The GOP Obamacare ‘Replacement’ Has Arrived. Sort Of.

[TheDemSocialist]

House Republicans unveiled what they’re calling an Obamacare replacement on Wednesday, 2,283 days after President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law.The plan, which isn’t legislation and is more like a mission statement, lacks the level of detail that would enable a full analysis, but one thing is clear: If put in place, it would almost surely mean fewer people with health insurance, fewer people getting financial assistance for their premiums or out-of-pocket costs, and fewer consumer protections than the ACA provides.
It’s difficult to be certain, because the proposal, which House Speaker Paul Ryan(R-Wis.) will talk up at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington on Wednesday, lacks crucial information, like estimates of its costs and effects on how many people will have health coverage.
The document weighs in at 37 pages, which includes the cover, three full pages about how terrible Obamacare is, and two blank sheets.
“Everyone knows Republicans are against Obamacare. We’ve got that part down,” Ryan said on C-SPAN Tuesday. “What people need to know is that we have good ideas for what we ought to replace it with that reduces the cost of insurance, that gives people more choices, that doesn’t create entitlements that bankrupt the country, and that gives us a patient-centered system.”
The health care rollout is part of Ryan’s “A Better Way“ initiative to define GOP policy during the election year.
But the contents of the plan amount to a grab-bag of conservative health policy ideas from the last few decades — virtually none of which have ever been pursued aggressively by Republicans in Congress or the White House — despite the House GOP having years since the ACA took effect to concoct a full-fledged alternative.

Read more @: The GOP Obamacare ‘Replacement’ Has Arrived. Sort Of.

The GOP isnt serious about actually replacing the ACA. It would almost certainly mean political suicide because of the drastic negative consequences to majority of Americans if they do. Instead they will keep on using stunts like this as a campaign issue.

 

[joG]

Read more @: The GOP Obamacare ‘Replacement’ Has Arrived. Sort Of.

The GOP isnt serious about actually replacing the ACA. It would almost certainly mean political suicide because of the drastic negative consequences to majority of Americans if they do. Instead they will keep on using stunts like this as a campaign issue. [/FONT]

Replacing ACA would be to remove a thorn from the Democrats' paw.

 

[Vern]

"But the contents of the plan amount to a grab-bag of conservative health policy ideas from the last few decades — virtually none of which have ever been pursued aggressively by Republicans in Congress or the White House "

mandates were in that grab bag for 20 years so maybe Ryan should have to be more specific. If only there was a way for him to create legislation and try to get it passed. **

** joke stolen from Greenbeard.

 

[JumpinJack]

Read more @: The GOP Obamacare ‘Replacement’ Has Arrived. Sort Of.

The GOP isnt serious about actually replacing the ACA. It would almost certainly mean political suicide because of the drastic negative consequences to majority of Americans if they do. Instead they will keep on using stunts like this as a campaign issue. [/FONT]

Everything should be looked at and considered, of course. This sounds promising, on the face of things. Devil's in the details, of course.

It keeps the provision that people with pre-existing conditions cannot be denied coverage. It was always the case that an entire ACT was unnecessary to take care of the denial of coverage based on pre-existing conditions.

The current program is increasing costs at an astronomical rate, while simultaneously cutting coverage, while also simultaneously cutting insurance companies who will sell that coverage. When numbers are spread around about "x" more people having insurance now, that is counting insurance that is really not useful insurance (deductibles so high that the insured can't actually use the insurance, co-insurance percentages so high that few people would be able to pay it in the case of more than a light injury, and all of that on top of a premium that is triple or more higher than insurance cost before the ACA). As I heard one subsidy insured say on tv, "My deductible is $6,000, so I don't know how I'd pay that." If a person can't pay for the premium, the person surely can't pay $6,000 in deductibles, plus other out of pocket expenses. Add to that the number of medications and doctors allowed in the ins. co. networks is getting so small that some people can't find providers who will take the insurance. So it's not working for many people.

The current program is imploding as we speak, as insurers are dropping out of it right and left, or limiting their plans to the lowest level high deductible high-co-insurance bronze plans while raising those premiums significantly. So we need to look at all options.

Now the govt is going after short term plans, to shut them down, so the citizens have even fewer options. It's beginning to sound like a plan to deny people insurance coverage, rather than the opposite.

This is one of the few ways the Republicans can get a foothold in the Presidential Election door, esp. after their disastrous failure to pass any reasonable gun control laws in the wake of 130 mass shootings in the country thus far this year.

Ryan has had a draft of a plan for a few years. This is probably it, with more details fleshed out. If it's not fleshed out, it's probably the same broad sketch. I guess we'll find out.

 

[Greenbeard]

The plan, which isn’t legislation and is more like a mission statement, lacks the level of detail that would enable a full analysis,

WTF is wrong with these people? This is Congress, not a class project. If they don't plan to use their Congressional majority, perhaps we could have it back.

If they've got a real alternative, put in legislative language and pass it through committees to the floor. If not, move on. Six years of hand waving is more than enough.

 

[Deuce]

WTF is wrong with these people? This is Congress, not a class project. If they don't plan to use their Congressional majority, perhaps we could have it back.

If they've got a real alternative, put in legislative language and pass it through committees to the floor. If not, move on. Six years of hand waving is more than enough.

To be fair, it took like a whole year to write the ACA and that was "jammed down our throats," so naturally they'd want to take far longer for theirs.