Democrats got the CBO to score skinny repeal.
Uninsured go from 26m to 42m next year.
20% rise in premiums over and above any other expected rate increases next year.
Also 9 governors signed off on a letter delivered to congress. 4 are Republican governors, including Brian Sandoval of Nevada warning the Senate not to pass skinny repeal.
Yup.
TheHill: Bipartisan group of governors call on GOP to reject skinny repeal
“Instead, we ask senators to work with governors on solutions to problems we can all agree on: fixing our unstable insurance markets,” the governors wrote.
“Improvements should be based on a set of guiding principles, which include controlling costs and stabilizing the market, that will positively impact the coverage and care of millions of Americans, including many who are dealing with mental illness, chronic health problems, and drug addiction.”
GOP governors who signed onto the leader include John Kasich (Ohio), Phil Scott (Vt.), Larry Hogan (Md.), Charles Baker (Mass.) and Brian Sandoval (Nev.).
The governors also called for a both Democrats and Republicans to work together to on bipartisan improvements to the healthcare system, a theme that has cropped up in past letters.
Good info about the skinny repeal:
The idea is that late in the week, as the Senate votes in rapid-fire succession on a glut of amendments (a mandatory process known colloquially as vote-a-rama), McConnell will introduce a final amendment that trumps all the others. Republicans have taken to calling this plan “skinny repeal,” which describes a scaled-back health care bill whose main effect of would be to eliminate the Affordable Care Act’s coverage requirement: the individual mandate. McConnell’s amendment would wipe out everything that came before, and substitute this “skinny repeal” in its place.
As I argued here, the moniker “skinny repeal” is a devilish piece of spin, because while it accurately describes the breadth and ambitions of the plan, it completely misdescribes the consequences of repealing the mandate, which would be severe. According to recent Congressional Budget Office findings, repealing the individual mandate alone would lead many healthy people to drop their coverage, precipitating an increase in insurance premiums that would drive sicker people out of the market reluctantly. Combining these interlocking effects, the CBO forecasts the coverage loss would amount to 15 million people.
While “skinny” isn’t a particularly honest word for a bill that would ravage insurance markets in this way, it is a great device for allowing Republican senators to pretend their vote isn’t particularly meaningful—that it’s a placeholder allowing the congressional health care debate to continue. But just as it is unwise to take Senate Republicans at their word when they say they will vote against a bill, it is also unwise to assume that the not-so-skinny repeal bill would just move the legislative process into its next, penultimate phase: the conference committee, where House and Senate Republicans would hash out a final bill.
It is just as likely, if not more, that the real endgame is to repeal the mandate, sabotage the insurance markets, and then return at a later date to inflict more damage on the health care system. It is safer, in many ways, to assume you are being lied to again, rather than to believe that Republicans senators weighing “skinny repeal” are trying to be constructive.
Timex
1595
The thing is, it’s not a viable plan.
If they pass this, and then premiums go up? That doesn’t look good for the GOP.
Exactly. Color me skeptical that that’s their endgame in this, at least intentionally. They’ll be wearing this, for good or bad, for a few cycles at least.
Timex
1598
Right?
Like… if this is the plan… it’s a dumb plan.
rowe33
1599
You guys are getting it all wrong. They pass the skinny deal, have Fox News go on endlessly about how it’s Clinton and Obama’s fault, and they all get re-elected in 2018.
Yeah Your premiums went up and your coverage is worse? Thanks Obama!
Vote against the Don… it’ll be a shame if anything happens to your state.
Adam Ruins Everything’s. This week’s episode mostly talks about hospitals.
Menzo
1603
No general thread for congressional shenanigans, so I guess this can go here.
What a weird time for congress!
Ah, I’ve missed Alexandra Petri.
That is why, when this dangerous and secret bill came up for a vote, I said “Aye,” in such a cold and cutting tone.
It sounds like a joke, but this is most likely exactly the plan with “Skinny Repeal”.
They pass this, then go all over the media touting it as basically a “tweak” to Obamacare. “We left all the stuff you all wanted in place, and only did away with the mandates forcing healthy people to pay for expensive insurance or pay an expensive tax penalty. We will go back later and try to modify the rest of it.”
Then, when the bottom falls out of healthcare they go back on TV and shout “See! See! If you’d let us Repeal and Replace like we wanted this would never have happened. All that leftover Obamacare stuff is dragging healthcare down, just like WE TOLD YOU it would!”
And the American electorate is precisely stupid enough to fall for it.
Again.
Lantz
1609
You forgot the part where it will not be their fault that they couldn’t pass it
