[afazio.uk_887]

He already accomplished more than the entire GOP the last 8 years

[kaldridgewv2211]

Thank you DJT for saving me $1200 in taxes/fees on my dependent parent in fees.

[eyoab2011_711]

I am sure you will also enjoy the uptick in non-paying patients…

[btomba_77]

And the death spiral of the exchanges

[tdetlie_105]

Quote from dergon

And so it begins.   Let the new name “Trumpcare” be used henceforth.  It’s his (and the Republicans now)

 
Thinking about Trump-care as an experiment, like the ACA it will have pros/cons, winners/losers…if it works, great, if not Dems can make changes in 2020
 

[kaldridgewv2211]

Maybe I’m wrong but it seems like a lot of problems could be easily fixed with straight forward legislation. Let insurance companies compete country wide. Control drug prices so Martin Smelly can’t mark up the price of a pill 700%.

[eyoab2011_711]

That would mean an actual federal takeover of healthcare…

[kayla.meyer_144]

Dan confuses me, he argues Democratic positions like public funding for elections and limits on spending and more government regulation for healthcare but argues against Democrats and for Republicans. Even Kasich rejects Dan’s positions as “liberal.”

[kaldridgewv2211]

I don’t consider myself to really be from any political party.  I’m down for good ideas from either party.  I’m pretty sure the status quo isn’t that great.  I’m all for government regulation/legislation applied in the right areas.  I’m not for government waste and we do spend on silly things.  I’m not for money buying influence or legislation from elected officials, part of this to me is public funding of elections.  

[kayla.meyer_144]

I’ve never been “from” any political party either. But I know what each party stands for and is against & while I have never been a Democrat since they invented reasons for the Vietnam War, their policies on and since Civil Rights and helping the poor, their better record of fiscal responsibility and economic growth and increasing the rights of everyone – like voting, like women’s rights, are much more in line with my beliefs.
 
The things you have stated support for are anathema to the Republican Party, period, and have been for decades.
 
 

[kayla.meyer_144]

So quiet on the healthcare “repeal & replace” front, you can hear a pin drop. Maybe another vote int eh House to repeal for the fans?
 
Finally even conservatives are acknowledging that the “free market” and “competition” is not a solution. Where is a successful example in the whole world?
 
[link=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/opinion/repeal-and-compete.html]https://www.nytimes.com/2…epeal-and-compete.html[/link]
 

In health care policy, however, conservatives tend to simply favor Friedman over Burke. That is, the rights best health care minds believe that markets and competition can deliver lower costs and better care, and they believe it even though there is no clear example of a modern health care system built along the lines that they desire.

The dominant systems in the developed world, whether government-run or single-payer or Obamacare-esque, are generally statist to degrees that conservatives deplore. A few of them notably Singapores, the beau ideal of right-wing health care wonks do have distinctive elements that conservatives favor. But mostly they tend to be much more heavily regulated and subsidized than the system that conservative health policy wonks and policy-literate Republicans would like to see take over from Obamacare.
 
But still there is no existing system on a national scale that looks like the health care system that Paul Ryan or Tom Price would design, no wisdom of developed-economy experience that proves that such a system would actually keep overall costs low and prevent too many people from being shut out of insurance markets. So embracing even the smartest conservative Obamacare alternative requires a not-precisely-Burkean leap of faith.

 
So let’s see the Republican solution put into action so the Trumpites can cheer for a system that covers less for more $, if they even can get it. So-called “market solutions” tend to throw a lot of people under the bus.
 
 
 
 
 

[kaldridgewv2211]

Someone else put this pretty well into perspective by saying they voted “X” number of times to repeal it under Obama but haven’t done anything now that they have control.  

[kayla.meyer_144]

Quote from DICOM_Dan

Someone else put this pretty well into perspective by saying they voted “X” number of times to repeal it under Obama but haven’t done anything now that they have control.  

It isn’t about the # of times voted for repeal, it’s about fundamental beliefs about expectations of what the free market would provide vs the role of government. Basically if one believes in universal health the only way it can be provided is through government and single payer or a highly regulated system by the government. In order to take government out of the system & leave only a free market system there cannot be a universal health system of any kind and a very many number of people will be thrown under the bus & leave on their own. There sill be some welfare care through religious organizations and private NGO’s but they would not be able to solve the problem any more than it is solved by them in other countries without government assistance.
 
