Posted on 03/28/2017 7:22:07 PM PDT by Innovative
Under extreme pressure from conservative activists, House Republican leaders and the White House have restarted negotiations on legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
But efforts to revive the legislation in the House could take weeks, lawmakers conceded, as Congress moves forward with a full plate of other time-consuming issues. And the renewed push did not meet with much enthusiasm from Senate Republicans, who said they had other priorities at the moment.
Nonetheless, Speaker Paul D. Ryan vowed to renew efforts to repeal the law, despite last’s week crushing setback when House Republicans tossed aside a repeal bill because they lacked the votes to pass it.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
REPEAL not REPAIR
Start unwinding...1st repeal Obamacare (helps make the Medicaid population smaller due to the O-Care Medicaid expansion)...fix the phony pricing...if doctors/hospitals are braking even or making money at Medicare/aid reimbursement prices (15-30% of price charged) then the general public gets those prices also. If not making any money at those rates, then Medicare/aid must increase their reimbursement rates as to prevent private payers from subsidizing Medicare/aid. Encourage employers to stop buying insurance for their employees, just give them the cash (averages $10K-$15K per employee per year) that must go into an HSA for purchasing insurance or paying cash for medical care (encourages competition on price & quality). With no O-care mandates employees and the self-employed would have many more choices of plans at much lower rates. Pre-existing conditions people seeking insurance would go back into high-risk pools by themselves with possible state subsidies if your state is into that sort of socialism. I am sure there many other free markets solutions that some smart people could come up with, but basically, less govt. influence, and more competition (like in Lasik, gastric surgery and plastic surgery, etc. where prices have come down dramatically).
But would even that matter? I mean talk about polishing a turd...
Repeal, but you still have to find something for pre existing conditions, but all hell will break loose for the broke jokes who were getting $650 a month policies for free.
Truth is it costs money and you don’t deserve great unless you can pay. Elderly and massively disabled the acception.
As far as being 26 on your parents plan, why is that so great? Often the parents plan charge a small fortune anyway if you get on the parent’s plan.
#1 Repeal.
#2 Replace with private sector stuff before the Democrats sell free single payer lies to people.
I propose a two phase plan...
Phase 1) Pass Moe Brooks bill that repeals Obamacare entirely.
Phase 2) Pass a bill that has the stuff the socialist RINOs want.
You’ll just have to trust us on getting phase 2 passed.
We did not try Free Market in medicine in modern times. Medicine has been overregulated since the 1930’s.
FOOD is critical to everyone, more than medicine, yet it largely free market, and it works. There is a SAFETY NET of things like Food Stamps for food, would be best if only states were involved in that, but that tail still does not wag the dog of our free market for food!
Medicine can work the came way. There are more impediments to the free market to be removed than meet the eye, though. You have to remove most of them to have the advantage of a free market. Removing a few does not fix the problem.
Just returning to the state level of control would permit better management of any appropriate government controls.
I urge you and everyone not to give up on the free market for medicine.
A free market is smarter than any tribunal of (violent) elitists who would end up in control if we do not free the free market.
so...maybe something like this?
1. All medic-aid program enrollments are hereby frozen.
2. Medic-aid enrollees have worse medical outcomes than privately insured patients because of lack of availability of doctors accepting medic-aid. Inadequate medic-aid reimbursements to providers results in ‘cost-shifting’ which is the most important factor of higher premiums. Therefore, the total of medic-aid enrollees will be reduced to no larger than 1/5th the population of the workforce, children excluded. Programs will be funded via block grants. Block grants for 2017 will equal 3/4ths of 2016 levels and reduced in similar increments until the enrollee goal is achieved.
3. All federal subsidies, credits or any other form of federal subsidizing of health insurance premiums are hereby revoked.
4. Individual federal tax deductions for covered and uncovered medical services, long-term care and insurance premiums are hereby revoked.
5. As the traditional regulator of insurance, States will establish insurance pools, and will designate carriers and services permitted to conduct business in that state. Each pool may have standards. State underwriters may move the insured from one pool to another without prior notice as treatment history warrants. States who contract with less than 3 insurance carriers will apply to the US Attorney General for a waiver, providing justification. Individuals may purchase across state lines but only from a carrier that is licensed to do business in their own state.
