify citizenship to the Feds, not the other way around. Medic-aid will be a block grant from the Feds, instead of an open checkbook for each enrollee, so it is in the states’ best interest to be accurate in verifying citizenship because they will be forced to account for each dollar spent.
The republicans said “Give us congress and we’ll repeal obamacare.” They lied.
Then they said “Give us congress AND the white house and we’ll repeal Obamacare.” I guess what they really meant was “Give us congress AND a RINO in the white house and we’ll pretend to repeal Obamacare.
Never vote for a republican. They’re evil liars.
You Lie!
Anybody remember that?
Illegal aliens should not be costing taxpayers any more money than they are already stealing from us.
“Is it really Trumps’s Healthcare bill or is it Ryan’s bill?”
This is Paul Ryano’s copy of Mittens’ health care bill. Remember folks Ryan and Mittens were strong anti Trump and that Ryan and Mittens are butt hole buddies. This could be part of the plan for Ryan to run for pres in 2020. Ryan needs to be taken out of a leadership position. He is not a friend.
Why are these leftist provisions even on the table?!!!!
****************************
Because the Uniparty eunuchs work for Fedzilla, not for us.
Who the heck in the Republican Party wants to insure invaders?
**************************
Sadly, most of them.
"This will make your supporters hate you.
It will also protect criminal illegals with healthcare.
Because you are so dumb, I will take your place in four years."
Absolutely princess..and jaime g.
There is no controlling legal authority that says "repeal and replace" has to be in piece of legislation. The goal is repeal and replace, not spend months or years not getting anything done.
Stop the endless chatter and ACT! That's what the conservatives should be doing, instead of providing fodder for the media and the Dems. Leadership does not require being in the spotlight.
The goal is repeal and replace, not spend months or years not getting anything done.
_______________________________________________
Yeah, well that goal IS gonna take months or years, Even Trump acknowledges this.
“Maybe it’ll take till some time into next year, but we are certainly going to be in the process,” Trump said in the interview. “I would like to say by the end of the year, at least the rudiments, but we should have something within the year and the following year.”
Don’t be a Fool! So many have Willfully believe Trump was going to Repeal Obamacare. But they Payed No Attention!
Wake Up Trump is NOT being Played, He is part of the Players!
Trump is in on Big Government... It just needs to be in his Favor... He NEVER was going to REPEAL Obamacare! Remember when I ask well before Trump was elected and was still running for the GOP, What do you think He is going to do? I ask people to Document what they though he was going to do, what he stood for, Yet No One would record what Trump Stood for or what He was going to do. Its because He has been and always was ALL OVER the Place.
I Say Again the Federal Government HAS to be SLAYED! There is No Fixing it for the Beast is now in Total Control and it will not go away, thus it has to be removed!
Return to God, His Order and a Moral people or continue as Slaves to the Beast and Much Darker Days Ahead!
The Enemy is within and until we deal with that Enemy we will Never be able to Deal with the Enemy’s outside the Nation.
Know this:
Return to God, a Moral people and Christendom! Anything Else if for Not! When you see the reunification of Christians into the One True Faith the Holy and Apostolic Catholic Church the End to the Darkness will be Assured... Until then PRAY for All the Lost Souls!
God Bless
Two words.
REPEAL.
REPLACE.
Trump is pushing this as much as Ryan. Bannon and Priebus were picked by Trump and he did it voluntarily.
It’s time for some of you to finally admit Trump was the RINO’s candidate of choice. It certainly wasn’t Cruz.
And screw veterans with the management amendment. Not just no! Targeting veterans for substandard care while every other subsidy group gets top doc.
Except maybe for a hanging rope and a bullet. I'm serious; they're disgusting for violating our laws and disrespecting us. Repeal Obamacare. Don't cover illegals in any Trump healthcare bill.
Illegalism has no positive impacts on our society except perhaps lowering the price of meals in Mexican restaurants. The costs of illegals overwhelms educational facilities, health care, law enforcement, increases the price of housing, increases the ability of the cartels to undermine the rule of law. These prey upon the illegals through extortion, blackmail and intimidation.
Then there are the incidental costs of drunk driver smashups, the deaths in such smashups. Increased insurance costs for everyone. I’m sure you can add to this list.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.