(Via: Center For American Progress)
If you were hopeful you dodged a bullet when Trumpcare died on the GOP operating table recently, I have some bad news.
Trumpcare is back, and it's even worse than the previous version.
Trump is desperately looking for a "win" as his first 100 days deadline approaches, in spite of his recent Twitter tantrum claim that such a benchmark is ridiculous. For some reason, he thinks that throwing millions off health care and the death sentences that would come with it is indeed a "win" for him.
When we last visited Trumpcare, the Republican plan was so bad that even Republicans recognized it was bad for their politics, in that it would end things like coverage for pre-existing conditions and take the "health care" out of health insurance coverage by cutting coverage for essential health benefits like hospitalization, among other things. Another problem was that these cuts would also hurt them in the process.
But all that has changed, and the new version of "repeal and replace Obamacare" will still repeal those provisions (absent a replacement, as always), but with one change to sweeten the pot for Republicans who were against it before:
Members of Congress will now be exempt from those cuts they plan to relieve their constituents of:
House Republicans appear to have included a provision that exempts members of Congress and their staff from their latest health care plan.
The new Republican amendment, introduced Tuesday night, would allow states to waive out of Obamacare’s ban on preexisting conditions. This means that insurers could once again, under certain circumstances, charge sick people higher premiums than healthy people.
Republican legislators liked this policy well enough to offer it in a new amendment. They do not, however, seem to like it enough to have it apply to themselves and their staff. A spokesperson for Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-NJ), who authored this amendment, confirmed this was the case: Members of Congress and their staff would get the guarantee of keeping these Obamacare regulations.
As the above Vox article points out, Obamacare requires members of Congress to purchase their own coverage through the marketplace just as every other enrollee does to demonstrate that if it's good enough for us, it's good enough for them.
But in the newest version of Trumpcare, Republicans are offering to let states opt out of provisions that protect things like pre-existing conditions and cover essential health benefits while driving up the cost of premiums, which would also hurt members of Congress and their staff. So in order to get those Republicans on board who would have been a "no" vote previously, they have exempted themselves and their staff from the same cuts they'll presumably be handing down to you and me. And with that, their dream of throwing millions of people off their insurance and/or pricing a majority of Americans out of the market may be one step closer to reality.
When word of this Congressional exemption got out, some members seemed to grasp the problem of the "optics" that would allow them to keep the Obamacare they previously loathed and voted against over and over again for the past eight years while kicking the rest of America to the curb. Today, reports say they are "looking for a change" to the language before the votes are called:
As Republicans study an amendment to the American Health Care Act to see if it would revive the moribund effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, they’re wrestling over language that appears to benefit members of Congress and their staff and looking for a way to change it before any votes are called.
The language, first spotted by Vox health-care reporter Sarah Kliff, leaves a loophole in the McArthur-Meadows amendment’s waivers allowing insurers in states to cut back on the essential health benefits mandated by the ACA. Members of Congress or their staffers from a state that offers a skimpier set of standards would be able stay on the District of Columbia’s plan, which follows the ACA mandate.
Vox’s story ran late Tuesday night, and by Wednesday morning, Republicans were reviewing the loophole. One member who brought it up during the party’s weekly conference meeting was told that the language might not stay in the bill.
"The language might not stay in the bill." I don't know, do you really trust this group of Republicans to do the right thing? I certainly don't. If you share my sentiments here, you might want to give your Congressman/woman in Florida a call, and soon.
Meanwhile, Greg Sargent over at The Plum Line is reporting that Trump and White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney are threatening to sabotage Obamacare by cutting subsidies for millions of Americans:
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi spoke by phone last night with White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, and Mulvaney took the White House’s threat to sabotage the Affordable Care Act to a new level — its most serious yet, according to an account of the call provided to me by a Democratic aide familiar with the conversation.
On the call, Pelosi reiterated the Democratic position on the so-called “cost-sharing reductions” (CSRs), which subsidize lower out-of-pocket costs for millions of Americans. Democrats are insisting that these payments — which the administration has been making but has threatened to cease — must be included in Congress’ forthcoming spending bill to make sure that they continue. If they don’t, insurers, facing a big financial loss, would probably flee the individual markets, causing them to melt down.
But Mulvaney told Pelosi that the administration might not make its payment next month, the aide tells me. And not only that, Mulvaney “made clear that absent Congressional action, the administration would cease making payments,” the aide adds. A spokesman for Mulvaney didn’t immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
This appears to be a serious escalation of the White House’s threat to sabotage the exchanges. President Trump had said that he might stop the payments to try to pressure Democrats into agreeing to fund his wall on the Mexican border. But in recent days, Trump retreated on his demand for the wall, leading many to expect that the CSRs would continue, at least for the time being. And despite Trump’s rhetoric, leading Republicans, such as Paul Ryan, have said they expect the payments to continue while litigation over them is decided.
But now Mulvaney is threatening to halt the payments as soon as next month, according to the Democratic aide. And this has insurers predicting that they may end up exiting the markets if this comes to pass.
Mulvaney now claims this is false, but as Sargent points out, Trump is not making the same claim. Further, just days ago Trump once again seemed to be threatening to sabotage Obamacare:
As we've come to expect, no member of Trump's Administration can be believed when they seem to be on a different page as Trump, and they all exist in a fact-free environment.
One thing that's consistent, Republicans and Trump alike have always vowed to kill Obamacare one way or another.
The only difference in their promises now? If you like your Obamacare, you can't keep it, but Republicans will make sure they and their staff can.