But the reassuring part is it will be their own faults for being poor and/or ignorant and if bad luck happens to them, it’s not my lookout.
 
The dilemma is the GOP and Conservatives cannot declare Darwin’s Law of survival or not now that their voters expect health care through government via the VA, Medicare, social Security and even the ACA. But we will see how far they are willing to go to dismantle social programs since Roosevelt, who even Reagan thought great.

[kaldridgewv2211]

Quote from Frumious

Quote from DICOM_Dan

Someone else put this pretty well into perspective by saying they voted “X” number of times to repeal it under Obama but haven’t done anything now that they have control.  

It isn’t about the # of times voted for repeal.

 
It’s about the irony of them trying to repeal like 50 some times but now not doing anything.  They were gung ho on repealing when it was basically just a gesture in futility.  That might be due to GOP wanting to win elections again, maybe they all the sudden don’t have the stomach for it, no plan to replace it etc…

[kayla.meyer_144]

“The play’s the thing.”
 
It’s theater, something the GOP has been practicing at for decades. Like the Brexit politicians who got what they campaigned for & now are all, “Oh sh1t! What do we do now???”
 
1 more metaphor, the dog who actually catches the car tire.

[100574]

get ready for the explosion–airlines are doling out refunds,etc from the immigration debacle

[kayla.meyer_144]

Oh, oh, the “failing” Obamacare plan and its repeal will take longer than originally portrayed to the public. And finding a better plan even longer.
 
On might think the Republicans had been lying to us all these years for parochial politics over the public good.
 
But that’s impossible when we have a President who started his political career by claiming Obama was not born in America. Not to mention Paul Ryan and the other Republicans who speak in alternative truths.
 
 

[kayla.meyer_144]

“Failing” and “job-killing” Obamacare still failing and killing jobs assuming Republicans haven’t been lying these past 6 years about it. Yet it is more popular than ever and Republicans still wringing hands about “repeal and replace,” doing neither. And yet they own Executive and Legislative Branches.

[btomba_77]

Quote from DICOM_Dan

It’s about the irony of them trying to repeal like 50 some times but now not doing anything.  They were gung ho on repealing when it was basically just a gesture in futility.  That might be due to GOP wanting to win elections again, maybe they all the sudden don’t have the stomach for it, no plan to replace it etc…

Megan McArdle on [url=https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-02-06/obamacare-abortion-and-the-ease-of-extremism] how much easier it is to hold radical opinions when you have no hope of passing legislation.[/url]

[b]Repealing Obamacare was another cheap opinion, easy to hold because it wasnt going to happen.[/b] As long as Democrats held the presidency (and Republicans did not have the two-thirds majority in the Senate necessary to override a presidential veto), conservatives could favor full repeal without meditating on the havoc that actual repeal would wreak in the insurance market. Nor did they need to do the long, hard work that the left had put in, thinking about what they wanted the insurance market to look like. Oh, there were wonks and a few legislators who had plans. But the Republican Party as a whole didnt even really have a consensus on what role the government should play in ensuring that people had health insurance, much less what specific policies should support that role.
 

Had a more normal nominee gotten the nod, they might have put in that work over the last year, in anticipation of a Republican administration. Instead they got Trump, and a November Surprise that found them completely unprepared to actually do what theyd been promising for the better part of eight years.
 

Now Democrats get to be the ones holding the cheap opinions about how fantastic Obamacare would be if Republicans hadnt gone and wrecked it, probably supplemented with wildly unlikely claims for a public option or single-payer system. Thats how American politics works now, because the old legislative system, designed to steadily grind out pork-stuffed bipartisan compromises that satisfied no one, has broken down. We now have a new system in which almost everyone is a passenger rather than a driver — and its much more fun for the passenger to offer backseat criticism of the driver than to read the map and try to work out how to get somewhere.

[kayla.meyer_144]

Who are the bigger fools? The Republicans and demagogues for lying from the start up to the present or the credulous followers who believed them? While of course enjoying the benefits of Obamacare they never had before.
 
