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Obamacare Tag

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 25, 2017 22 Comments
Welp, Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) tried to change their Obamacare "repeal and replace" bill to appease those senators that opposed it...but it did not work. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has come out and officially declared she would vote no on both versions of the bill.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 25, 2017 16 Comments
Sens. Billy Cassidy (R-LA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) hope to pass their Obamacare "repeal and replace" bill by the end of the month, but have encountered opposition from a few in their own party. Sens. John McCain (AZ) and Rand Paul (KY) have already said no while Sens. Susan Collins (ME) and Lisa Murkowski (AK) remain on the fence. Even Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has said "that he's not yet on board with the legislation." This has led to a few changes to the bill, which includes boosts for Arizona, Alaska, Kentucky, and Maine as a way to entice these senators to vote yes.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 22, 2017 56 Comments
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) officially decided he will vote no on the Graham-Cassidy bill, which is the latest attempt the GOP has taken to repeal and replace Obamacare. From CNN:
"I cannot in good conscience vote for the Graham-Cassidy proposal," the Arizona Republican said in a statement. "I believe we could do better working together, Republicans and Democrats, and have not yet really tried. Nor could I support it without knowing how much it will cost, how it will effect insurance premiums, and how many people will be helped or hurt by it. Without a full CBO score, which won't be available by the end of the month, we won't have reliable answers to any of those questions."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on September 18, 2017 21 Comments
Just last week, Bernie Sanders rolled out his Medicare for All bill. Sanders and the bill's advocates railed against the current healthcare system as ineffectual, forgetting (or hoping the public has forgotten) that it's the product of Democrat ideas and votes. In Sanders' fantasy world, single-payer system is the only cure for what ails the American healthcare system. Most of his Democratic Senate colleagues agree. They were wrong about Obamacare and what it would fix and they're wrong single-payer.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 15, 2017 7 Comments
In August, health insurance company Anthem, the nation's second-largest health insurer, decided to leave Obamacare exchanges in Virginia due to "uncertainty about the future of Obamacare" due to "an unbalanced risk pool." Anthem changed its mind on Friday and has decided to stick it out in parts of the commonwealth that would have had no insurers for the residents.

Posted by Mary Chastain on September 15, 2017 13 Comments
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) announced today that he is very close to have the votes needed to repeal Obamacare with the bill he coauthored with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). From The Washington Times:
“We are thinking that we can get this done by Sept. 30,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, Louisiana Republican who co-wrote the bill with Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said Friday.

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on September 13, 2017 17 Comments
They can get you now, or get you later . . . Fifteen senators, including 2020 hopefuls like Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, are co-sponsoring Bernie Sanders' single-payer health care bill. But even some of those not signing on have plans to eventually convert the country to single payer. On today's Morning Joe, Dem Senator Chris Murphy [CT] described his plan, which Politico has called "stealthy single-payer." Under it, people would be given the option of buying into Medicare or remaining with private insurance. Murphy expressed the belief that:

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 28, 2017 11 Comments
Northwell Health, New York's largest hospital network, has decided to stop selling Obamacare plans over....you guessed it...huge losses. From The New York Post:
Northwell Health (the former North Shore-Long Island Jewish Medical Center network ) blamed a flawed provision in the Affordable Care Act — and the lack of action in Washington to fix it — as the culprits for winding down its CareConnect insurance company.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 23, 2017 6 Comments
Iowa has submitted a request to the federal government to make changes in a last ditch effort to save the state's beleaguered Obamacare market. From Quad-City Times:
This November, the majority of the 72,000 Iowans purchasing plans through the exchange will have only one option — Minnesota-based Medica. Last week, Medica asked the state for an average rate increase of 56.7 percent because of the uncertainty over cost-sharing reductions.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on August 16, 2017 23 Comments
While neo-Nazis and garner wall to wall media coverage, we can't help but wonder what happened to the endless promises of an Obamacare repeal. Bouncing from one embarrassing repeal failure to the next, Congressional Republicans are using their summer recess to regroup. And Lord knows they need to get their act together.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 08, 2017 23 Comments
CNN reported that GOP donors have started to withhold funds and donations after the GOP controlled Senate could not repeal and replace Obamacare. From CNN:
At least $2 million in contributions promised to the National Republican Senatorial Committee have failed to materialize because donors are expressing frustration with the Senate GOP's inability to fulfill their central campaign promise to repeal and replace Obamacare, according to two GOP sources familiar with the matter.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 31, 2017 48 Comments
We've been actively chronicling the Senate Republican's embarrassing attempt (or feigned, depending on your thoughts here), to repeal Obamacare. Whether it's one big, long con, or a deeply fractured caucus, Sen. Hatch is under the impression that the division in the Republican ranks runs far too deep to find a path forward in the long-promised effort to rid us of Obamacare.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on July 28, 2017 98 Comments
Overnight the Senate failed to pass a so-called "skinny" repeal of Obamacare, when three Republican Senators (Collins, Murkowski and McCain) voted against the measure. Whether the "skinny" repeal was an actual repeal was doubtful. As unveiled late last night, it removed the mandate, the medical device tax, and defunded Planned Parenthood, but it was something of a charade. Several Senators voted for it only after Paul Ryan gave some assurance that the Senate bill could be subject to a conference with the House, and would not be passed by the House as is. But passing the "skinny" repeal kept hope alive that there might emerge some meaningful form of Obamacare repeal. The defeat of the bill killed any form of Obamacare repeal for the foreseeable future.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 26, 2017 51 Comments
What's happening with Obamacare repeal, you ask? That is a fantastic question. But at this point, it's quite clear that Republicans who campaigned on repealing the ACA have zero intention of doing so now that the opportunity has presented itself. Seven Republican Senators voted against a so-called "clean repeal" bill Wednesday. Sens McCain, Murkowski, Capito, Lamar Alexander, Collins, Portman, and Heller are responsible for tanking the latest repeal effort. The bill offered no replacement but promised to delay full repeal, giving lawmakers time to figure out the rest.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on July 26, 2017 32 Comments
The entire country needs a lesson in parliamentary procedure. As I blogged yesterday, Senate Republicans, with the assist of Vice President Pence finally cobbled together enough votes to pass a motion to proceed (MTP), which simply allowed for debate on proposed Republican health care reform. To watch Democrats, progressives, and everyone under the impression that health insurance saves lives, John McCain was single-handedly responsible for killing off some 22 million people. Never mind the other 50 votes or the that Sen. McCain already said he'd support a MTP. And let's not even bother considering the CBO estimates of health insurance losses are due to an inordinate amount of people choosing to abstain from purchasing health insurance once the individual mandate ceases to be. In any case, in the minds of many, McCain became a veritable killing machine.
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