The Senate Republican's version of the latest tax cut for millionaires and billionaires "American Health Care Act" has finally seen daylight, and even just a glance at it shows why they kept everyone in the dark on what was in it. It's virtually loaded with reasons for crafting it behind closed doors without sharing the details with the public and away from Democrat's, and some Republican's prying eyes. It all boils down to just another tax cut for the rich disguised as a health care bill.
Here's what Sen. Bill Nelson had to say about today's unveiling of the Senate Republican's plan:
“Now we know why they tried to keep this secret. This bill is just as bad as the House bill, taking coverage away from millions of people and making huge cuts to Medicaid. If that weren’t enough, it also allows insurance companies to hike rates for older Americans. Fixing our nation’s health care system shouldn’t be a partisan issue. We should be working together, not plotting behind closed doors to make it worse.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Marco Rubio went with his usual smoke and mirrors approach, pretending to be concerned about something he'll no doubt vote for regardless, simply because he would do anything to erase President Obama's legacy, which provides a bonus if it ends health insurance for millions while making his donors that much wealthier:
“Senator Rubio will decide how to vote on health care on the basis of how it impacts Florida. He has already spoken to Governor Scott, Senate President Negron and Speaker Corcoran about the first draft of this proposal. He has instructed his staff to share with state leaders the first draft and has asked them to run numbers and provide input on how this initial proposal would impact Florida’s Medicaid program and individual insurance marketplace. He has invited them to send staff to Washington next week to help us formulate changes and amendments to this proposal. He will continue to reach out for input and suggested changes from Florida providers, insurers and patient advocate groups.”
Rather than read the bill himself, Rubio will just outsource that job to his Republican friends in Florida. You know, the ones who never found an excuse to cut people's health care they didn't love and embrace without a thought. Rubio would very much like them to crunch the numbers and see just how many people need to be cut off from health care in Florida to satisfy their greed posthaste so Republicans can vote on it next week and get on with their next taxpayer funded recess. As for Gov. Rick Scott, well, does Rubio really need his input? After all, this bill would be like Christmas to the governor, and any Republican governor who might follow him into office, especially when you consider that under the Senate plan governors can waive Medicaid without any legislator's action, period. What's not to love?
As for Rubio reaching out to Florida "providers, insurers and patient advocate groups," let's get serious. The Republicans in D.C. also barred providers and patient advocacy groups from meetings even though there were numerous requests to be included, and for good reason. They're all against the Republicans' plans. As for insurers, they'll no doubt be on board with the plan, after all, Republicans want to sweeten the deal by eliminating caps on insurance executive's compensation.
Also, notice the one group that Rubio isn't including in his so-called input outreach? That's right, the very Floridians who will be hurt by this bill if it passes and winds up signed into law by one of the biggest beneficiaries of the subsequent tax cut, Donald Trump.
As always, Rubio's constituents aren't even an afterthought. Rubio refused to hold town halls because he knew ending the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare was immensely unpopular. He merely dismissed them, issuing a statement claiming his angry voters were merely "paid protesters" as an excuse. Because he's shameless.
In closing, as always, here's a plea to call your Senators and let them know how you feel about this health care bill whether Marco Rubio wants to know or not.
As I write this, the Republicans in the U.S. Senate are still crafting their effort to kill the Affordable Care Act which, if it's similar to the recent Republican House bill as we've heard, will throw millions of Americans off their health insurance, eliminate protections for pre-existing conditions and lifetime caps, and eventually destroy Medicaid, among other horrors.
Worse, the "American Health Care Act" (AHCA) is neither American, nor a health care bill, but enacting it will kill many. This is not hyperbole. If you don't believe that, ask yourself why it's being crafted secretly behind closed doors with only a handful of Republicans under the direction of Mitch McConnell, who never met a tax cut for millionaires and billionaires he didn't like, which is driving his oncoming health care train wreck. The bill that almost no one has seen, including Democrats who have been barred from the entire process, is being rushed to a vote sometime in the next couple weeks, (rumors say perhaps even next week) with an alleged bare minimum of debate, or so we've heard.
Republicans have hit the airwaves to claim even they aren't happy with the process, but don't let them fool you. If they were unhappy they'd do something about it rather than merely whining about it on camera.