 

[kayla.meyer_144]

WOW! Can anyone imagine something like this happening in US, physicians protesting they are earning entirely too much & that their raises should be applied to the wages of those healthcare professions who make less and to the healthcare system in general in order to provide more widespread and better care to patients, like improving the nurse to patient ratio?
 
[link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/03/07/hundreds-of-canadian-doctors-demand-lower-salaries]https://www.washingtonpos…-demand-lower-salaries[/link]
 

In a move that can only be described as utterly Canadian, hundreds of doctors in Quebec are protesting their pay raises, saying they already make too much money.
 
As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 700 physicians, residents and medical students from the Canadian province had signed an [link=http://mqrp.qc.ca/blogue/2018/02/25/nous-demandons-lannulation-des-hausses/]online petition[/link] asking for their pay raises to be canceled. A group named Médecins Québécois Pour le Régime (MQRP), which represents Quebec doctors and advocates for public health, started the petition Feb. 25.
 
The physicians group said it could not in good conscience accept pay raises when working conditions remained difficult for others in their profession including nurses and clerks and while patients live with the lack of access to required services because of drastic cuts in recent years.
 
A nurses union in Quebec has in recent months [link=https://globalnews.ca/news/4036952/quebec-nurses-push-for-new-law-to-limit-nurse-to-patient-ratios/?utm_source=%40Global_Montreal&utm_medium=Twitter]pushed the government to address a nursing shortage[/link], seeking a law that would cap the number of patients a nurse could see. The union said its members were increasingly being overworked, and nurses across the province have held [link=http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/quebec-health-minister-urges-nurses-to-take-full-time-positions]several sit-ins[/link] in recent months to push for better working conditions.
 
In January, the situation was encapsulated in a viral Facebook post by a nurse in Quebec named Émilie Ricard, who posted a photo of herself, teary-eyed, after what she said had been an exhausting night shift. Ricard said she had been the only nurse to care for more than 70 patients on her floor; she was so stressed that she had cramps that prevented her from sleeping, she added.
 
Meanwhile, in February, Quebecs federation of medical specialists reached a deal with the government to increase the annual salaries of the provinces 10,000 medical specialists by about 1.4 percent, or from $4.7 billion currently to $5.4 billion in 2023, [link=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-doctors-raise-1.4551888]Canadian Broadcasting Corp. News reported[/link]. The average salary for a specialist in Quebec is already high $403,537 annually compared with $367,154 in neighboring Ontario, according to CBC.
 
The only thing that seems to be immune to the [health-care system] cuts is our salaries, the petition by MQRP, the doctors group, stated. Contrary to the Prime Ministers statements, we believe that there is a way to redistribute the resources of the Quebec health system to promote the health of the population and meet the needs of patients without pushing workers to the end.
 
The petition ended by asking that the salary increases be canceled and the money be redistributed throughout Quebec’s health-care system.

 
 
 
 

[btomba_77]

[link=https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/bipartisan-health-care-compromise-falls-apart-obamacare-battle-continues]Bipartisan Health Care Compromise Falls Apart, Obamacare Battle Continues[/link]

The politics of health care reared its ugly head yet again.

A grand, bipartisan bargain to stabilize the U.S. individual insurance market fell apart this week. And members on both sides of the aisle turned to what they know best: blaming the other party.

Republicans say Democrats threw a last-minute wrench in the negotiations by insisting that aspects of the package be exempt from commonly used appropriations language that prevents federal funding from being used for abortions.

Democrats counter that Republican leadership purposely tanked the package by adding in provisions they knew would poison the effort.[/QUOTE]
 
____
 
At the same time the [url=https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/obama_and_democrats_health_care_plan-1130.html]ACA now has majority approval[/url]  and is +10% approve/disapprove.
 
Get ready for Democrats to run hard on healthcare in the midterms.

[heenadevk1119_462]

It’s going well, the more delusional outcry, the more I realize how pro-American and productive it is.
 
The days of global and anti-American interest are over, son.
 
Try to grow up and understand that “elections have consequences”
 
Your faith in gov’t led you to this point. Your delusion is a self imposed prison.
 
It’s really sad.

