Senate Blocks Democrat Attempt to Reinstate ObamaCare Rules Trump Eliminated
“Senators voted 43-52 on the resolution” with only Susan Collins (R-ME) voting with Democrats
Just days after taking office, President Trump signed an Executive Order returning power over health care and insurance to the states. Although Congressional Republicans clearly have no intention of repealing ObamaCare, Trump went on to further weaken the disastrous health insurance scheme of his predecessor.
Democrats are not happy. They attempted on Wednesday to roll back a Trump administration rule that permits states to ignore sections of ObamaCare and to loosen requirements on health insurance that increased costs on individuals and businesses within the states.
The Senate blocked their effort, with only one Republican, Sen. Susan Collins (ME), voting with the Democrats to reinstate the crushing ObamaCare rules.
The Senate on Wednesday rejected a Democratic effort to roll back a Trump administration rule that allows states to ignore parts of ObamaCare.
Senators voted 43-52 on the resolution, falling short of the simple majority needed to pass the chamber.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) was the only Republican to vote for the resolution.
Democrats wanted to overturn a Trump administration rule that makes it easier for states to opt out of certain ObamaCare requirements and prioritize cheaper, less-inclusive plans than ones offered under ObamaCare.
Pre-existing conditions are a political and fiscal quagmire for both Democrats and Republicans because there is no way to force insurance companies to cover these without raising costs down the line and across the board.
Ultimately, though, Democrats are trying to keep ObamaCare in the spotlight leading into the 2020 presidential election. They believe health care is a winning issue for them, and Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Wednesday accused Democrats of playing politics.
The Hill continues:
Members of the party have termed the plans “junk insurance” because companies can refuse to cover people with pre-existing conditions.
. . . . Republicans and the Trump administration have repeatedly said they will continue to protect people with preexisting conditions, while simultaneously advocating for ways to end ObamaCare.
A federal circuit court in New Orleans is expected to rule in the coming days or weeks on an administration-backed lawsuit to overturn the entire health care law.
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) knocked Democrats on Wednesday, arguing they were playing politics.
“Democrats’ resolution has zero chance of becoming law. This is just another political messaging exercise with no path to making an impact,” McConnell said.
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Comments
The left screwed up healthcare and turned it into a cause back in Clinton’s term when Hillary was put in charge of it.
There are always things in healthcare that are issues for INDIVIDUALS while most people didn’t have issues.
Once Hillary introduced her plans for screwing it up insurance became more and more expensive and companies started pushing salary reductions through making the workers pay a portion of their plans. Prior to that healthcare was usually a benefit from your employer with the only cost being a copay you made.
Obamacare blew healthcare (really insurance) out of the water. Premiums skyrocketed while deductibles rose to levels where most people effectively have little coverage. This is what sold the insurance companies on Obamacare.
Obamacare was the machine that was to push insurance out and usher in government controlled healthcare. Healthcare is one of the more effective controls over the people, removing a lot of their freedom. THAT is why the left want it so bad.
“That” and gun control.
Don’t forget the cost of free health care for millions of immigrants and refugees.
“Senators voted 43-52 on the resolution” with only Susan Collins (R-ME) voting with Democrats
So, only Democrats voted for it.
Murkowski and Romney must have been out of town.
I am currently having to “shop” for health insurance.
In the “marketplace” as they say, I have 1 choice. One!
BCBS, and for an individual- $1100+/month
with $6500-$8000 deductible.
I tried shopping around for a more affordable plan, but the only plans I found cost about the same or were $50 cheaper. Sometimes, I think it’s maybe time I just drop it all. It’s hard to shop when only one provider is available. For me, only BCBS was the only option.
So basically, you’ll have to be $20K out of pocket before you see any benefit. Unless you are a woman wanting birth control.
I’m not sure how that level of expense is supposed to help folks avoid financial strain/bankruptcy due to medical bills.
Before I hit the mediscare age, insurance for my wife and I, with no medical issues, was 25K and $7500 deductible. And there was nothing paid until you got to the deductible.
So, $32,500 before you see any help. It’s a catastrophic care plan at a gold plated price.
Welcome to Obammycare! It was never meant to provide affordable or usable healthcare insurance. It was only meant to force everyone to buy it. Nothing more nothing less.
“the disastrous health insurance scheme of his predecessor”
Disastrous for some, but not for others. There is a particular (low) income range in which Obamacare provides excellent coverage for low premiums.
The problem is on the side of the costs of health care. It’s very complex. There are no upper bounds. Previous government meddling has rendered it almost completely unintelligible. Neither party has covered itself with glory.
