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Obamacare Tag

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on March 07, 2017 47 Comments
Monday evening, House Republicans finally unveiled eight years of campaign promises in the making, The American Health Care Act. Reviews are mixed but predictable -- Democrats, hair ablaze, have morphed into screaming banshees claiming all the children will be health insurance-less.* Meanwhile, most Republicans are calling the AHCA Obamacare-lite. What I can say is this -- there better be more "replace" in the legislative pipeline if Congressional Republicans plan to use this bill as proof of the long-awaited "repeal and replace" promise. Because as it stands now:

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 03, 2017 12 Comments
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) wanted to view the House GOP Obamacare replacement bill, but could not gain access to it from a secure room. This did not please the senator, who wants to keep everything transparent:
“If you recall where Obamacare was passed in 2009, 2010, Nancy Pelosi said we’ll know what’s in it after we pass it. The Republican Party shouldn’t act in the same way," Paul said in a circus-like atmosphere outside the offices of House leaders. “This is being presented as if it were a national secret, as it if it were a plot to invade another country. … That's wrong. It should be done openly in the public. And conservatives who have objections that don't want Obamacare-lite should be able to see the bill."

Posted by Mary Chastain on February 23, 2017 5 Comments
Democrats and supporters of Obamacare have tried using scare tactics to keep the law in place, claiming without the socialized health care plan people will die. However, a study by the Manhattan Institute has shown that Obamacare has saved zero people since it went into effect:
Certainly, there are individuals who have benefited from various of its provisions. But attempts to claim broader effects on public health or thousands of lives saved rely upon extrapolation from past studies that focus on the value of private health insurance.

Posted by Mary Chastain on February 16, 2017 9 Comments
Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini continues his criticism of Obamacare as more health insurance agencies quit Obamacare or decide to scale back even more. The law has caused premiums to climb while healthy individuals opt out of the program altogether. Because of this, Bertolini claims that Obamacare "is in a death spiral."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on February 06, 2017 7 Comments
From the time it passed with zero Republican support, GOP politicians have promised to repeal Obamacare. There were numerous House votes to repeal Obamacare while President Obama was still in office, almost all of which were symbolic. No way would President Obama sign off on a bill repealing his hallmark legislation. President Trump also promised repeal and replacement of Obamacare, and that it would be done quickly. But quickly is relative. In a pre-Super Bowl interview with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly Sunday, President Trump said it could take a year to repeal Obamacare.

Posted by Mary Chastain on February 03, 2017 15 Comments
Who knows? It seems to change every single week. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) have now said that they would settle to repair Obamacare instead of a full repeal:
And Hatch, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee — another panel with a crucial role in the effort to repeal the ACA — said Thursday that he “could stand either” repealing or repairing the law. “I’m saying I’m open to anything. Anything that will improve the system, I’m for,” he said.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 26, 2017 26 Comments
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has delivered his plan to replace Obamacare. The GOP wants to repeal the law as soon as possible, but Paul has urged the party to wait until they have a proper replacement plan in place to activate. He also noted that President Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) agree with him. The Hill reported:
Paul’s plan includes a tax credit of up to $5,000 per person to use as part of a Health Savings Account to pay for medical care. That tax credit appears to be larger than those offered in other Republican healthcare plans.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 24, 2017 20 Comments
GOP Senators Bill Cassidy (LA) and Susan Collins (ME) unveiled one possible replacement for Obamacare called the Patient Freedom Act. This plan would leave the majority of the power to the states, letting each one decide "whether the want to keep ObamaCare." Fox News reported:
“We recognize that our bill is not perfect,” said Maine Sen. Susan Collins, who introduced the 2017 Patient Freedom Act with Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician and fellow Republican. “We need comprehensive legislation,” Collins continued. “It’s still a work in progress. ... But if we don’t start putting specific legislation on the table that can be debated, refined, amended and enacted, then we will fail the American people.”

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on January 21, 2017 28 Comments
Having long promised to undo immediately as much of ObamaCare as he can by executive order, President Trump kept his word.  Mere hours after his swearing in, Trump signed a flurry of documents, including his first EO on ObamaCare. Because ObamaCare is, as the left is so fond of saying, "the law of the land," Trump can only do so much to undo ObamaCare via EO. That "only so much," however, is quite considerable given the overreach of his predecessor.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 18, 2017 5 Comments
I live blogged Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt's senate hearing for the EPA, but three other cabinet choices had their own senate hearings today. That included Rep. Tom Price for Health and Human Services, Wilbur Ross for Commerce, and Nikki Haley for UN. Obamacare took control of Price's hearing, since the Republicans in D.C. want to repeal and replace it. Price told the committee that states should lead on a replacement.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on January 14, 2017 14 Comments
The ObamaCare Medicaid expansion is a horrible deal for low income Americans; it's also where a large number of "newly covered" Americans get their new coverage. Not only does the expansion include "automatic" enrollment in Medicaid through ObamaCare even if it's not wanted, but expanding Medicaid to slightly higher income levels includes many who have managed to acquire a home or other assets.  Their home and assets, however, go to pay for their Medicaid bills after they die.  In essence, then, Medicaid functions as a loan from the federal government just as it always has, but because the income level has been raised, more Medicaid recipients than ever will have their assets seized to cover the cost of their Medicaid expenses. Despite this, some GOP governors are fighting their own party to keep the Medicaid expansion in their states.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 13, 2017 7 Comments
Ealry Thursday morning in the midst of a vote-a-thon, the Senate had enough votes to get the Obamacare repeal rolling. Friday, the House too passed the budget, paving the way for repeal and what the Trump administration promises to be simultaneous replace of Obamacre. Yesterday, we blogged:
The process of repealing President Obama’s signature legislation is already underway. Early Thursday morning, the Senate passed what they’re calling a “repeal resolution” or the first step in repealing the Affordable Care Act. The vote fell perfectly along party lines:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 12, 2017 3 Comments
The process of repealing President Obama's signature legislation is already underway. Early Thursday morning, the Senate passed what they're calling a "repeal resolution" or the first step in repealing the Affordable Care Act. The vote fell perfectly along party lines:
The Senate voted 51-48 along party lines for the measure, which relies on the same budget process used seven years ago to approve the landmark healthcare law to now attempt to dismantle it.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 09, 2017 11 Comments
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said that President-elect Donald Trump backs his plan to appeal the Affordable Care Act only if the government has a replacement at the same time:
“He called after seeing an interview that I had done [talking about] that we should vote on Obamacare replacement at the same time,” Paul said in an interview on Monday. “He said he was in complete agreement with that.”

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on January 08, 2017 12 Comments
His party completely decimated under his watch, Obama is now signaling that he's going to stick around and help the Democrats still more.  Part of this "help" is apparently his ongoing presence on the national stage as a stalwart warrior against President-elect Trump.  Having long ago anointed himself as the arbiter of "who we are" as a nation, Obama has made it clear that, much to our collective chagrin, retiring from the spotlight is not on the table.
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