[btomba_77]

[url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/nearly-12-million-people-enrolled-in-2018-health-coverage-under-the-aca/2018/04/03/247d3496-377c-11e8-8fd2-49fe3c675a89_story.html?utm_term=.c54607abe07f]Despite Trump admin attacks, nearly 12 million people enroll in Obamacare[/url]

A total of 11.8 million Americans signed up for Affordable Care Act health insurance for 2018, a drop of just 400,000 from the previous year despite widespread predictions that enrollment would plummet amid political and insurance industry turbulence surrounding the law.

The final figures, released Tuesday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, show that the proportion of first-time customers for this year dipped slightly, from 31 percent to 27 percent, while the high proportion qualifying for government subsidies that help consumers afford their insurance premiums stayed level at 83 percent.

…

without taking subsidies into account, the average monthly premium for 2018 health plans was $621, or 30 percent more than last years average of $476. But the data show that customers with incomes too high to be eligible for a subsidy tended to choose less expensive health plans, averaging $522 per month.

A greater share of the 2018 customers picked the lowest tier of coverage, known as bronze plans, compared with the year before.

The federal report also shows that 70 percent of customers had incomes between the federal poverty level and 250 percent of that roughly the same as a year ago. This is the group that previously qualified for less expensive deductibles and other lower out-of-pocket expenses because of cost-sharing reduction subsidies to ACA insurers payments that President Trump ended last fall.

[/QUOTE]

[kayla.meyer_144]

Another report regarding the crazy costs associated with healthcare procedures. 1st problem is still that you don’t know the charges until after you have the procedure done and you can’t find out before it’s done. And the 2nd problem is the Republican solution that people can and should go to the ED.
 
This person got 2 CT’s of the abdomen within a few weeks apart. One charge was for $268 & the other was almost $9000 of which he is on the hook for the balance over $2,500.
 
[link=https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/04/09/598794123/bill-of-the-month-a-tale-of-2-ct-scanners-one-richer-one-poorer]https://www.npr.org/secti…-one-richer-one-poorer[/link]

Healthcare Bluebook, an online pricing tool, says [link=https://healthcarebluebook.com/page_ProcedureDetails.aspx?cftId=391&directsearch=true]the range for an abdominal CT scan[/link]with contrast, like Hynden had, in Fort Myers is between $474 and about $3,700. It pegs a fair price at $595.

 

[btomba_77]

Hey GOP. “You break it. You bought it.”

[url=http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/382257-top-insurance-official-warns-of-coming-obamacare-premium-hikes]Top insurand official warns of coming ACA premium rate hikes; “Not in a pretty place right now”[/url]

 

Matt Eyles, senior executive vice president of Americas Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), said that insurers want to make sure people have access to coverage at the most affordable price but that also has to reflect what the reality is right now and its not a pretty picture right now.

Eyles, who is also the incoming CEO of AHIP starting June 1, blamed several policies advanced by Republicans in Congress or the administration for the problems.

Speaking at an event hosted by The Atlantic, he noted the repeal of the individual mandate in the tax bill in December, which is expected to lead to less healthy people signing up, as well as initiatives from the Trump administration to expand access to cheaper, skimpier plans known as short-term plans, which have also raised fears of siphoning away healthy people and causing an increase in premiums.[/QUOTE]

[kayla.meyer_144]

Hey, anyone notice how everyone in the public is cheering since the hated ACA, AKA “Obamacare” was repealed? How everyone is cheering now that the Republican plan has made healthcare more affordable? How healthcare costs have come down since the repeal & how more people now are covered than under Obamacare?
 
You could hear a pin drop about how Obamacare has supposedly made healthcare insurance more expensive nowadays as Republicans have proven themselves so inept about repeal much less with replace. Where are all the arguments about “job-killing” Obamacare? Enrollment has not decreased in spite of the lies made against the ACA.
 
Maybe the Republican arguments against the ACA were invented whole-cloth? More “alternate facts?”

[kayla.meyer_144]

The ACA was supposedly making insurance more expensive & supposedly there was majority opposition to the ACA. Yet, since Trump & the repeal of the mandate, insurance has generally increased by up to 30%, just due to the mandate repeal. But now it’s more affordable with the 30% increase?
 
Or was it all a political lie from the start? Dishonesty from Republicans?
 
The GOP is the swamp.
 