Only one thing is certain: our elite masters will never subject themselves to whatever they impose on the rest of us.
The Republicans actually did have a viable alternative to Obamacare when that monstrosity was rammed down our throats in the middle of the night. Not only did they do a very poor job of explaining/selling it, they were up against the “I Won” attitude of Obama and the democrat controlled Congress. The three main attributes then are still viable today and would essentially cure most of what is wrong with healthcare delivery in this country, in my humble opinion.
1) Competition among insurance carriers across state lines.
2) Massive tort reform.
3) Making coverage of legit preexisting conditions a simple line item in the federal budget, taking those people out of the risk pool and making insurance actuarial again.
3) is important. I have a friend whose 60 y.o. wife had a stroke. She’s too young for Medicare and no insurance company will cover her because she has some other problems. With a typical hospital stay costing one or two years of a typical family income, what’s a person like her to do? Just die, I guess…
Yes. This sentence rubbed me the wrong way:
“Pre-existing conditions are a political and fiscal quagmire for both Democrats and Republicans because there is no way to force insurance companies to cover these without raising costs down the line and across the board.”
what’s a person like her to do? Pretend she’s homeless or an immigrant?
I get it is not a laughing matter. The government could cover just the cost for pre-existing conditions on top of standard policies. It could build County Hospitals for those without insurance (since socialized medicine is so great). There are lots of things they could do if providing heath care was the real goal.
When my wife was 64, all insurance companies refused to cover her due to her medical history. So she went on the “State Pool” which was twice the price but well worth it for us. It covered the “uninsurable”. Then Obamacare came along and outlawed state pools. So she went without any insurance until she was 65. Thank God she didn’t have any medical problems during that time.
Why did your previous insurance company drop your coverage?
txvet: Her 18 months of COBRA ran out.
That’s a tough break. As I explained below, I have no problem with programs to help people like you who fall through the cracks – but don’t call it insurance.
Imagine what could have done with the trillions of dollars wasted on setting up ObamaCare. The gov could paid the additional cost to cover pre-existing conditions on standard policies. They could have provided very low cost policies for catastrophic.
Too bad the goal was to pass the gazillions around to cronies instead of providing healthcare.
The harsh truth is that you can’t insure “preexisting conditions” and stay in business. It’s should be obvious that if that is somehow made mandatory, that people will just not bother to buy insurance at all until they have a “preexisting condition”. It’s NOT insurance, it’s welfare.
Thanks for your thoughtful and helpful contribution.
You could if the government paid the premium for the pre-existing conditions as a rider attached to the person’s paid health insurance AND the government provided county hospitals for the uninsured.
How would that work? Because we are ALREADY paying trillions for the uninsured. People who can afford insurance will want to have private insurance because county hospitals, like all socialist projects, are not desirable places to be.
It would allow the free market to flourish and would take care of everyone. We do it now, we just pay a lot more for it.
It’s always a bit of a comedown to see people who generally profess their fondness for capitalism, i.e. free markets, boost their own favorite little bit of socialism. Some sort of program to help people who fall through the cracks like Snopercod and his wife is appropriate and worthwhile strictly on humanitarian grounds. But it’s not insurance.
As for your “county hospitals”, they exist in a lot of places where other facilities are generally unavailable. From what I’ve seen, which isn’t much, they aren’t any worse than any other government health care facilities, like VA. Once again, it’s odd to see an apparent non-leftist advocating for a socialist solution to a problem caused mostly by government. As you point out, we’re already spending vast amounts for healthcare for people who can’t or won’t provide their own. That (along with the very concept of “health insurance” and overbearing government regulation) is one of the primary drivers of the exploding cost of health care. There’s nothing that drives up usage like making it free.
what? Socialist solution? Really? Is paying for roads and common defense socialist too? We aren’t going to leave people to die on the streets after traffic accidents or lie in the gutter with some communicable disease if they can’t pay. We have NEVER been that. Not ever.
Send the immigrants, homeless, foster care, indigent, drug addicts, mentally ill and those out of work to the county hospital and even if it does look like the VA then you and I will still be willing to pay for insurance so we don’t have to wait six months to just be seen and then wait 3 years from tomorrow to get surgery done by a team of residents with green oozing out from behind their ears. Especially since the insurance will cost more like fire or auto than the thousands it is today.
Capitalism in it’s pure state has kids working in sweat shops. Socialism in it’s pure state has kids eating of garbage bins. The solution is to come up with something that works. The art of the deal, as they say.
We can fix it easily. It’s just that the lobbyists and corrupt-o-crats get in the way.