Republicans always stick together and killing the ACA has been a dream and a talking point of theirs for years. Some are all in on the tax cuts for the rich as a result. Some just plain want to kill health care. Others fear the blowback from a dwindling base simply because they promised they'd end "Obamacare" for years and they're determined to keep the promise no matter who gets hurt or how many.
But they're losing Americans in the process. Polls show that the ACA is more popular than Trump and the GOP. Americans are waking up to the facts. Worse for Republicans, they're even losing the diehard fans who cheered them on over the years because they thought ending the ACA would only hurt the poor (lovely people, that group). But as Republicans became the dog that caught the car, they overreached as they often do. In killing the ACA, those diehard fans have come to the realization that they too will be hurt by the AHCA. Because while it throws millions off of health care, the GOP's actions will also cause premiums to soar for everyone, destabilize the markets, put insurance and care out of reach due to rising costs and by returning the coverage decision making to the insurance companies. Unless you're somewhere in the top 1-2% of the richest Americans who can well afford top-notch health care, this health plan in name only will hurt you. The Republicans will return us to the days when an illness meant bankruptcy and/or death. They've managed to come up with a plan that will actually make things worse than they were before the ACA, and that's saying something.
But what you don't know about the GOP's AHCA can kill you, and as it stands now, you only have until July 4 to voice your opinion on the Republican's efforts to end your health care and insurance without even telling you what they're doing, which boils down to cutting millions off from care in order to give Donald Trump, his family, and all their rich donors, themselves, and their colleagues a huge tax cut.
Call your Senators now before it's too late. 202-224-3121
In trying desperately to give Donald Trump a "win" a few weeks back, House Republicans hastily threw together an awful bill as a first step to repealing the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. The original bill was bad enough for those who would be hurt by it, but it wasn't bad enough for Republicans.
So along came GOP Rep. and former insurance executive Tom MacArthur who had an idea to get it across the finish line: Allow insurance companies to return to the good old days when they could charge people with pre-existing conditions whatever they saw fit. The rest, as they say, is history. Problem solved! Not only would millions lose their health insurance, but those with pre-existing conditions would be priced out of the market. Republicans and Trump were so happy they celebrated passage of the bill in The Rose Garden at the White House.
In fact, Trump was so happy about advancing his path to ending health care for millions that he held a fundraiser for MacArthur at his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster. (Hello again old friend the Emoluments Clause!) The event was closed to the press, because natch, but according to Politico, Trump had nothing but praise for MacArthur and his dirty work:
...MacArthur campaign strategist Chris Russell said Trump's remarks focused on MacArthur's role in revamping the House GOP's Obamacare replacement bill.
"[Trump] talked about the health care fight," Russell said. "[He was] very complimentary of Tom and his efforts on health care and, moving forward, sees him as a leader in Washington."
Trump sees him as a leader! I guess so, given Trump raised $800,000 for MacArthur.
Then an interesting thing happened: Public outrage over the egregious bill Republicans, thanks to MacArthur, passed.
Trump's approval ratings started tanking even more, and if there's one thing we know about Trump, it's that he loves him some polls! But he only loves the ones that say how great he's viewed by the public, and he hasn't seen any of those since he won the election. The public and the media were trashing him along with the bill. That meant someone or something was going under the Trump bus. So in this case, it was the House Republicans and their health care bill:
President Trump on Tuesday bluntly derided a House attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act as “mean,” and in doing so, injected himself in a brewing Senate battle that his fellow Republicans had prayed he would avoid.
At a White House lunch with more than a dozen Republican senators, Mr. Trump alerted his guests that a bill passed by the House this spring — one he lauded last month in the Rose Garden as a “great plan” that was “very, very incredibly well-crafted” — was now “mean.”
He also informed the lawmakers, who represented politically diverse views from across the Republican spectrum, that he expected the Senate to come up with something more generous, according to four congressional aides who were briefed on the discussion and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
As anyone who's been paying attention knows, the Senate bill Trump spoke of is apparently going to be so "great" that no one is allowed to see it until it goes up for a vote. Republicans are hiding it and working behind closed doors in the hopes that they won't meet the same public outrage until it's too late. Unfortunately that hasn't worked out very well for them.
One thing we can be pretty sure of is that whatever the Senate is throwing together won't be much better than the House version, according to bits that have leaked out here and there. If their version was great as Trump claims, they wouldn't be hiding it.
So one has to wonder if MacArthur will still earn Trump's praise in the future, or if he'll become just another poster boy for Trump's failures when he pokes his head out of the White House or takes to Twitter looking for someone to blame.