[link=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/03/opinion/republicans-honest-policies.html]https://www.nytimes.com/2…s-honest-policies.html[/link]
 

On Tuesday, Mr. Price did a 180 in a speech at a health care conference in Washington, noting correctly that, in fact, it was Congresss decision to eliminate the health insurance mandate that [link=https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/may/1/tom-price-repeal-obamacare-mandate-will-drive-cost/]drives up the cost[/link] of insurance.
 
This is hardly a bold statement most experts agree but it was newsworthy coming from Mr. Price, who was a key supporter of Mr. Trumps efforts to repeal the health care act. What was less surprising was that Mr. Price reverted to the party line a day later, saying that getting rid of the mandate [link=https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/02/tom-price-mandate-repeal-comments-565619]was exactly the right thing to do.[/link]
 
Of course, the on-the-level statements from Mr. Rubio and Mr. Price represent stray comments in an ocean of lies, fibs and falsehoods about these pieces of legislation. The vast majority of Republican leaders insist that down is up and up is down when it comes to the effects of their policies, especially in the area of health care.
 
While Congress failed to fully repeal the A.C.A. last year, the Trump administration has been busily whittling away health care benefits, disingenuously arguing that these changes will help working-class families by lowering health care costs. Under one administration proposal thats in the final stages of approval, insurance companies will be able to sell yearlong [link=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/opinion/trump-killing-obamacare.html]junk health plans[/link] that dont have to cover unexpected medical costs or pre-existing conditions. Earlier, the administration slashed spending on advertising and outreach to encourage people to sign up for policies on the health insurance marketplaces created by the health care act. And it ended payments to insurance companies that were authorized by the law to help lower deductibles for low-income families.
 
The administrations health care sabotage efforts have already had a big impact, but not the kind of impact officials promised. Insurance companies raised average premiums for 2018 A.C.A. policies by [link=https://www.cms.gov/Newsroom/MediaReleaseDatabase/Fact-sheets/2018-Fact-sheets-items/2018-04-03.html]30 percent[/link]. This has mostly hurt middle-class families who have to pay full freight for health insurance because they make too much money to qualify for subsidies and dont get coverage through their employers. Few experts were surprised when the Commonwealth Fund found that the percentage of American adults who did not have health insurance [link=http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/blog/2018/apr/health-coverage-erosion]jumped to 15.5 percent this year[/link], from 12.7 percent before Mr. Trump took office. Experts say those numbers could climb higher still when the penalty for not having insurance goes away next year.

 
[link=http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/blog/2018/apr/health-coverage-erosion]http://www.commonwealthfu…ealth-coverage-erosion[/link]

The marked gains in health insurance coverage made since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010 are beginning to reverse, according to new findings from the latest Commonwealth Fund ACA Tracking Survey. The coverage declines are likely the result of two major factors: 1) lack of federal legislative actions to improve specific weaknesses in the ACA and 2) actions by the current administration that have exacerbated those weaknesses. These include the administrations deep cuts in advertising and outreach during the marketplace open-enrollment periods, a shorter open enrollment period, and other actions that collectively may have left people with a general sense of confusion about the status of the law. Signs point to further erosion of insurance coverage in 2019: the repeal of the individual mandate penalty included in the 2017 tax law, recent actions to increase the availability of insurance policies that dont comply with ACA minimum benefit standards, and support for Medicaid work requirements.

[btomba_77]

Federal Judge Rules Obamacare Unconstitutional[/h1]  
A federal judge in Texas said on Friday that the Affordable Care Acts individual coverage mandate is unconstitutional and that the rest of the law must also fall, [link=https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/14/politics/texas-aca-lawsuit/index.html]CNN[/link]reports.
Legal experts say the law will remain in effect for now, but the invalidation of the landmark health care law throws into doubt the future of health coverage for millions of Americans on the Obamacare exchanges and in Medicaid expansion. More than 4 million people have already signed up for 2019 coverage on the exchanges, and millions more are expected to pick plans before open enrollment ends Saturday.
 
 
[link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/federal-judge-in-texas-rules-obama-health-care-law-unconstitutional/2018/12/14/9e8bb5a2-fd63-11e8-862a-b6a6f3ce8199_story.html?utm_term=.aaa9e4ba6690]Washington Post[/link]: Since the suit was filed in January, many health-law specialists have viewed its logic as weak but nevertheless have regarded the case as the greatest looming legal threat to the 2010 law, which has been a GOP whipping post ever since and assailed repeatedly in the courts.