Defense is a constitutional requirement, and infrastructure can be considered “promoting the general welfare”. Your healthcare, whether you like it or not, is a personal responsibility. My family never had health insurance. In fact the concept hadn’t been invented yet. We still got medical care as needed, but we didn’t hit the Doc’s office for sniffles.
Unfortunately, despite your implied disclaimer, the rest of your comment is just an extended defense of your socialized medicine “solution”, and not a very good one either, with your admission that those you would condemn to government healthcare (for which you conveniently ignore the cost and financing – a la Liz Warren) would be effectively denied the care that you think should be provided by your “county hospitals”.
“”We aren’t going to leave people to die on the streets after traffic accidents or lie in the gutter with some communicable disease if they can’t pay.””
This is emotional idiocy, as is this: “Capitalism in it’s pure state has kids working in sweat shops”.
You seem like you are more interested in getting on a soapbox than you are finding solutions to providing affordable health care for all. And you are a giant hypocrite too, since you are txvet2 and have either VA or tricare to watch YOUR back…how is that not like a county hospital?
You have no solutions. You just want everyone to buck-up buttercup and pull their own weight. Too bad there are homeless, addicted, indigent, mentally ill, foster care, stupid people, and people down on their luck. F’ them, right? It’s all their own fault.
Go to church dude.
As expected, another emotional rant. I have Medicare. I’ve never submitted a claim. I have something called “Tricare for Life”. I’ve never used it, and most places don’t take it anyway. The only government hospitals left in SA are either VA, or Ft Sam, and they’re 30 or so miles away and I can’t get care there anyway. Ft Sam is too crowded and I’m bottom priority for VA. I’ve had somewhere in the neighborhood of 70K of medical/dental expenses over the past 20 years. I’ve paid them out of pocket. I’ve already disposed of your proposed “solution” – or rather, you admitted yourself that it wouldn’t solve the problem. I don’t pretend to have a solution to 50 years of socialist interference in the health care system that would have any chance of getting through Congress, but then neither would yours.
Thank you for making my point that people who can afford it won’t use the socialized health care if there are private options available. Do you begrudge your brothers in arms using them since taxpayers have to pay for it?
Must be nice to have the money to pay out of pocket when you have Tricare for life and medicare. No need for you to get in line. Good for you.
I don’t want to live in the world you are suggesting. Sounds like a crappy 3rd world country to me – or worse, San Francisco. Maybe you’re okay with stepping over the the homeless, the sick and the drug addicted and wiping their s^^^ of your shoes. I’m happy to set up safety nets for those who truly need them if for no other reason than the society benefits as a whole.
I think you need to go to church so you can learn the joy of giving.
txvet2: Impatience with the messiness of ordinary human existence is the mark of the true totalitarian.
oooh…gibbie hit you where it hopefully hurt. Clearly you are a self-starter and have done well for yourself. So what you need to do now, at your wise old age, is this:
1. Sign up to serve at the homeless shelter
2. Donate to the women’s shelter
3. Go into the low income area and volunteer to be a mentor
4…..go to church and learn to love your neighbor so you can MAGA
Covering the costs of medical education would probably also help.
It doesnt matter how good your insurance if there aren’t enough doctors. Back in the 80s when I moved to CT I was covered by my parents high end BCBS plan. I couldn’t find an OB/Gyn within 30 miles who was taking new patients. Thankfully I was able to find a Gyn, which was all I needed, but I would have been in real trouble if I’d gotten pregnant.
“Insurance” for pre-existing conditions is like life insurance for the dead. It makes no economic sense.
Precisely. It isn’t “insurance” if everyone is covered no matter what.
It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. It can be a mix. County Hospitals (socialized medicine) will not stop people who can afford it from purchasing insurance for private care.
We can still require those opting not to purchase to be responsible for services if they choose not to purchase insurance. Much like you don’t have to buy collision or fire insurance, it’s just worth it to do so. But the government could assist like they do for flood or earthquake.
It wouldn’t be that hard if the greedy people got out of the way.
I think a big part of the problem we’re having even discussing this subject is the concept of insurance itself. Insurance is (and used to be described as) a collective. That is, a lot of people put in money against future need, and those who actually are or become in need take the money out. Anybody who’s studied actual economics from a political and historical aspect can tell you off the top of their head what that’s called – and it isn’t a “free market”. That doesn’t mean I have a problem with it as long as it’s voluntary, but it does have an inflationary effect on the health care system.
Oops, sorry, that was intended as a free standing comment and not a response.
