Ha. Let’s take our unpopular bill, and get rid of the single most popular thing in the existing legislation!
Sounds like the goal is to make it a state level problem vs. federal.
AKA, have diabetes in Mississippi? ENJOY DYING
God I hate the South
P.S. - Everybody has diabetes in Mississippi. You don’t get a state pie like the Mud without some after effects.
P.P.S. - The Mississippi Mud Pie might not actually be the Mississippi State Pie, but if it’s not, that’s just stupid.
Not just your typical red state - here’s a proposal for what insurance companies would not have to cover - from Minnesota:
(Mildly NSFW story here.)
The bill failed, but yeah. Once more, and with feeling, fuck the Republican healthcare agenda.
Which is exactly what I’d expect from the Freedom Caucus, since that’s a common refrain for them on all kinds of issues, from healthcare to education. They won’t care about pissing off constituents by removing popular parts of the ACA since 1) many are in safe districts and 2) they believe firmly in ideology over practicality.
I have to wonder if Ryan can keep the rest of the party together, though. Lots of Republican house members have to be looking at the polls and thinking that their 2018 chances are already slipping, and eliminating popular healthcare provisions won’t help that at all.
But not concealed carry or gay rights!
And don’t forget. They will allow “selling insurance across state lines” so any state regulations can be easily bypassed by just basing the insurance company’s plan in a lenient state.
Can you say “race to the bottom?” I knew you could!
This, this, 1000X this!
My understanding (and sure, that’s not worth the paper it’s printed on) is that the Republicans pretty much have to repeal ACA because their budget depends on the money saved from not funding it.
Yes, they want to not pay for the ACA, so that they can fund massive tax cuts for the top income earners.
That is literally the reason.
Also, they’ve constructed their party platform on the demonization of the ACA, so they must kill it.
Yeah, that got torn the fuck apart in the media here. It was pure red meat - they probably couldn’t have passed that with their narrow legislative majorities (a source of deep shame for us all, believe me) and Governor Dayton was never going to sign anything close to that.
Pretty sure it was just the usual ALEC boilerplate.
The United Nations has contacted the Trump administration as part of an investigation into whether repealing the Affordable Care Act without an adequate substitute for the millions who would lose health coverage would be a violation of several international conventions that bind the United States. It turns out that the notion that “health care is a right” is more than just a Democratic talking point.
A confidential, five-page “urgent appeal” from the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights in Geneva, sent to the Trump administration, cautions that the repeal of the Affordable Care Act could put the United States at odds with its international obligations. The Feb. 2 memo, which I obtained Tuesday, was sent to the State Department and expresses “serious concern” about the prospective loss of health coverage for almost 30 million people, which could violate “the right to social security of the people in the United States.”
Read the memo from the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights [pdf]
The letter urges that “all necessary interim measures be taken to prevent the alleged violations” and asks that, if the “allegations” proved correct, there be “adequate measure to prevent their occurrence as well as to guarantee the accountability of any person responsible.”
OHCHR requested that copies of the letter be shared with majority and minority leadership in both chambers of Congress and proposed that “the wider public should be alerted to the potential implications of the above-mentioned allegations.”
Apparently that didn’t happen. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer’s office said they didn’t receive the letter, and officials in House Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s offices said Tuesday that they were unaware of it. The letter did make its way to the Department of Health and Human Services, where an employee leaked it to congressional Democratic leadership. A State Department spokesman said my inquiry was “the first I’m hearing of this.”
Pfft, like this crowd gives a rat’s ass about international law.
Yeah, it’s probably a positive for most Republicans, and certainly is for the White House, if something pisses off the UN secretariat.
Them hiding the letter from the general public might indicate otherwise?
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.
Good point, but I suspect that that was motivated less by respect for the UN Hman Rights Convention than by the fear of bad press. Which they’ve ended up getting anyway.
the Freedom Caucus just endorsed the new ACA killing plan. It’s up to the more vulnerable House Republicans now.