GOP Readies Swift Obamacare Repeal With No Replacement Ready - Polidicks

[t]http://i.cubeupload.com/e1ILPZ.png[/t] [quote= Bloomberg Politics] [B]The first major act of the unified Republican government in 2017 will be a vote in Congress to begin tearing down Obamacare.[/B] But the euphoria of finally acting on a long-sought goal will quickly give way to the reality that Republicans -- and President-elect Donald Trump -- have no agreement thus far on how to replace coverage for about [URL="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2016/03/03/20-million-people-have-gained-health-insurance-coverage-because-affordable-care-act-new-estimates"]20 million people[/URL] who gained insurance under the health-care law. “They haven’t come to a consensus in the House and the Senate about the possible replacement plans,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a conservative economist and former adviser to Senator John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. “They don’t know Point B.” Republicans are debating how long to delay implementing the repeal. Aides involved in the deliberations said some parts of the law may be ended quickly, such as its regulations affecting insurer health plans and businesses. Other pieces may be maintained for up to three or four years, such as insurance subsidies and the Medicaid expansion. Some parts of the law may never be repealed, such as the provision letting people under age 26 remain on a parent’s plan. [B]House conservatives want a two-year fuse for the repeal. Republican leaders prefer at least three years, and there has been discussion of putting it off until after the 2020 elections, staffers said[/B]. (...) If Republicans stick together, repeal could happen quickly. The Senate plans to move first on a nonbinding budget resolution instructing committees to draft repeal legislation, with the House approving it next. The resulting proposals would be sent for final votes [B]under a process known as reconciliation, which is used to bypass the 60-vote threshold in the Senate.[/B] Key players tasked with executing the plan will be Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah and Health Chairman Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, and on the House side, Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady of Texas and incoming Energy and Commerce Chairman Greg Walden of Oregon. [B]To cushion the political blow of upending the system,[/B] [B]party leaders are putting out a stream of statements portraying Obamacare as collapsing on its own[/B]. But the Department of Health and Human Services reported that signups reached 6.4 million by the Dec. 19 deadline, an increase of 400,000 over the previous year’s number at this time. Earlier, President Barack Obama said that more than 670,000 Americans signed up for coverage on Dec. 15, "the biggest day ever for Healthcare.gov." (...) Several of the law’s provisions are popular, most notably the regulations prohibiting insurers from denying coverage or raising costs on people with pre-existing conditions. And of the 14 states with the largest percentage of non-elderly people with pre-existing conditions in 2015, Trump carried 12, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation [URL="http://kff.org/health-reform/issue-brief/pre-existing-conditions-and-medical-underwriting-in-the-individual-insurance-market-prior-to-the-aca/"]study[/URL] released last week. He also got one electoral vote in Maine, the 13th state in that group. Congressional Republican aides say they’re likely to soften those rules by limiting their protections to people who maintain continuous coverage. “The pre-existing condition provisions in Republican proposals are less protective,” Levitt said. “With fewer protections you could piece together other mechanisms to keep the market stable.” Trump has proposed high-risk pools to cover sick uninsured people, but financing them will be a challenge. A 2010 estimate in National Affairs by conservative health-care experts Tom Miller and James Capretta pegged the cost at [URL="http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-08-19/republican-plans-to-replace-obamacare-have-a-problem-house-republicans"]$150 billion to $200 billion[/URL] over a decade to insure up to 4 million people; House Republicans have been reluctant to spend anything close to that. Republicans are considering setting up a fund to address the cost, perhaps with savings from repealing Obamacare’s subsidies. The funding challenges are substantial. [B]Repealing the law would increase the deficit by $353 billion over a decade, or $137 billion under favorable macroeconomic assumptions, according to the Congressional Budget Office[/B]. (...) Source: [URL="https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-12-29/gop-readies-swift-obamacare-repeal-with-no-replacement-in-place"]Bloomberg[/URL] Source 2: [URL="http://www.businessinsider.com/republicans-possibly-delay-obamacare-repeal-until-after-2020-election-2016-12"]Business Insider[/URL][/quote] So they're going push through the repeal for the political victory, but keep the ACA up and running until they have an alternative while painting it as a reason dems are terrible. Then they're going to blackmail dems into passing whatever the replacement plan ends up being under the threat of no plan at all.