6. Independent group pools for non-profit, for-profit, state and county employee and independent groups of any sort are no longer permitted. High-risk states, (i.e., Alaska, Vermont, Wyoming) may form a joint pool.
7. All policies, including Cadillac and catastrophic plans, must be purchased using the individual’s social security number. Enrollment will be limited to an ‘open season.’ Those choosing to opt out will be required to sign an notarized acknowledgement of the right of the State to sieze assets if uninsured care is sought.
8. States may sieze the assets and estates upon death of any uninsured or insured individual sufficient to reimburse the State for unpaid costs incurred or submitted by a state-approved provider, including administrative costs involved. Estates are prohibited from deducting siezed funds or assets from federal tax returns.
9. Providers who claim unpaid services will submit claims to the State who will reimburse the provider from the asset siezure fund. Related tax credits for providers previously used to write off such losses on federal tax returns are revoked.
10. All stock trading, commmon and preferred, and all pension fund trading in insurance and service provider related futures is hereby frozen for 90 days, subject to extension, to prevent stock market destabilization as states establish their pools and accomplish enrollments.
Amen
I don’t care about what he ran on. Free Market or bust (AGAIN).
It would matter if they were seen trying to do the responsible thing and work with the GOP instead of stonewalling them.
Fine, let them pay for it, not the taxpayer.
Letting people keep their own money is keeping the feds out of the business.
Why did Trump wrap himself in pretzel to defend Ryan, this POS legislation, and criticize the freedom caucus?
It’s obvious you either don’t have a clue about how healthcare is delivered in this country, or you are being purposefully obtrusive on the matter. There is not a single person in this country that doesn’t have access to healthcare, whether they can afford it, or not. If that were not the case, I would not have gone without a raise for years on end and the hospital I work at would not have given away an average of $110 million every year in “free” health care. People may not get the care they want. In twelve plus years, I’ve never seen anyone die from “lack of care”.
Like many people you mistake heath insurance with health care. Tell you what, you show me in the Constitution, and the associated papers the founders left detailing how they came about creating it, where the federal government is mandated to concern itself in healthcare, and I will support federal involvement 100%. Until that time, I stand on the principle that the US government has no place involving itself in such matters and the issue should be left to the states. If a state wants its own mini-Obamacare, I could give two spits; the fedgov needs to get out, though.
Nope..
I am a native-born American. I am very familiar with healthcare.
I am simply saying, that our healthcare system is VERY EXPENSIVE, it doesn’t cover people nearly the way it should, and Obamacare was an effort by the left, to do something about those things which we had done nothing to fix in the past.
I am frankly getting disappointed our side seems so determined to simply go back to the expensive mess we had before the system was changed.
Our side is supposed to be the good guys.
All I am seeing at the moment, is a bunch of people claiming “leftist” when I talk about this issue.
I am not a leftist. I am not. I am however very disappointed by the way our system so terribly abuses the costs of medical care.
It is beyond simply expensive. It is abusive.
Our side should be doing something to fix it. Not going back to what we had before, which was a terribly expensive, system which does not cover nearly enough people.
We are on the wrong side.
It seems to me.
Which came first the chicken or the egg? Our health care system was so expensive because the insurance market allowed prices to rise far above what the market would bear. Until no one could afford the procedures they needed was everyone chipped in to pay for them. Remove government and remove corporate insurance impairs trying to profit off your illness and let the market set the prices. Then we will have a system people can afford.
Our ‘free-market’ healthcare system was working just fine until the federal government got involved. It started when they decided that it was not fair that some people were limited to the ‘charity’ system of county hospitals and clinics which were low-cost and accessible to everyone.
Those clinics and hospitals provided ‘charity’ care and, more importantly, training to countless physicians and health-care workers. Yes, you might have a scalp wound sutured by a medical student or a resident might take out your appendix, but you could afford to have it done. Residents (MDs by the way) would take on the bulk of the care, supervised by Staff physicians who were paid very little. They were willing to do this because they would work at these hospitals part-time, and have private practices to live on.