I suppose MacArthur should feel lucky in one sense. He managed to become someone who made some money at a private Trump property that didn't go directly into Trump's pocket.
Unfortunately the rest of us may still be stuck with the real bill if Republicans manage to repeal the ACA.
Last month House Republicans pulled off a vote in favor of a health care bill that would throw 14 million people off their insurance next year and 23 million by 2026 while gutting protections for pre-existing conditions and giving states the opportunity to waive coverage for basic health care essentials. Because it was so vile, some Republicans ran for cover by saying it was just a start, that it would be improved over time. Just trust them, they said.
Wrong.
The Senate is now working to put out something just as vile, and because they're well aware how popular the ACA, or Obamacare, is, now they're doing it in secret. After all, who can forget all the town halls where House Republicans were confronted by angry constituents? Despite last week's recess, few Republican Senators were willing to make that same mistake, so they just made themselves scare back home. Look no further than Marco Rubio as an example, who would never stoop to taking phone calls from, or meeting with his lowly constituents over anything, much less backing a plan that could kill so many of them, because he's first and foremost a coward. Last week, as usual, he was nowhere to be found.
Senate Republicans have taken their cowardice to a new level. They're putting their bill together behind closed doors without even so much as holding hearings on it. They will try and sneak in a vote before their constituents even know what's in the bill.
Watch here as Sen. Claire McCaskill expresses her outrage over the Republican's deception. Then call your Senator's office and demand to be heard if you value your health care and your life.
Rep. Gus Bilirakis, Trump, And House GOP Celebrate Throwing Millions Off Health Insurance
The verdict is in for the Republican's tax cut for the rich American Health Care Act, or TrumpCare, that would destroy the Affordable Care Act and (surprise!) it's a death sentence for millions.
As you'll recall, Republicans in the House didn't want to wait until their health care bill was scored by the Congressional Budget Office to vote on it because they knew the results would be devastating, and on this they were correct. And then some. But vote they did, and it passed. Now the CBO has weighed in and the death panels Republicans warned us about are now real and Republicans are the ones sitting on them.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released its score showing that the bill would eliminate coverage for 14 million Americans next year and for 23 million by 2026. The CBO projects that the bill would destabilize insurance markets; slash Medicaid funding by $834 billion over the next decade; make individual coverage exceedingly expensive for older Americans and people with pre-existing conditions; and increase average premiums by 20 percent next year.
The bill also included an Amendment that would allow states to waive protections for pre-existing conditions and coverage for basic health benefits. Given that Florida refused to expand Medicaid under the ACA and Republicans here sought to undermine the ACA, there's an underlying assumption by many that Republicans would waive these protections as well, meaning that the AHCA would be extremely costly and deadly to Floridans. Now the CBO has released coverage losses by state, and the numbers for Florida are bad.
Millions would lose their coverage, protections for pre-existing conditions and coverage for basic health care essentials would be gone, and people would be paying more for less coverage. In other words, the Republicans have removed "health insurance" from the concept of health insurance. Worse, their plan would make things worse than they were before the ACA was passed.
Rep. Bilirakis Celebrates His Vote To End Your Health Care With Trump
"Rep. Bilirakis is adamant about protecting those with pre-existing conditions."
That's what Republican Rep. Gus Bilirakis' office told us when Beach Peanuts reached them by phone earlier last week concerning the Republican's upcoming vote on the first step to repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and "replace" it with their own plan, the so-called American Health Care Act, or "Trumpcare" if you will.
Last Thursday, the bill passed in the House with a vote split down party lines. All Florida Democrats voted against it, and all Florida Republicans except one voted for it. That one GOP "no" vote came from Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who recently announced she isn't running for reelection. With her vote, Ros-Lehtinen put her constituents needs first, unlike her colleagues. (More on the reason for her vote below.)
The name American Health Care Act that replaces the Affordable Care Act is fitting in one sense, because they have certainly removed the "affordable" part. But truth be told, they should have also removed the words "health care," because as health care experts, hospitals, physicians, nurses, advocacy groups and countless other medical organizations have stated, this is anything BUT a health care bill. Some have even called it an "abomination," and rightfully so.It's just another tax cut for the richest Americans disguised as a health care bill, in that it takes savings and costs going towards health care away from those who need it and shifts it to the wealthy minority at the top while giving the health insurance industry the gift of returning to the old days when they could pick and choose what to cover and how much to charge you for it. Worse, they added bonuses that will actually make our health insurance system even worse for consumers than it was before the ACA was passed in 2010.