There is a moral hazard there. If a healthy working person knows that the government is going to bail him out if he has a heat attack or is diagnosed with cancer down the line; he might decide the payment on a new Lincoln Navigator is a higher priority than health insurance.
The examples you cite have moral hazards as well. Flood insurance is the worst. Government flood insurance subsidizes people building on flood plains. If those people had to pay actual insurance costs; they would never build there.
I think we need to clarify the term “pre-existing”. Obviously, if you have stage 4 pancreatic cancer, that’s a pre-existing condition and nobody in their right mind would sell you cancer insurance. But that kind of situation where a person has already developed a disease is not what we’re really talking about. Insurance companies play the odds (which is only good business of course) and deny insurance to people who are more likely to develop some condition in the future. Smokers, for example are more likely to develop a range of diseases, but haven’t developed them yet. If you’re overweight, you may be more likely to develop a number of problems in the future, so they won’t sell you insurance at all. If you have been diagnosed with Type II Diabetes, for example, you can forget about getting health insurance at any cost. Fibromyalgia is another of the many disqualifying conditions that insurance companies won’t touch. (These examples all refer to pre-Obamacare insurance, of course. Now they HAVE to sell you “insurance” regardless.)
What I would like to see is customized individual insurance with the coverage and price based upon the actual risk. If you’re a smoker, for example, why couldn’t they sell you a policy that would exclude coverage for lung cancer, COPD, heart attack, and stroke, but cover you for everything else? If you have Type II Diabetes which is under control, why couldn’t insurance companies sell you insurance at increased cost to account for the additional risk?
“What I would like to see is customized individual insurance with the coverage and price based upon the actual risk.”
That used to be the way it was done. Healthy people used to pay less, because they were less of a risk. That’s what makes insurance work – the many pay premiums to pay for the health care of the few – but when government gets involved under the rubric of “fairness”, everything gets distorted – and more expensive.
yeah. You’ll be liking that when you are 80.
I’m 78. I know what I’m talking about and you clearly don’t.
The triumph of ideology over common sense. While Obamacare is popular with the extreme leftist base, it has been an electoral loser for Democrats since the moment it passed.
But they LIKE it, so they keep pushing it.
In a way, it’s just like the “Resistance.” Hillary lost, but they didn’t want her to lose. So they continue the campaign using the dirtiest tactics they know.
I believe and pray this will also be a massive electoral loser for them.
The problem is that people are always afraid of change. They’ll put up with horrible programs like Obamacare because they think that whatever replaces it will be even worse – and frequently they’re right. Look what the Dems are proposing now. OTOH, returning to a free market based system will involve a great deal of pain and expense also, caused by straightening out all of the distortions to the system caused by Obamacare (and Medicare, and Medicaide, etc).
Obamacare eventually priced me out of my very good BC/BS policy that I’d had since the early 2000’s
$1200 deductible, 100% of everything after. Even $4 generic meds
Premium went from $350/m0 in 2008 to $1624/mo in 2018
Now, in that time, I’ve developed more than one “pre-existing condition”. Arterial issues, stroke, kidney disease
At 63, I’m forced to just gamble and hope I make it to Medicare age. But, if Democrats sweep 2020, even that will be in jeopardy.
Yes, I understand that the actuaries are going to see my medical history and adjust upward, but some of these problems started before the ACA was passed but I never saw 20%/yr increases until after passage
am a physician’s son and have several docs in my family–as well as a couple of jds–the docs all say(and have said for many years)the two things that would immediately lower the exhorbitant cost of medical care(at practically every level/facility)are 1) sweeping tort reform and(with 1)as a result, a dramatic(huge, in fact)reduction in the cost of liability insurance–they often said(again over many years)those two things alone could lower medical treatment costs by at least 25-30% and, more importantly, those actions cost NOTHING to implement
I agree that tort reform is needed. The legal profession has perpetrated some extraordinary harmful frauds.
“those actions cost NOTHING to implement”
Not true! Think of all the welfare costs for unemployed lawyers.
Seriously though, without significant improvements in how physician incompetence is handled, I don’t see how effective tort reform is possible.
More deeply, without significant improvements in human character in general, no reforms or laws will have much of a positive effect.
The way you get better people is through the Gospel of Jesus the Messiah – one person at a time.
When thinking of preexisting conditions, think of HIV. It can cost $100,000 PER MONTH (over $1 million per year) to treat, according to one person who was complaining at a senator’s town hall meeting. And the new therapies are pretty good so they live decades.
I think a large part of the motivatio for Obamacare is to hide this cost in a way that nobody can back it out. Why else would all the Obamacare plans be such ripoffs unless you’re one of the favored who can get subsidized?