Posted on 07/18/2017 5:08:36 AM PDT by Kaslin
Republicans are finally getting smart on Obamacare. It took one of the savviest Republican senators -- Ted Cruz of Texas, with an assist from Mike Lee of Utah -- to get the GOP to figure out how to replace Obamacare, reduce premiums and save money for the government, all without alienating millions of voters. He's pulled the Republicans' fannies out of the fire, flipping a losing strategy into a big-time winner.
The Cruz amendment -- which has been inserted into the GOP Senate health plan -- is smart, because it doesn't take anything away from anyone. If you want Obamacare, you can have it. You can have the coverage for the 10 "essential benefits"; you can have the subsidies and exchanges that were supposed to save $2,500 per family. It's still there for you.
The Cruz amendment introduces what is called the "Consumer Freedom Option." The Consumer Freedom Option allows insurers who offer Obamacare-compliant plans to offer a range of less costly plans. In other words, it empowers people and families to pick and choose what they want in their own insurance packages. Some families want, and can afford, blanket coverage that insures them for everything from cancer to contraceptives. If you want to pay for that coverage, go for it.
What about people with lower incomes or healthy lifestyles that want the other extreme? They can opt for slimmed-down coverage that protects them from major medical expenses, such as costly ongoing treatments for a serious disease. These families may choose to pay for more routine medical expenses, such as checkups, out of pocket. One benefit is that since more people will pay directly for medical services, they are likely to shop around for the best prices, and this competition will lower prices for everyone.
In other words, the Cruz amendment is pro-choice -- which I thought was one of the tenets of liberalism. Cruz tells me that based on the preliminary numbers, he believes this approach could save tens of millions of Americans as much as 30 percent on their health costs. That's thousands of dollars of savings per family.
My advice for the Republicans is to start running national ads right now with a Geico-type message. A mother is smiling as she pays the bills at the kitchen table and declares: "I just saved $5,000 on my health care thanks to Ted Cruz."
The Cruz plan to progressives is like a cross to a vampire. They complain that this will destabilize the market and turn marketplaces into high-risk pools. Insurance companies are claiming that the sick and those with pre-existing conditions will have to pay more.
That's partly true, but it's not the whole story. The Cruz amendment provides billions of dollars in subsidies for people who have pre-existing conditions and high medical costs. Cruz believes the number of people without private insurance who don't have adequate coverage for pre-existing conditions is only about 1.5 million people. Why contaminate a functioning insurance market for 300 million people to give coverage to 1.5 million?
The Cruz plan provides protection for those 1.5 million people, while giving tens of millions of Americans the freedom to choose the affordable plan of their choice. Cruz says that the majority of the people in Texas who have had to pay the Obamacare penalties for not buying a plan have incomes of less than $50,000. They are the victims of the "Affordable Care Act."
The left prefers a system in which people who want Cadillac coverage are subsidized through higher premiums paid for by people who don't want that coverage. How is that fair?
Another virtue of the Cruz plan is that if people can save money on their medical insurance by living healthier lifestyles -- by exercising, not smoking or doing drugs, getting enough sleep, watching their weight -- they will be rewarded with plans that offer lower premiums. This will incentivize behavior that contributes to wellness, which will dramatically lower health care costs overtime. So the Consumer Freedom Option is tied to a concept liberals have come to hate: individual responsibility.
And now for the real genius of the Cruz plan: If his amendment stands, the left's grand vision of a single-payer government-run insurance dystopia will go up in smoke for good. The left wants everyone in the same insurance boat. No competition in plans. But once people are given the right to choose the health plan that is affordable to them and tailored to their individual needs, they will resist single-payer, one-size-fits-all insurance. It doesn't take a village to buy a health plan.
If the GOP is smart enough to rally behind the Cruz amendment, and health costs and premiums start falling almost immediately, we will start to have what Obamacare never delivered: affordable care. And by the way, Trump would get re-elected in a landslide and so would congressional Republicans.
It was a HORRIBLE bill!!
Sundance (via TCTH)
“The 2015 bill was a defunding bill, not a repeal. McConnell is just tricking people into thinking this was going in the direction of a repeal. It’s not.
The GOP have never, ever, voted for a repeal. That would take 60 votes. They voted in 2015 to defund it using the 51 vote threshold of ‘reconciliation’. They’ve never once had a repeal vote on Obamacare.”
Are not in favor of the Cruz Amendment?
Yes, but it was not going to be in that bill. And why the HELL wasn’t selling across state lines in there???
“It’s dead, Jim.”
Where was tort reform? Hundreds of millions of dollars wind up in the pockets of malpractice lawyers. We pay for that when doctors raise their fees to pay soaring malpractice insurance rates.
“Republicans are finally getting smart on Obamacare. It took one of the savviest Republican senators — Ted Cruz of Texas, with an assist from Mike Lee of Utah — to get the GOP to figure out how to replace Obamacare, reduce premiums and save money for the government, all without alienating millions of voters. He’s pulled the Republicans’ fannies out of the fire, flipping a losing strategy into a big-time winner.”
Yeah, such a big-time winner that last night it was taken out back and shot by the same Mike Lee who supposedly assisted Cruz in crafting it.
This timely article stands as a great monument to the foolishness of hero-worshiping Ted Cruz.
EXACTLY!
But McConnell is Uni-Party leftist/globalist and will avoid the nuclear option.
That sounds right.It gets rid of the taxes and spending.
That includes the personal mandate (a tax) but not the pre-existing conditions requirement,
They need that $$ for the tax bill, they keep on pointing that out.
But I don't see them getting the votes now on that again.
Selling across state lines is a no brainer as anyone aware of the price restraining value of competition will tell you.
Only reason I can think of for not allowing this competition is the Co. currently selling insurance in various States simply do not want the competition and they are putting pressure on the scumbag, spineless politicians in the various States who are happy and eager to fold for a few pieces of silver..
“We will return!”
Sort of MacArthuresque.
Can’t this POS get repealed with reconciliation, since it was passed with reconciliation?
At least he and Lee were not looking to cut a deal.
Lyn’ Ted is a distraction and hasn’t accomplished anything. Congress is total failure.
“Only reason I can think of for not allowing this competition ...”
I’d say this: if any measure reduces the inflow of money into the medical industry then it has 2.999 strikes against it.
>>>Selling across state lines is a no brainer as anyone aware of the price restraining value of competition will tell you.
What good does it do me to purchase insurance from a provider in another state if all of the in-network providers are also in that state?
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