Republicans tried and failed twice before to write a bill that would bring all their factions together, so this week they came to an agreement. They managed to craft a bill that was even more cruel than the previous versions, and that's what brought the party together. A bill that could throw an estimated 24 million people off their health care, and would kill huge numbers by pricing anyone who gets sick out of the market altogether while allowing insurers to opt-out of covering essential health benefits and ending protections for pre-existing conditions.
This brings us to the self-proclaimed guardian of pre-existing condition protections, Rep. Gus Bilirakis.
Blirakis knows his constituents' concerns all too well. Back in February he held a couple "listening session" town halls where large crowds voiced their worries over Republican's like Bilirakis' plans to take away their insurance and end the benefits the ACA provided them with. One constituent begged Bilirakis" "Please don't take my life away. Please don't let me die." Well, Bilirakis "listened," and then voted to do just that anyway.
When we reached his office by phone earlier last week, his office said he hadn't yet read the bill, but when we pointed out his decision would be a matter of life and death for his constituents, they reassured us that Bilirakis was "adamant" on protections for those with pre-existing conditions. If this were true, how did he go from being adamant about those protections before he reviewed the bill, to voting "yes" to a bill that he knew would absolutely remove them?
Enter the smoke and mirrors.
After the vote, Bilirakis tried to deceive his constituents with false narratives to explain why he voted with this video:
Bilirakis: "I believe this is going to lower costs and we'll have more access to good quality health care."
He may claim to "believe" this, but that doesn't make it true, which may be why he phrases it that particular way. No, the AHCA won't lower costs unless you never plan to get sick or need insurance. Premiums are likely to skyrocket due to several factors. States would be allowed to waive restrictions on essential health benefits and pre-existing condition coverage, the latter which would make premiums prohibitively expensive according to this table put together by The Center For American Progress. As I wrote last week, since Florida Republicans and Gov. Rick Scott have turned Florida into the anti-health care state, the chances that Florida would be among the states to waive those protections are probably in the neighborhood of around 99 percent. Here are just a few examples of future premium hikes for Floridians under the new GOP plan:
And this doesn't even take into account the problem of Medicaid. Florida already refused to expand Medicaid under the ACA, and they've tried to strip away access to what little is left as it is. Under the GOP plan, Medicaid expansion would be phased out altogether, and further cuts to Medicaid would make it unsustainable, leaving the poor and elderly without a safety net.
As far as access to good quality health care goes, everyone has "access" to health care, but say you're a breast cancer patient who can't afford the $27,030 surcharge above, what then? If you can't afford the exorbitant rate hikes, well, the Republicans are offering you empty words. Forget the good quality health care Bilirakis speaks of. Good luck finding care at all. Access does't do you any good if you can't afford it.
Bilirakis: "Obamacare is failing" and he cites Iowa as an example.
Obamacare/ACA isn't failing, nor in a death spiral, nor broken as Donald Trump and the Republicans have been claiming for years now. However, they have all worked to sabotage it, and that may indeed make things worse for the health care system. Because of all the chaos caused by Republicans meddling and throwing together new plans without careful consideration, study, and CBO scores, there is a growing uncertainty in the system. Insurers have noted the chaos and it may cause a domino effect and could collapse the system. This is what is happening in Iowa. Iowa was an ACA success story until the Republicans began meddling with repeal efforts. Due to the subsequent uncertainty, insurers are pulling out of the state. Obamacare has been working pretty well and millions of people now have health insurance because of it. If Obamacare fails now, it will be because Trump, Republicans and Bilirakis have taken steps to make it fail. They will be the ones to blame if the system collapses and millions lose their insurance. Instead of working with Democrats to make improvements, Republicans are threatening to make things even worse than they were before the ACA was passed in 2010. The GOP plan to repeal it will virtually blow up the country's health care system.
Bilirakis: "And we will be covering pre-existing conditions." He cites the Upton Amendment "for those who can't afford coverage for pre-existing conditions."
Bilirakis: "This is just the beginning folks," saying the bill will go on to the Senate where "it will be improved," and "in the end, we're going to have a good bill."