 
______________________
 
Obamacare Ruling Could Be a Nightmare for Republicans[/h1]  
[link=https://www.axios.com/affordable-care-act-may-be-headed-back-to-supreme-court-a550dd4f-dcbc-4f98-ba5f-68f703381097.html]David Nather[/link]: The Affordable Care Act, President Obamas signature achievement, may be headed back to the Supreme Court after a conservative federal judge in Texas [link=https://politicalwire.com/2018/12/14/federal-judge-rules-obamacare-unconstitutional/]struck down[/link] the individual mandate as unconstitutional last evening.
 
This could be a nightmare for Republicans in suburbs and swing states.
 
The midterms proved that the ACA has gotten more popular since the GOP started trying to repeal it especially the protections for pre-existing conditions.

If the law goes away, that goes with it. This is not the fight Republicans want to have.

 

[Unknown Member]

Yes ACA is popular for those on Medicaid.
Also very popular for those that like higher
premiums and less choices. Do doctors participating in Medicaid even cover their costs. I don’t know any doctors that
participate. Probably because the doctors I know run their practices like businesses.

[Unknown Member]

So are you saying g that the doctors you know do not care for the poor or uninsured who cannot pay???

[Unknown Member]

We know that IR consult is a former cardiologist turned Inntervenional radiolist wgo no longer practices because he is independently wealthy and just post on this board for laughs

……. but now we also know that many of his friends (I suspect liberal friends because he also has many many many liberal friends) do not accept Medicaid or care for the poor or uninsured who cannot pay

Cool very cool

[Unknown Member]

Kpuck is such a weirdo.
And yes you’d have to be an idiot to participate in Medicaid.

[kayla.meyer_144]

Or disabled in some way.
 
Or do you think disabled people are only idiots.
 
Oh the poor idiot little people…
 
 
 

[Unknown Member]

Talking about participating as a physician genius.

[kayla.meyer_144]

Sorry, didn’t realize you have a phobia with getting your hands dirty with poor people.
 
My bad.

[Unknown Member]

Did your cardiologist pretend practice take Medicare….. or just your former IR practice?????

Ya know since you no longer are practicing because you are independently wealthy and just hanging out on a Radiology message board for shirts and giggles

You are such a fake POS

[Unknown Member]

You can make up whatever crazy stories you
want to believe sad little old man. It’s probably time to
say goodnight to your mother and head down
to the basement for the night. Could you be any more
pathetic?

[btomba_77]

Quote from dergon

Federal Judge Rules Obamacare Unconstitutional  
A federal judge in Texas said on Friday that the Affordable Care Acts individual coverage mandate is unconstitutional and that the rest of the law must also fall, [link=https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/14/politics/texas-aca-lawsuit/index.html]CNN[/link]reports.
Legal experts say the law will remain in effect for now, but the invalidation of the landmark health care law throws into doubt the future of health coverage for millions of Americans on the Obamacare exchanges and in Medicaid expansion. More than 4 million people have already signed up for 2019 coverage on the exchanges, and millions more are expected to pick plans before open enrollment ends Saturday.

[link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/federal-judge-in-texas-rules-obama-health-care-law-unconstitutional/2018/12/14/9e8bb5a2-fd63-11e8-862a-b6a6f3ce8199_story.html?utm_term=.aaa9e4ba6690]Washington Post[/link]: Since the suit was filed in January, many health-law specialists have viewed its logic as weak but nevertheless have regarded the case as the greatest looming legal threat to the 2010 law, which has been a GOP whipping post ever since and assailed repeatedly in the courts.

______________________

Obamacare Ruling Could Be a Nightmare for Republicans  
[link=https://www.axios.com/affordable-care-act-may-be-headed-back-to-supreme-court-a550dd4f-dcbc-4f98-ba5f-68f703381097.html]David Nather[/link]: The Affordable Care Act, President Obamas signature achievement, may be headed back to the Supreme Court after a conservative federal judge in Texas [link=https://politicalwire.com/2018/12/14/federal-judge-rules-obamacare-unconstitutional/]struck down[/link] the individual mandate as unconstitutional last evening.