The federal government, in its infinite wisdom, decided it was not fair that some people could only afford this kind of care. They tried to micromanage the process, forcing new rules on how the care was provided. Staff physicians were required to personally supervise every procedure from start to finish, but their pay was not increased. Consequently, the charity hospitals lost staff and began to cut services. Now poor people had NO care.
To try to fix the problem that the government itself had created, they expanded the EMTALA provision which was only intended to keep women in active labor from being refused care, to extend to all patients with all conditions. Now private hospitals could not refuse to treat anyone coming to their ER for any reason. Specialists were forced to give care at the private hospitals to patients they used to supervise care for at the charity hospitals, but now with often no pay at all.
Hospitals and doctors began to lose money, not only on the uninsured but on the medicaid patients where reimbursements were, and still are, not enough to cover costs. Hospitals and doctors raised prices, government limited their payments. Insurance companies began using the government-set prices, increasing the pool of underpaying patients. Paperwork to justify any charges exploded, leading hospitals and offices to have to hire entire billing teams just to get paid. All of this caused self-pay and co-pay costs to spiral out of control.
High risk patients with major problems began presenting to ERs with major problems where they had no physician or records, leading to more poor outcomes. There was, and still is, no protection from malpractice suits brought not because of poor care, but because of poor results. Again, higher costs all around.
Health insurance began as a perk for employees to avoid income taxes. It was never intended to pay for everyday costs. The government’s interference turned it into a monstrosity which is destroying the best healthcare in the world. They need to get out of it, completely, now.
That’s more than 2 cents, I know....
Love,
O2
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Trump was misled by Paul Ryan on health care bill, says Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich said that President Trump was misled by House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) into believing that he could pay little attention to the Obamacare replacement bill, and come in at the end and sign it. He made the comments Friday to Sean Hannity on Fox News.
“I was angrier than I want to really admit publicly earlier today,” Hannity admitted, “I’m not as angry now. Now I see an opportunity. And I sense that they’re not gonna make this mistake again, please tell me they won’t do this again this way.”
“Well, first of all you have no idea whether or not they’ll make that mistake or invent a new mistake,” Gingrich offered.
“What do you do know is that Donald Trump is a very smart guy,” he continued. “He just went through an experience that wasn’t what he was told. He had been told that everything was under control, the leadership could deliver, he didn’t have to pay too much attention, come in at the very end and close the deal. And it got to be a total mess.”
Gingrich seemed to imply that Ryan deserved to lose the speakership over the debacle, saying, “I can guarantee you that if this had been one of his hotels, one of his buildings, one of his golf courses, there’d be a lot of personnel changes tonight. And I think what you’re gonna see is that he’s gonna rethink how he’s going to approach the Congress based on this outcome. Because it was so totally, utterly unacceptable.”
“At the same time I think, Paul Ryan is at a real turning point,” he continued. “Ryan’s a very smart guy, nobody should take that away from him. And he knows an immense amount about policy.”
“But he’s gotta decide, in the world of Trump,” he advised, “where you’re doing really bold, really different things, is he willing to spend the time and the energy, listening to everybody, even when he doesn’t agree with them, doesn’t think they make any sense, because only by, we used to use a model of listen, learn, help and lead. And only by doing this, and you’ve talked about it some, only by getting everybody in the dialogue, you have a chance of ultimately getting to the majority. And I think this was an example, that starting at the top, trying to run it through the system is not going to work.”
Trump allies and supporters have sought to put the blame of the repeal bill’s failure squarely on the shoulders of Ryan and the GOP leadership, while the administration has resisted doing so. Instead, the president blamed Democrats for resisting all efforts to repeal Obamacare, and said he would let it “explode” and let them come to him later.
The bill faced opposition from the Freedom Caucus of conservative Republicans Thursday, causing the vote to be postponed. But Friday when concessions were made to the right wing of the party, moderates dropped their support, dooming the bill.
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Any other benefits you want to take away from me?
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