"Just the beginning, to be improved" he says. That's an understatement. House Republicans threw together a heartless, cruel bill that throws millions off their insurance, prices people out of the market and passed it without a CBO score to tell them what it would cost, and in some cases, members didn't even bother to read it. Bilirakis admits as much by saying "In the end we're going to have a good bill." One might ask why not have a good bill in the first place? The answer is they wanted to shove something, anything through just so Trump could pretend he had a win. He has no clue what's in the bill either. Of course, the other elephant in the room is the fact that they're in a hurry to get another tax cut for the rich, and that may well include another tax cut for Trump. That tax cut won't pay for itself, so Republicans like Bilirakis are going to rob you of your health care to pay for it. If you think the Republicans in the Senate won't do the same thing, think again.
Bilirakis then goes on to say that even though he and his staff are on Obamacare/ACA, he co-sponsored legislation to remove the exemption for members of Congress. As the bill was written, members of Congress were exempt from all the changes and restrictions they came up with for the rest of us. In other words, everyone likes their Obamacare, but Republicans wrote the bill to make sure only THEY were allowed to keep it. The rest of us would be stuck with the AHCA (Trumpcare.) Due to public outcry when word of this little built-in goodie for Congress members leaked out, the Republicans came up with another bill to remove the exemption. However, that bill is largely meaningless. As the Washington Post explains here, members of Congress get their insurance through the ACA small-group exchanges in the District of Columbia where the government isn't likely to forgo enforcement of the protections in the ACA. So even if they're "exempt," they likely won't face higher premiums for pre-existing conditions, nor lose access to all the benefits being removed for the rest of the country, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Again, Bilirakis is stretching the truth. He'll keep all the benefits and savings while voting away yours.
As I wrote above, Bilirakis and all the other Florida Republicans in the House voted for this bill, except for one who won't be seeking reelection, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. She explained her vote against AHCA/Trumpcare this way:
“After studying the revised bill, I intend to vote NO. This plan still does not effectively address the needs of my South Florida constituents. The proposed changes to this bill would leave too many of my constituents with pre-existing conditions paying more for health insurance coverage and too many of them will even be left without any coverage at all. Additionally, this new plan still includes painful cuts to Medicaid that will make it more difficult to care for patients with high costs of coverage due to special needs or chronic diseases. Unfortunately, the bill does not deliver what my district needs and until a plan that helps South Florida is proposed, I will continue to side with my constituents in opposing this plan.”
“I heard a clear message from my constituents at recent town halls: people with pre-existing conditions need the peace of mind of knowing that they can get–and keep–health care,” said Bilirakis. “At events in Palm Harbor and New Port Richey, I listened to folks share personal stories about themselves and loved ones who were denied access to coverage because of a chronic illness. I made a promise to gather input from the people of Florida’s 12th District about the future of our nation’s health care, and I am keeping that promise with this legislation. We will protect those with pre-existing conditions and put in place a health care system that works for everybody.”
Yet Bilirakis took that "clear message," ignored it, and voted against his constituents' wishes anyway, and now he's trying to deceive them again by making false clams about a life and death decision he made for them with this vote.
Bilirakis has a "safe seat" he inherited from his father, so he feels he can vote as he pleases without consequence. Instead, he should be ashamed of this vote, and ashamed of trying to sell his voters on this abomination disguised as a health care bill, and he should be voted out of office for it. It's one thing to have and share core beliefs with your voters, but it's another to completely deceive them with smoke and mirrors, particularly when their lives are at stake. Yes, they deserve the same good quality affordable health care as he does, his words. But as it stands now, he'll keep his. They won't.
To be blunt, this bill will kill people if it's passed into law. Republicans are all using the same false narratives to try and snow the public, and I wouldn't bet my life on the Senate making many changes now that it's in their chamber.
Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-MA), below, summarized the plight the American public faces here. Republicans and Bilirakis made a choice. Their voters deserve a choice too, and they deserve an honest Representative who is looking out for their best interests in Congress.
This week Republicans in Congress are taking another stab at throwing millions of Americans off their health insurance to both satisfy their own lust for ending "evil" Obamacare (and killing people) and to give Trump what he thinks will be a "win," in that he'll get to sign something in front of the cameras (that will kill people) while claiming it's the best health plan ever put together in the history of health plans, facts be damned.