Greeeeeeat. Happy fucking new year. And I just now finally got coverage under the ACA... [I]Edited[/I] [quote][B]Repealing the law would increase the deficit by $353 billion over a decade[/B][/quote] Holy shit

yeah just take away healthcare from tens of millions of people, that'll get ya re-elected

I don't think anybody wants this except for republicans.

[QUOTE=Judas;51597816]yeah just take away healthcare from tens of millions of people, that'll get ya re-elected[/QUOTE] That's a big part of the delay on the repeal. They can make the effects go through after reelection at the very beginning of an election cycle so they get a free two years anyway. And when the repeal goes through they're [I]still going to blame it on democrats.[/I]

Having no replacement reminds me of Brexit. Failing to plan is planning to fail. But I doubt the GOP or Trump cares.

Just business as usual for the Grand Ol' Partypoopers.

This is seriously going to destroy his popularity level. Not only is he removing health care, he has no replacement for it. Get ready for some fucking chaos from this shit.

"To cushion the political blow of upending the system, party leaders are putting out a stream of statements portraying Obamacare as collapsing on its own." I hope you guys are ready for four years of blaming Democrats for everything the Republicans fuck up.

[QUOTE=Super Muffin;51597826]That's a big part of the delay on the repeal. They can make the effects go through after reelection at the very beginning of an election cycle so they get a free two years anyway. And when the repeal goes through they're [I]still going to blame it on democrats.[/I][/QUOTE] The only problem is, while they can maintain the medicaid expansion as long as it politically advantageous, the marketplaces will most likely begin to collapse, especially if there's no definitive response plan. Corporations hate uncertainty, and the insurers will freak the hell out if they have no idea when the market they're competing in will literally disappear. Premiums for people will absolutely skyrocket if that comes to pass.

Maybe some self-proclaimed patriots ought to wave around their second amendment rights to stop this kind of shit.

I am also fairly confident that Clinton would have not done the same thing. [QUOTE=TheHydra;51598269]you would probably lose that bet[/QUOTE] mistyped, whoops

[QUOTE=Lambeth;51598146]I am also fairly confident that Clinton would have done the same thing.[/QUOTE] you would probably lose that bet

-snip-

The repercussions of this will be heavily bad, why is the GOP so fucking against healthcare reform? I don't care if Obamacare wasn't the best, it was an attempt and a pretty decent one at that, for affordable healthcare for the American populus. But nah, fuck that, strip it clean and harm those who don't deserve to be harmed.

[QUOTE=1239the;51597891]"To cushion the political blow of upending the system, party leaders are putting out a stream of statements portraying Obamacare as collapsing on its own." I hope you guys are ready for four years of blaming Democrats for everything the Republicans fuck up.[/QUOTE] Why wait four years when you can look at the past eight?

[QUOTE=Rocko's;51598303]The repercussions of this will be heavily bad, why is the GOP so fucking against healthcare reform? I don't care if Obamacare wasn't the best, it was an attempt and a pretty decent one at that, for affordable healthcare for the American populus. But nah, fuck that, strip it clean and harm those who don't deserve to be harmed.[/QUOTE] Isn't it pretty much "big guberment is bad unless we do it"

[QUOTE=Rocko's;51598303]The repercussions of this will be heavily bad, why is the GOP so fucking against healthcare reform? I don't care if Obamacare wasn't the best, it was an attempt and a pretty decent one at that, for affordable healthcare for the American populus. But nah, fuck that, strip it clean and harm those who don't deserve to be harmed.[/QUOTE] It has Obama's name on it, maybe they'll release a worse version of it called "Trumpcare".

[quote]Repealing the law would increase the deficit by $353 billion over a decade[/quote] You fucking what?

