No way. Costco membership actually saves me money.
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Hereās a question my 22 year old daughter just posed to me:
āWhat would you prefer dad? 1) A crappy bill that fails to pass and life goes on as it is or 2) a crappy bill that passes and it costs the GOP the house in 2018 and the WH and Senate in 2020ā.
I confess, thatās a tough one. If I was guaranteed that choice #2 would happen, Iād pick #2 despite the temporary pain inflicted on a great number of folks including the ādeplorablesā.
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Itās a discount card with a 100% deductible/ copayment ā same thing.
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Iād buy Costco health insurance, asap.
Smart kid.
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This Trumpcare Healthcare bill is a Job Killer. It is going to destroy American jobs, the American economy and the American dream.
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The second option is only viable if the Ds flip the Senate to more than a 60/40 majority. There will always be a Ben Nelson or Joe Lieberman in the Democratic caucus that will kill single payer, Medicare for all, or other bill that jeopardizes the big health insurance companies.
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To that I say āFUCK THE FILIBUSTERā.
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Except thereās no guarantee that we can retake the House in '18 and the rest in '20. We can run with health care butā¦
What if we canāt? Then what?
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McConnell can best be described by doctoring and paraphrasing an old political exchange: "McConnell is possessed of considerable political talents, but is totally corrupt. Like a rotten mackerel in the moonlight, he shines and he stinks."
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If we canāt and it looks as though things will totally come unglued before '20 then I intend to get all my money and my self out of this country.
Thatās all I can see right now.
False choice. What we all prefer is the Kennedian vision of a transition to a cheaper, universal model of coverage. Employers can augment coverage, but everybody is required to enroll in the health care system. The time for 10th amendment arguments, which have tolerated regulation at the state level, is over. Switzerland, which is a very democratic country, runs the system through insurance companies, but enrollment is mandatory for all. If you donāt have enough money, the state subsidizes you. There is no paywall when you enter a hospital or doctorās office. Similarly, the Swedish model, which is very supportive of medical research and doctors, is simply funded out of taxes. It is about 6 percentage points cheaper than in the US, meaning that the savings per year would be on the order of $1 trillion and every citizen or legal resident of a year or more covered. That should pay for all kinds of adjustments and would reveal quickly the free-ridership problem that has plagued the US for so long.
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Much like Frankensteinās monster, the current iteration of the GOPās TrumpNoCare bill is a patchwork of necrotic legislation that the Senate has been stitching together ā¦ in the hope that a random jolt of lightning will bring it back to life ā¦
ā¦ so that it can then roam the nation, wreaking havoc upon the health care needs of millions of Americans.
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Shitburger with extra extra onions
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Susan Collins is on the record.
Andy Slavitt says the bill is went from bad to worse.
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Yeah, I think thatās been in it all along. Amid all the destruction this thing would wreak, it hasnāt been noted enough that this would instantly screw up anyone on a QHP in the states where abortion coverage is mandated, and/or force those states to rescind their mandates. Statesā rights!
Adding, everyone should read Andy Slavittās Twitter summary (link in @leftcoasterās comment just above this one). He was Obamaās senior guy on this stuff, and lays out the specs clearly: the supposed removal of some high-end tax cuts is sleight-of-hand, Medicaidās still eviscerated, costs for older/sicker still skyrocket, etcā¦ His conclusion:
I knew this bill was unfixable. What I didnāt count on was that it would get worse.
More details to follow. Talking to analysts now.
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And garlic and MSG, with an umami kicker on the backside.
The addition of the high-deductible ācatastrophicā plans is a pretty big deal ā bad news for the stability of insurance markets. The Senate version of the plans is more attractive than the pre-ACA versions, because of the primary care visits (to help you decide when you need to switch to a full-coverage plan) and some of the protections the Senate bill retains from ACA rules. The people who choose such plans will be younger and healthier than average, which means that premiums will go up for those in the full ACA-compliant plans.
However the CBO scores this, count on the GOP to seize on a couple things that addition of these high-deductible plans will do. First, they will have substantially lower premiums than people pay for ACA-compliant plans. The GOP can cherry pick that number (āour bill will lower premiums for a middle-class family of four by up to $X thousand per yearā) and/or blend it in with the rest of the plans to make everybody think they will benefit (āour bill will cut the average cost of health insurance by X%ā).
Like every GOP bill we have seen: it harms the sick, the poor, and the elderly; it will be welcomed by the wealthy; and it does nothing to address the obscenely high cost of healthcare in the US.
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Iām actually buying her claim that she will vote ānoā here, with the caution that this is a ānoā on a procedural vote.
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