Facts. They are indeed pesky details that have tripped Trump up at every turn in his short time in office as the man who would be king, and the facts surrounding the latest version of Trumpcare will be no different. He claims this new version is even more awesome than the last one was, except the first was actually pretty bad and this one is even worse. It essentially takes the "health insurance" out of the "having health insurance" equation by ending provisions for covering basic health essentials like going to the hospital, along with protections and coverage for pre-existing conditions, something that a majority of the population have. Should you need that kind of coverage, the new plan would allow insurance companies to spike the cost of your premiums causing many to be priced out of the market altogether.
This is similar to the last plan that was so bad they couldn't even get enough Republicans to vote for it. So this time they added an incentive to turn those "no" votes into "yes" votes. They simply made sure members of Congress will be exempt from all of the above. In other words, they will get to keep their Obamacare and all of its protections, while the rest of us will get stuck with Trumpcare, which could barely be called insurance anymore. (They now claim they'll remove that exemption AFTER the bill passes, and we should just trust that they'll keep their word on it. Sure.)
Another problem with the new Trumpcare is what it could do to Floridians: The new plan would allow states to waive all sorts of benefits rules.
Here are the basic rules states could waive, eliminate, and/or "tweak" under the latest version of Trumpcare, as summarized by the New York Times. They fall into three categories, essential health benefits, community ratings, and age ratings, and what could be eliminated from the current Obamacare law:
A basic set of benefits, including hospital care, prescription drugs and maternity care, that must be included in all health insurance.
A pillar of Obamacare that prevents health insurers from charging higher prices to customers with pre-existing health conditions.
Rules about how much more insurance companies can charge older customers than younger ones.
Allowing states to set their own standards and requirements could have deadly consequences for Floridians at the hands of Republicans. I suggest reading the above referenced article in full for deeper details on just how devastating and deadly these waivers could be.
As Floridians know all too well, Republicans here have already declared a war on health care, and just the thought of these new waivers probably have Rick Scott rubbing his hands together, dancing a jig and wearing a permanent version of his evil, laser-eyed grin, while Republicans in the legislature are probably lining up to collect insurance company donor checks as I write this. After all, Scott was the king of the "Let's Kill Health Care" movement long before he became governor, after being forced out of his own company due to the company's record breaking Medicare fraud problem. After Obamacare passed in spite of his efforts, he and Republicans refused to expand Medicaid and passed a law that allowed insurance companies to charge Floridians higher premiums while also allowing them to falsely blame Obamacare for it. Right now Florida Republicans are trying to force a work requirement on those who still have access to Medicaid.
In other words, this latest effort to kill Obamacare (and lots of people along with it) and replace it with Trumpcare would be a dream come true for Florida Republicans, not to mention the members of Congress who will get to keep their Obamacare and all of its benefits even as they vote to cut yours.
Unless you're a Floridian who plans to get through life absent any illness, any basic need for medical care, and don't have a pre-existing condition, you might want to give your Representative a call before they vote on this nightmare tomorrow or Saturday.
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:
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.
Marco Rubio: Ignore What I Say And Do, Just Send Money
Marco Rubio is without a doubt a shameless hypocrite, but you've got to hand it to him on his latest fundraising plea.
As you'll recall, last week Rubio was busy avoiding town halls and his constituents who wanted to have a word with him about the Republican plan to take away their health care, among other topics. Rather than face the music, Rubio first blamed an urgent trip to Europe, although no one seems to know why he was in Europe, or if he really went in the first place, and his office isn't talking.
Rubio also finds fault with the people at these town halls because they're (gulp) organized and educated. He says the town halls aren't a productive exercise (especially when he doesn't show up to answer questions), and sees the fact that they get news coverage to be another problem (because viewers would see he has no good answers nor reason for taking away his constituent's health care.) And finally, Rubio had this to say:
"It would be unfair to the people that voted for me, my of whom voted for me because of my opposition to ObamaCare, to now suddenly vote like the person whom I beat and so that's what I intend to do."
Rubio seems to be taking another page from Trump's playbook. He will only serve the Republicans who voted for him. But here's another problem for Rubio. Some of those now angry constituents happen to be people who voted for him and they don't want to lose their health insurance any more than those who didn't vote for him. Of course, another option Rubio doesn't consider here is that he could simply do the right thing. But that option has always been a bridge too far for Rubio.