I like how you all think the Republican voting base won't eat this up despite it directly hurting them. They've already proven that they care about nothing except their tribe "winning" no matter the cost. Every bad thing that results is the fault of the "other". There will be no backlash from the right-wing. Only cheers as the country burns down.

and my brother with a chronic condition still thinks his insurance won't drop him the moment they can and that trump is amazing. repealing the ACA will basically financially ruin him and the privitization of medicare thwt follows will only make it worse [editline]29th December 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=Rocko's;51598303]The repercussions of this will be heavily bad, why is the GOP so fucking against healthcare reform? I don't care if Obamacare wasn't the best, it was an attempt and a pretty decent one at that, for affordable healthcare for the American populus. But nah, fuck that, strip it clean and harm those who don't deserve to be harmed.[/QUOTE] its a power grab, nothing more. mitch mcconnel basically orchestrated this whole thing, the last 7 years of obamas presidency to portray the republicans as the peoples party against the liberal elites, and it worked

[QUOTE=Sableye;51598940]its a power grab, nothing more. mitch mcconnel basically orchestrated this whole thing, the last 7 years of obamas presidency to portray the republicans as the peoples party against the liberal elites, and it worked[/QUOTE] Well, the democrats made it easy for them.

They don't want to replace it, so of course they don't have a replacement. The GOP stance on healthcare has always been a 'fuck off and fend for yourself' one. [editline]29th December 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=Rocko's;51598303]The repercussions of this will be heavily bad, why is the GOP so fucking against healthcare reform? I don't care if Obamacare wasn't the best, it was an attempt and a pretty decent one at that, for affordable healthcare for the American populus. But nah, fuck that, strip it clean and harm those who don't deserve to be harmed.[/QUOTE] Because the hardline GOP stance on any sort of governmental aid is 'no'. They think anyone using it is a leech, that everyone should just bootstrap themselves, that the market will ensure a fair price for everything and that if you work hard enough everything you need will become available to you. It clearly doesn't work, but that's their stance on anything aid related, including healthcare. And of course it won't really affect the politicians themselves, as they're rich enough to pay out of pocket and barely even notice it.

[QUOTE=Sableye;51598940]and my brother with a chronic condition still thinks his insurance won't drop him the moment they can and that trump is amazing. repealing the ACA will basically financially ruin him and the privitization of medicare thwt follows will only make it worse[/quote] Its already privatized, its just regulated. The Affordable Healthcare Act did two things right, it ended discrimination based on pre-existing conditions so you can actually get treatment you need. And it helped provide assistance to those who could not otherwise afford health insurance on their own. The second one is just a band aid fix since they also made it a fine-able offense to not have insurance so you have to pick up a plan from someone. I wish we could have just had nationalized healthcare. The fact its cheaper to fly to another country to have any sort of medical procedure done is just sad.

[QUOTE=BlackMageMari;51597834]Having no replacement reminds me of Brexit. Failing to plan is planning to fail. But I doubt the GOP or Trump cares.[/QUOTE] Short sightedness is conservatism 101

This was the plan 8 years ago. Cripple Obamacare, wait it out, repeal it.

On one hand I'd actually be able to afford living on my own without having to worry about obscene healthcare plan costs or the annually increasing penalty. On the other hand, with cheap healthcare insurers can cancel my plan at any time for whatever reason they like. [I]Yay![/I]

[QUOTE=1239the;51597891]"To cushion the political blow of upending the system, party leaders are putting out a stream of statements portraying Obamacare as collapsing on its own." I hope you guys are ready for four years of blaming Democrats for everything the Republicans fuck up.[/QUOTE] Honestly that's pretty much what the Liberals do here in Australia, blame the last government (Labor) for their fuck ups. It would be funny but a lot of people actually believe it. They've won 2 elections and they're still blaming Labor for a lot of the problems they've caused.

I'd appreciate opinions from anyone who works in insurance: why exactly do we need to have a federally-sponsored backup plan? [editline]29th December 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=1239the;515978]I hope you guys are ready for four years of blaming Democrats for everything the Republicans fuck up.[/QUOTE] It's been the reverse for the last eight years, so I'm pretty used to it by now. This happens every cycle.

The only thing I'm possibly looking forward to is the abolition of state boundaries. My family is split between Texas and Minnesota and we can only afford to be insured in one state. If I get injured in Texas when I'm visiting over the summer, we're out several thousand dollars that we don't have because our insurance company just tells us to fuck off. That's the only thing I'm hopeful for. Otherwise, I'll have higher healthcare premiums and/or lose healthcare coverage entirely. Not looking forward to that.