Wow, a page out of the GOP Obamacare repeal strategery playbook?
I think Paul Ryan better check his supply of âmagic asterisksâ. There may be a few missing.
If, however, this is intended as a serious, legitimate piece of legislation which he wants to actually pass, it will have to include details including (but not limited to) the following:
Whatâs the timeframe for implementation? Would it all go into effect immediately or over several years?
Would it cover U.S. citizens only? Legally residing residents? Undocumented immigrants?
Would the Hyde Amendment be repealed as part of it?
If not, what provision, if any, would be made for womenâs reproductive care?
What about other controversial/religious issues like contraception, needle exchanges, living wills, EOL care and so forth?
What provisions, if any, would be made for the 2-3 million people who work for the insurance industry, either directly or indirectly? Would they be retrained? Relocated?
What role, if any, would private, profit-based insurance carriers play going forward? What about non-profit carriers?
If theyâd be kept around, would they be providing supplemental coverage, administration of the public plan (a la Medicare Advantage), or both?
Assuming theyâd be put out of business or massively reduced in size, what provisions, if any, would be made for the millions of middle-class Americans who have stock/401Ks/etc in the insurance carriers?
How much would doctors/hospitals be paid/reimbursed for services? (Medicare reimburses about 80% as much as private insurance does; Medicaid only reimburses about 50% on average).
How would reimbursement rates for different services be established? (i.e. price controls)
What about chiropractors, acupuncture, acupressure, etc? Covered or no?
What about experimental drugs or techniques?
Aside from the private Group and Individual markets, what happens to the existing programs including Medicare, Medicaid, the VA, the ACA exchanges themselves, the Indian Health Service, FEHB and so forth?
Oh, yeah, and one more thing:
How much will it cost, and how will you pay for it (whose taxes would go up, by how much, etc)?
Trivial correction: I believe âdouble bank shotâ is a billiards/pool reference (a very difficult low percentage shot off of two rails) rather than a non-existent basketball shot reference.
As somebody who was sharply critical of congressional Republicans supporting meaningless ârepeal and replaceâ votes for as long as they knew they had no chance of actually becoming law, only to demur on specifics once they were actually in a position to enact legislation, and were basically boxed into doing so because theyâd been talking up a nebulous, even specious, plan for the better part of a decadeâŚ
I am less than enthusiastic about Senator Sandersâ current efforts.
The author of the article must have been coming at it from a different angle.
I believe the phrase âomits specifics on costs, fundingâ could be used to describe several so-called policies of one of the campaigns last yearâŚ
Everybody agitating for a rapid shift to single payer really, really ought to read this. Itâs damn good.