Discussion: We Finally Get An Obamacare Replacement Question At A GOP Debate!

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#15

So let me get this straight.

Ted Cruz wants dellink healthcare and employment.

There’s only one way to accomplish that, and that’s to pass a law prohibiting employers from offering health insurance.

Would he bar them from offering other benefits, like dental insurance, life insurance, pensions and 401K matches, too?

This would limit employers’ freedom to conduct business the way they see fit – although they would probably LOVE such laws, because it would be an albatross of their backs.

Hitler did something similar. . …

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#16

thank you for bringing that up

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#17

another brilliant thing that obama did was steal the republican idea for health reform, knowing that the racist congress would oppose it just to spite him. that’s why they could never come up with an alternative plan because all their ideas for preserving the “free market based” insurance market was from the heritage foundation.

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#18

“…will you be fine if millions of people don’t have health insurance? And what is your specific plan for covering the uninsured?”

“Are there no prisons?” asked Scrooge.

“Plenty of prisons,” said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.

“And the Union workhouses?” demanded Scrooge. “Are they still in operation?”

“They are. Still,” returned the gentleman, “I wish I could say they were not.”

“The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?” said Scrooge.

“Both very busy, sir.”

“Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,” said Scrooge. “I’m very glad to hear it.”

“Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,” returned the gentleman, “a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?”

“Nothing!” Scrooge replied.

“You wish to be anonymous?”

“I wish to be left alone,” said Scrooge. “Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don’t make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned – they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there.”

“Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.”

“If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. Besides – excuse me – I don’t know that.”

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#19

That clause cannot exist without everyone, or pretty much everyone, having insurance.

#20

HSAs are a crock. If you are unemployed or have a minimum wage job with no insurance, you have no extra cash laying around to put into a savings account. Any pennies you managed to sock away aren’t going to cover a major medical emergency. A scam that could never work.

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#21

Me either. I think Carson, who is a big supporter of HSA’s, said you could get money from all your relative’s HSA’s if you get cancer or something. If you have relatives. Who are willing to mortgage their future.

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#22

Aaaand small business owners like myself – a two-partner business – get bupkiss? PPACA is the only reason I have insurance now, due to pre-existing condition denials. So this means my collection of rejection letters will be from carriers outside my state, too? Just effin’ great.

There is not a single word in Cruz’s or any of the other Obamacare repeal fetishists to indicate they would mandate guaranteed issue or any kind of controls on premiums or policy minimum coverage levels.

The only slight bit I agreed with there was his statement that health insurance should be decoupled from employment status. Y’know what thought? Medicare for All would solve it. I honestly don’t know of any seniors who are saying, “I’d really prefer private for-profit insurance instead of Medicare. Unpredictable premium rate hikes, unknown coverage, PPO and HMO provider networks, mountains of paperwork and pre-approvals for even routine services? Sure! Gimme that instead of what I’ve got now.” Right…

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#23

No, he didn’t. He basically is advocating for returning to what we had pre-ACA with the exception that employers don’t provide the healthcare…people buy it on their own.

Which of course, without those economies of scale that employers have…premiums sky rocket. People with pre-existing conditions are dropped immediately, as are all children over the age of 18.

But at least you can buy a really crappy insurance policy from a state that won’t set any standards!

@BeccaM Decoupling insurance for employers is not that great of an idea in our current system…or the one that Cruz is proposing. And he pretty much said screw policy minimum coverages. He specifically cited catastrophic healthcare insurance. And, buying across state lines ensures that some states will become like Delaware is with corporate filings and credit cards…anything goes, no regulation.

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#24

I guess orphans, people estranged from their families and those who simply have no families can go f*ck themselves, under Carson’s regime.

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#25

Ah, but you see, HSAs are beloved by the rich plutocrats, because they make for a fantastic tax dodge. And by the banks and money management firms who’d administer these HSAs in exchange for their own cut of the pie – and the freedom to go play stock market roulette with the deposited money.

Sure they’re a scam, but the question always to ask is “Who is benefiting from this scam? And why are they so incredibly eager to pass it?”

It was the same thing, with 401ks and IRAs replacing guaranteed pensions. Piles of money extracted from poor and middle class people (mostly the latter) so the plutocrats can play with it and plunder whenever possible.

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#26

Never said it was a great idea in our current system. I was indicating it’d be a great idea in a (wait for it) Medicare for All system.

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#27

It wouldn’t, but people who make over $100,000 get tax breaks to use them to fund band aids, prescription sunglasses and tylenol, and that’s a great thing!

#28

Cruz’s response was so Gop 1992. No new thoughts and pushing plans that don’t solve the problem. All his suggestion would do is eliminate the employer controbution. Shocking he would try to cut business costs and pass them on to the employees. Just shocking I tell you, who would have guessed he would try and pull this…everybody.

#29

And as a bonus, you get to pay the entire bill.

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#30

All good Pubbies know that if healthcare costs drive you into bankruptcy, that is YOUR problem.

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#31

Lets say you buy a policy issued in another state. Does the policy have to conform to the laws of the state YOU are in OR does it have to comply with the laws in the state where it was issued?

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#32

Ted Cruz: All Hat, No Cattle.

#33

Frankly, Cruz doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

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#34

First, he proposed allowing people to buy insurance plans across state lines. Secondly, he promised expanded health savings accounts. Finally he said, “we should work to delink health insurance from employment.”

“So if you lose your job, your health insurance goes with you, and it is personal, portable,” Cruz said

Buying across state lines is a form of deregulation. Suddenly the state with the least regulation is the home of the insurance companies. Delinking health insurance from employment is good unless insurance companies reject you or charge you more for a preexisting condition or drop you if you get sick. People have to be pretty stupid to take Ted Cruze at face value or maybe just cynical.

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