Republicans Healthcare Plan Is Nothing More Than A Yugo With American Tires.

Understood.

There’s one thing the last 50 years have shown to me: once the government enlarges itself by taking powers once held by private citizens those powers are lost forever. E.g., a surgeon opens a patient’s belly for hernia repair and discovers a diseased appendix. It was unheard of to sew the patient up while awaiting approval to excise the appendix. It was considered an unnecessary risk to operate twice. Not to mention double the cost. The unintended consequence is that surgeons and internists today are not as good diagnosticians because they only invite trouble by thinkng outside the box. I’m sorry you are dealing with VA. We will all soon get equally poor medical care. Socialized medicine kills.

I do not blame my former boss....He had to finally do what was right for him and his family.

Not angry at anyone but the Republicans today.

But the Republicans are only doing what is right for them. Before Trump was sworn in I argued that the arithmetic of healthcare was such that the only course for the Republicans was to let Obama care implode.

Obama care created tens of millions of new dependence paid for by a massive transfer of wealth directly from more wealthy people and indirectly by stacking up huge deficits to be paid for by future generations. To undo that the choice was either to cut benefits, tax more, increase healthcare premiums, cut coverage, or increase the national debt. Evidently, the Republicans have chosen a combination of some of the above in a package that camouflages what they are doing as best they can.

They have chosen this because our society has been conditioned to expect entitlements. Any politician who realistically attacks entitlements knows he will be facing a tidal wave of opposition in the next election and he will be maligned in the meantime for his pains in the press as callously indifferent to the helpless and in the pay of some evil business. Ultimately, he knows real reform of entitlements has no realistic political chance of succeeding. Politicians are not known to be martyrs.

Any Republican politician says to himself, we were put into this position by the leadership of the party when everybody knew that if Obama care took hold, as it has, entitlements mentality would take hold as well. Trump was a great contributor to this dilemma by his rhetoric in the campaign promising repeal and promising the moon by reform but he did get one thing right after he was sworn in, the Republicans are bailing the Democrats out and taking all the blame for the reform of Obama care onto their own shoulders simply by taking charge of the reform. That is foolish.

Obama care is on its way to imploding if not shored up or reformed. Let it go, then craft new legislation which does not take coverage away, does not increase taxes or premiums, does not add to the national debt etc. because it is not being compared to Obama care. It is a new healthcare approach rising phoenix-like from the ashes of a fully discredited and disintegrated Obama care. Let the blame for the disintegration fall on the Democrats because they will have resisted any attempts at a conservative reform which should be done in a selective manner on selected issues which the Democrats must resist.

This is a political matter which has to be one politically. You have been played by leftist politicians who inserted Obama care into the culture by the most dubious congressional chicanery. You have been played by Republican legislators who used Obama care as a ploy with sham attempts to repeal it because they needed to win elections and survive. There was one attempt to derail Obama care when it was possible, in a way that was politically possible, it was done by Ted Cruz and his filibuster who was shamefully vilified for his efforts by politicians on the right as well as on the left. To defund Obama care then by way of the filibuster would have made it possible to actually reform healthcare but he was abandoned. Where did you stand when Ted Cruz stood all might fighting to save you? Your plight is terribly unfortunate but the hope that most politicians will stick their necks out for you is to ask more than human nature can deliver.

Do You Support the Article V movement?

[Republicans] have chosen this because our society has been conditioned to expect entitlements.

Republicans have chosen this (at least some of them) because the political ramifications of choosing to "let Obama care implode" are potentially even more severe than simply trying to repeal and replace it.

Even if the arithmetic implies that allowing an implosion is (dispassionately) the "right" way to let things happen, the GOP might actually possess a modicum of empathy for the victims of 0bamcare.

Entitlements, in general, can be dealt with, and they will be, eventually. But it's likely to be done less with strident rhetoric, and more with policies which help create jobs and encouraging social mores which stigmatize dependence on government. Certainly starting with such measures isn't the best choice.

Much better for the President to get his feet wet by saving some of the most sacred cows for a later date.

Then, as the entitlement state naturally shrinks for reasons of good government policy and increasing national prosperity, it will become at least somewhat less controversial to dismantle it, or at least reduce its scope and application.

Let's not forget that immigrants, both illegal and otherwise, are disproportionately represented on America's welfare rolls. First things first.

