With $8 Billion Deal on Health Bill, House G.O.P. Leader Says We Have Enough Votes

[TomCADem]

Source: NY Times

WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders planned to hold a showdown vote Thursday on their bill to repeal and replace large portions of the Affordable Care Act after adding $8 billion to the measure to help cover insurance costs for people with pre-existing conditions.

“We have enough votes,” Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House majority leader, said Wednesday night. “It’ll pass.’”

A breakthrough came earlier Wednesday thanks to an amendment proposed by Representative Fred Upton of Michigan, with the support of Representative Billy Long of Missouri, to add the money to the bill. The two Republican lawmakers had come out against the health care legislation, warning that it did not do enough to protect the sick, but they threw their support behind it on Wednesday.

President Trump blessed Mr. Upton’s proposal at a White House meeting with the two lawmakers as he pressed hard for a vote that could at least ensure House approval of the bill, which embodies one of his central campaign promises. The vote Thursday will carry enormous potential consequences — for millions of patients, for Mr. Trump’s legislative agenda and for Speaker Paul D. Ryan, who has failed twice in recent weeks to bring the bill to the House floor.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/03/us/politics/gop-eyes-8-billion-addition-to-win-a-crucial-vote-to-the-latest-health-bill.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

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In California, Republicans Ed Royce, Mimi Walters and Darrell Issa are in areas that Hillary Clinton won.

[Cattledog]

1. 8 billion would only cover 6 months of the High Risk pools

and that's according to the American Enterprise Institute, a right wing think tank.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. Yeah & still 24 million thrown out of insurance. High risk pools cost taxpayers more in long run. nt

[tenorly]

20. And according to other estimates, it falls $130 billion short over the next 5 years.

Which works out to 3 to 4 months of coverage annually - and bares bones coverage at that. The real shortfall is likely to be much worse than even that.

But what do they care. The bribes GOP congresscritters are collecting from the insurance lobby should cover any health contingency (and may they indeed need every penny).

[cstanleytech]

2. Go for it assholes and in 2018 you will lose the House followed by the Senate and you all had

best get some damn good lawyers because I will be among those pressing the majority Democrats to open extensive independent criminal investigations that you wont be able to stop easily into you and your party over all the shit you have all been pulling.

[Merlot]

17. Let's hope the people thrown off healtcare live to 2018

[cstanleytech]

21. Its just to bad that these assholes cant be charged with the deaths of anyone who dies

due to losing their health insurance.

[Merlot]

27. Some really enterprising lawyer may look into that

There are kids suing the gov't over climate change denial. So why not sue over loss of benefits?

[NewRedDawn]

30. The Fuckers rigged it

to take effect after 2018. Save their miserable hides for another term.

[regnaD kciN]

24. Doesn't matter...

Remember what it took to get the ACA? 60 votes in the Senate, a huge House majority, and the presidency. The odds on us getting all of those even after 2020 are slim-to-none. And we can count on every single move to humanize Trumpcare being blocked by congressional Republicans otherwise.

[cstanleytech]

26. Yes but that was before the Repugants decided to set aside the rule so they could get their

SCOTUS pick in place so if the Dems can get 50+ in the Senate and control the House and Whitehouse they should tell the Repugnants to fuck off because with that control they could and should institute the changes this country truly needs including but not limited to a task force designed to independently investigate politicians in and out of office.
In other words its time to let the Repugnants reap the harvest from the corruption that I am willing to wager many of them were and are engaged in and yes I realize that means some Democrats will probably be caught to but I bet that there will be far more Repugnants caught.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Greasing passage with money

so Obamacare can then be strangled

[GP6971]

4. Bring it on

it will never pass the Senate.

Then we can hang the yea votes on every repuke next year.

[wasupaloopa]

5. We will have our own single payer in CA if this bill passes.

We will all pay into a pot and share the costs. That is my vision anyway.

[regnaD kciN]

25. Hasn't Jerry Brown already said that would be impossible?

[wasupaloopa]

36. Well impossible things are happening every day

Insurance companies want to leave the State if we regulate rates.

So let them go.

Say everyone paid monthly into a pot based on their family size and ability to pay.