Rubio wasn't always an anti-townhall guy, no sir. Here's what he had to say in 2009 when he used angry Tea Party voters to win his Senate seat the first time around:
Ah yes, back then they were "real people" with "real anger," and Rubio seized on their anger and fear and ran with it, all the way to Washington. But now real voters (many of them Rubio's) have real anger after discovering that all the GOP fear mongering over Obamacare was just that: fearmongering. They like their insurance and they want to keep it. So now Rubio has deemed them "rude and stupid" and he's not about to go on camera and show them he has no good answers for them.
"Be respectful, man" he says.
So in light of all his town hall avoidance tactics, it might come as a surprise to some that Rubio's currently fundraising off those town halls, just not for the reasons they might think.
Here's a copy of his latest fundraising email. See if you can spot the hypocrisy:
Yes, Rubio's "very enthusiastic to see so many people expressing their freedom of speech."
Or to translate, he's enthusiastic that people are exercising free speech, except those doing so are rude and stupid and how dare they try to hold Rubio accountable on camera for coming for their health care when the result could be bankruptcy and/or death, and Democrats are evil, something something, and all you need to know is Marco Rubio is the real victim here, so please send him money.
"Yes Marco!" I want you to let me die without health care, and here's anywhere from $5 to $___ in order to do it!
The only one who's being rude and stupid here is Marco Rubio, and let's add a healthy dose of arrogance and hypocrisy while we're at it.
"Be Respectful" Rubio Says, To Voters He Calls "Rude And Stupid"
If there's one thing that's consistent about Marco Rubio, it's his habit of never showing up.
Despite having the worst absentee record in the Senate, voters in Florida sent him back for another term last November. So how is he returning the favor? By ignoring their pleas to meet with him and hear them out on why they don't want to die without health insurance if he and the Republicans get their way and destroy the Affordable Care Act, or "Obamacare."
But he's not stopping there. Not only is he ignoring the people who pay his salary, he's insulting them for asking him to meet with them and hear their concerns in the first place. His excuse for not honoring their pleas for a town hall meeting is that he has already determined that if he does so, his constituents will be "rude and stupid."
Marco Rubio: Town hall psychic.
This past week, as other Republicans were either fleeing town halls or actually showing up in some instances, Republicans and Democrats alike were voicing their concerns about having their health insurance ripped away from them, because whether Republicans like it or not, the ACA is popular. People want to keep it and they want Washington to make it even better.
But this doesn't fit the years-long narrative of the GOP, so they're trying to craft a new narrative to fit the old one: Portray voters who want to keep the ACA as angry "liberal" activist mobs who just want to make trouble. That way they think they can ignore them and go about the business of killing the ACA along with millions of people who will die without it.
And because Rubio loves nothing more than not taking responsibility and doing the job he was elected to do, this narrative is a perfect fit for him. Or so he thought.
When confronted a second time on camera (see below), Rubio did a little narrative editing of his own. When a man tells him his health insurance premiums aren't too high, as Republicans have been claiming for years, Rubio tells the man "yes they are." Never mind that this man is the one who receives and pays his own insurance bills, not Rubio. But Rubio's not having that, no sir. Reality will NOT be tolerated.
Talk about "rude and stupid."
Last week Rubio avoided a town hall his constituents held without him with an alleged trip to Europe. But while his office told voters he was away all week, he was spotted fleeing a video camera in Florida when he was asked why he wouldn't show up at the town hall. The same day he was fleeing the cameras, voters who called his office were told he was still in Europe.
He's also falling back on his trusty "have it both ways" rhetoric, the kind that makes him sound totally in favor of (fill-in-the-blank) that's consistently followed up with a "but." For example:
Asked whether he thinks today’s town hall crowds do not consist of “real people,” Rubio was quick to dispel the notion.
“These are real people. They are real liberal activists, and I respect their right to do it. But it is not a productive exercise,” Rubio replied in the interview. “It’s all designed to have news coverage at night — look at all these angry people screaming at your senator.”
See? Rubio would just love to meet with these people who are totally "real," except they're really just real "liberal activists" rather than people who have health insurance they like and don't want it replaced with the "just die without it" plan that Rubio and the GOP are planning.
So no, while Rubio demands they be "respectful" to him, he can't possibly do his job and meet with his constituents who fear bankruptcy and/or death when he and his party rip away their health insurance.
Voters. So rude and stupid, am I right?
We finally caught up with Senator Marco Rubio at @FIU. He told us that he won't host a townhall because people act "rude and stupid." pic.twitter.com/DrefDkvrFD