If Senators like Ted Cruz and Representatives like Rand Paul win the day, we will get real reform and improvement, not just the window dressing that the appeasers want. I believe the President is more in line with the thinking of Cruz and Paul than the squishy "moderates"...

I would argue that to permit the perpetuation of Obama care disguised as Obama care lite is not empathy for the victims but a misguided empathy, combined with self-interest, which will inflict the evils of Obama care on millions more until the final reckoning.

The reality is that entitlements will not be dealt with in the ordinary course of politics rather they will be dealt with in the ruins of a broken economy. They have not been dealt with since Franklin Roosevelt and there is simply no prospect they are going to be dealt with now except that Trump, under the influence of Ivanka, promises a new entitlement and has even assured the public that he will not touch any entrenched old entitlements. He has made promises about Obama care that simply are arithmetically impossible and it is time even the most rabid Trump supporters acknowledge that.

That is why many of us advocate for Article V movement that, if accomplished, would actually restructure Washington so that the entitlements vortex can be ended. But but I do not believe that Article V will be accomplished unless and until there is a crisis of some sort. A reckoning if you will. That is what I meant when I said that you are correct, entitlements will be "dealt with" but only when we have no other choice.

You are absolutely right! But why would anyone expect anything else from the GOP. Haven’t we learned that there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the Rats and the GOP.

For all the reasons Obamacare exists, from the right to choose, to contraceptions... is not my right to see (eye care) and preventive dental care a more basic right or something worthy of socialized medicine?

Take two aspirin and donate something to FR - it will make you feel better.

Or, run for President yourself.....

thanks.
actually, I deal with V.A. by choice.
I guess I am one of the lucky one’s.
They have been very good to me.
Their Physicians are mostly staff & interns from Loyola Medicine.
I have no complaints.

My exact sentiments.

Great response to the crap you wrote on the other thread. Thanks. With your permission I would like to share it with my friend on fb.

I was Ted Cruz all the way till Trump won the nomination. You may remember the vilification I took defending Cruz.

That was then, this is now.

Like you I agree in letting Obamacare die. Remove the penalty, kill the mandate. Something Trump already did. The rest will wither on the vine on its own as we are seeing.

To inject 123 pages of amendments to Obamacare is just pure laziness and only serves their own interests of preserving their power over us.

What one Congress deletes or amends, another congress can add them back in the future. What the Republicans are doing is just creating an ever living ObamaVampirecare. They need to put a stake in the heart of the bill, or as you suggest to let it die.

They need to start with an empty piece of paper and start building it from scratch. Or hell better yet pass a law that says the only insurance that can be legally sold is catastrophic insurance. Then outlaw any and all other types of healthcare insurance coverage. Watch the healthcare costs drop like a rock.

If they pass anything that is connected to Obamacare, then it will eventually come back to life one with Congressional change after another through the years until it becomes the exact thing Obama created. like you said it will rise like a phoenix to haunt us again.

As for the Convention of the States Article V movement. Yes I do support it. However if it happens, we better make sure we do our work and fight for who we want drafting the amendments. Otherwise we could be even more screwed. You sure as hell know that the left, the middle, and the media will want to stack it with globalists.

I am not convinced there are nearly as many God fearing men/women in this country as there was when the Constitution was drafted. These guys were touched by GOD himself. The chances that we can get the amendments to the constitution we desire are slim to none.

Probably the best chance we got is to stack the court with originalist Judges who will restore the constitution, but that is never going to happen either. Thus the reason I would take my chance with Article V.

If Senators like Ted Cruz and Representatives like Rand Paul win the day, we will get real reform and improvement, not just the window dressing that the appeasers want. I believe the President is more in line with the thinking of Cruz and Paul than the squishy "moderates"...

As I said before, and many will remember, I supported Ted Cruz with every fiber of my soul, but he lost and I supported the nominee, Trump.

Today I stand in shock that Trump has actually put together the most conservative capitalist cabinet since before the Civil War. Even Reagan never had one.

Like you I believe Trump is aligned philosophically with Ted and Rand than I would have ever admitted a few Months ago.

That is why the best cure for our healthcare troubles is to just outlaw medical insurance.

Watch the prices drop like a figging rock.>>> i would agree for insurance paying for incidentals, office, drugs etc. which is there because of medicare. I think i might like to buy a major medical plan.