Thus no need for employer based insurance.

So you would get hospitalization, prescriptions, professional services all based on procedure codes like Medicare.

Then you would also buy suplimental insurance for what the single payer does not pay on a sliding scale.

Coverage would be mandated unless you wanted to opt out buy buying private insurance.
Basically state sponcered Medicare for all.

That is my rough idea

[global1]

6. Call Your Congressman/Woman Tonight & Tommorrow....

there is still time to get them to vote no if they realize they will lose their jobs. Don't give up - we can make them back off of this yet.

If 20 million Americans lose their healthcare insurance we can assure that enough Repug House members will lose their job in 2018.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. If Republicons repeal, & the replacement doesn't work (it won't), they will lose tons of R votes.

They need to understand this in their bones before they vote in the House.

[cstanleytech]

22. True but they might be willing to gamble as alot of the hardline Repugnants wont ever vote for

another Repugnant and most of the Repugnants in the House know that so they might be willing to risk it but either way its a win for the Democrats imo.

[Alt-Orange]

9. Just contacted my Rep.

Which I do on a regular basis lately cause of all the cluster fucks going on, but he will most likely vote YES as he always does. Good luck getting it through the Senate assholes, I know my 2 Senators from IL won't be voting for it.

[dalton99a]

10. The poor get $8 billion, the rich get $1 trillion

[Doodley]

11. This is because the media's normalization of the GOP's callous disregard for American lives.

It would never happen in any other developed nation.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. AARP (have a few voters as members) do not like Chumpcare 3.0

[Doodley]

13. How did this happen? A government that acts against the interest of the people?

[JTFrog]

14. Citizen's United.

Corporations are people now.

[bronxiteforever]

16. +1000. Our country sold to dark money. N/t

[SergeStorms]

18. The abject ignorance......

of about half of the electorate. They do no research, they read or watch nothing other than that which agrees with their own POV. They're lazy, racist, xenophobic, homophobic morons. They'll believe just about any lie told to them as long as it supports their ignorance. They're Trump supporters. You can't reach them with facts or logic. They manufacture "alternative" facts. We all know "alternative" facts as "lies", but they don't see it that way. They inhabit a separate, fallacious reality.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

23. Gerrymandering. How Rs can hold 45 more House seats while a D (Clinton) wins a plurality of votes.

[zentrum]

15. Have not heard any Democrats

...explain that creating a pre-existing condition pool will open the door to rates going up for everyone. Even the young and seemingly healthy. Just as it was pre-Obama-care.

It may begin with pooling diabetes or asthma but eventually the insurance leeches will start including allergies, and other conditions that you no longer have but that could flare again. What about a hammer toe? Will that make you pay a higher rate? Could they charge the people who live in Michigan more, because they may have symptoms of lead poisoning? Opening doors is very dangerous, when profit making is involved.

In the worst days pre-ACA I was told of someone who was not covered because of severe acne. I remember being terrified of having my doctor write anything in my chart during ordinary visits because of rates going up. So I never told her what my real medical questions were.

This is deadly and no one will be spared.

Does anyone know of a Democrat who has gone into the real dangers here except in general terms?

[calimary]

19. I find myself becoming somewhat zen about this.

Okay, go ahead. Support these people. Tell me how things are after these folks you voted for yank your health insurance away, and throw you to the wolves, promising you that "oh, but that eight billion dollars..." Yeah? That's eight billion dollars over FIVE YEARS. To cover all the shortfalls if your state decides to opt out of covering pre-existing conditions.

Over FIVE YEARS.

Eight billion dollars - over FIVE YEARS.

FIVE YEARS.

PERIOD.

That's all, folks.

Hopefully it'll cover your state's needs. But the other 49 states too? Um... well...

And, mind you, this is only talking pre-existing conditions.

The Affordable Care Act, which the bad guys want to do away with, also covered that your-kids-on-your-policy-til-age-26; throw out the lifetime caps on coverage; and also mandated that some 85% (I think that's about what it is) of the money you pay in premiums goes DIRECTLY back into YOUR insurance coverage, NOT diverted over into the company's pockets.

And when the yowling resumes about how much people's premiums are "skyrocketing" now, this far into the Affordable Care Act's implementation, just imagine how high those same premiums would be WITHOUT the cushion of the Affordable Care Act - if you really wanna see "skyrocketing".

I keep hearing various versions of the comment that "people will oppose funding such-and-such calamity until that calamity hits THEM personally." Sooooo, maybe we have to step aside and watch all those people get thrown off their health care coverage, for them FINALLY to understand what a bad idea it is to believe, OR to vote for, republi-CONS. From trump on down. Maybe that calamity has to hit.

I hope to God we can head it off, at least until Election Day 2018 - when we can take back at least the House (and/or the Senate), and bring the entire freakin' circus of abomination to a screeching halt. Because - if we win EITHER House of Congress, it's OUR team that chairs all the committees, sets all the agendas, and determines what is pursued, what is investigated, and what comes up for a vote.

VOTE 2018!!! Don't you DARE forget!!!

[BumRushDaShow]

29. And per this

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10141766330

and the article at that link here -

<...>

“What you would need is probably about $200 billion over 10 years. What they’ve done is $8 billion over five years. If you divide that by the number of people who have a pre-existing medical condition, you get about ($200 or $300) a year,” Pelosi said during a press conference outside her office in the Capitol.

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/331784-pelosi-new-obamacare-repeal-bill-is-a-a-very-sad-deadly-joke

So it comes out to this - people who are estimated to fit the criteria would only get approx. $200 - $300 per year out of that fund. That's not even a drop in the bucket for the amount needed. It's a drop in an ocean.

[NewRedDawn]

31. $23 Monthly.

PUTIN PUBLICANS Evil bunch of Daddy Fuckers

[BumRushDaShow]

32. Exactly.

[calimary]

33. You remind me of this radio commercial that ran, years ago, during a local election here

regarding the "brilliant" idea of vouchers so you could get your kid into a private school. Because EEEUUW EEEUUW EEEUUW we don't want our kid in public school EEEUUW EEEUUW!!!

It was a scenario, with two people talking. One was a school administrator-type. The other was a soon-to-be-disillusioned parent. The administrator was explaining why the enrollment was already topped off at the school in which this mother wanted her kid to be enrolled. And the mom's voice spoke up, in a plaintive tone, "but I have a voucher!"

The point was - this cockamamie little city ordinance that gives you that nice magic flying-unicorn just-mysteriously-somehow-solves-everything republi-CON voucher for private school doesn't mean SQUAT - if all the seats in all the classes are filled. You can take that nice magic-wand/pie-in-the-sky voucher of yours - and add a dime, and that'll get you a few minutes on a parking meter.

Don't trust the voucher system. The CONS nowadays want to apply that idiot "logic" to EVERYTHING. Vouchers for health care! Vouchers for coverage of that pre-existing condition or that long-term care! Yeah! Eight billion dollars to cover any short-fall - for ALL FIFTY of these "United" States - over FIVE YEARS. Yep! That'll work! Just watch! You'll get a few hundred bucks that will somehow marvelously offset the thousands or maybe HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dollars in care you may wind up needing if something bad happens. Yeah! That'll work.

The venerable Congressman Alcee Hastings said something during the campaign that still applies now, with renewed and even greater relevance: "I'm too old for pie-in-the-sky." To which I'd say - "me, too, Congressman Hastings."

[BumRushDaShow]

35. And add to that, you reminded me of something that Shrub did for "stimulus"

Remember the $600 "rebate check" that "everyone" was given to "boost the economy"? That was in February 2008 and how did that work out?

[calimary]

38. I remember that. I remember him slurring on and on about "it's yer munny."

Yeah, like that $600 went anywhere toward offsetting debts or other financial obligations. Uh-huh. Just like that "voucher" crap will.

Again, with those stupid useless vouchers - that, and a dime, will get you a few minutes on a parking meter.

[Honeycombe8]

28. Oh, no. I hope he's wrong about those votes. If he's not, maybe it won't pass the Senate. nt

[obamanut2012]

34. There is no way it'll pass the Senate

[Honeycombe8]

37. Good. Because if it does, I lose my insurance. I can't afford the super hi premiums these days.nt