This could be a nightmare for Republicans in suburbs and swing states.

The midterms proved that the ACA has gotten more popular since the GOP started trying to repeal it especially the protections for pre-existing conditions.

If the law goes away, that goes with it. This is not the fight Republicans want to have.

 
[link=https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.txnd.330381/gov.uscourts.txnd.330381.92.0.pdf]https://storage.courtlist…s.txnd.330381.92.0.pdf[/link]
 
 
Same Texas judge who the ACA unconstitutional in 2018 (and was overturned at SCOTUS 7-2) now issues another whack-job ruling trying to destroy Obamacare again
 
 
 
O’Connor says members of the Preventive Services Task Forcewhich requires insurers to provide preventive coverage, including vaccines and cancer screeningsare appointed illegally. Which may render their mandates unlawful.
 
O’Connor wants “further briefing on the appropriate remedy.” One fix would be for the Secretary of HHS to simply “ratify” the work of the Preventive Services Task Force. But O’Connor says the secretary *cannot* ratify its work. So his remedy might just destroy the task force.
 
If O’Connor takes this stepwhich he gestures toward in today’s rulingprivate health insurers could refuse to cover huge range of preventive care, including vaccines, cancer screenings, STI tests, pregnancy care … the list goes WAY beyond PrEP coverage.
 
O’Connor also suggests that the *entire government infrastructure* currently regulating private insurers is illegal. Not just the Preventive Services Task Force, but also the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and the Health Resources and Services Administration.
 
 
[link=https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/redirect-to/?redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.advocate.com%2Fbreaking-news%2F2022%2F9%2F07%2Ftexas-judge-rules-prep-coverage-violates-religious-freedom]Breaking: Texas Judge Rules PrEP Coverage Violates Religious Freedom[/link]

Jonathan Mitchell, who founded a one-person law firm in 2018 intending to challenge decades-old Supreme Court rulings, brought the case [i]Braidwood Management Inc., vs. Xavier Becerra[/i], in the Northern District of Texas.

There, United States district judge Reed OConner ruled in favor of plaintiffs who argued that paying for insurance that covers PrEP violates their religious beliefs because PrEP enable[s and encourages] homosexual behavior.

In the [link=https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/redirect-to/?redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fstorage.courtlistener.com%2Frecap%2Fgov.uscourts.txnd.330381%2Fgov.uscourts.txnd.330381.92.0_2.pdf]42-page ruling[/link], OConnor writes, The PrEP mandate violates Braidwoods rights under [Religious Freedom Restoration Act].

[link=https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/redirect-to/?redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.axios.com%2F2022%2F09%2F07%2Fcourt-hiv-prep-requirement-aca-truvada]Federal judge rules employers not required to cover HIV PrEP[/link]

District Judge Reed O’Connor said that the Department of Health and Human Services did not provide any “compelling” evidence to argue that “private, religious corporations” should be required to cover HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, commonly known as PrEP, “with no cost-sharing and no religious exemptions.”
O’Connor said HHS was unable to show that the ACA’s requirement for HIV PrEP to be fully covered by insurance “furthers a compelling governmental interest.

[link=https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/redirect-to/?redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.buzzfeednews.com%2Farticle%2Fdavidmack%2Ffederal-judge-prep-hiv-religious-exemption-ruling]A Federal Judge Ruled Religious Employers Shouldn’t Have To Provide HIV Prevention Medicine[/link]

[link=https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/redirect-to/?redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2022%2F09%2F07%2Fpolitics%2Fhiv-drugs-prep-affordable-care-act%2Findex.html]Obamacare can’t require coverage for certain HIV prevention drugs, federal judge rules[/link]

As part of the ruling, O’Connor declared unconstitutional part of the broader preventive services mandate, which requires insurers and employers to cover at no charge screenings for cancer and heart disease, as well as programs for smoking cessation, among many others.

[link=https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/redirect-to/?redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fstorage.courtlistener.com%2Frecap%2Fgov.uscourts.txnd.330381%2Fgov.uscourts.txnd.330381.92.0.pdf]https://storage.courtlistener.com/re…30381.92.0.pdf[/link]
 
 
 

[btomba_77]

[b]Republicans had a big healthcare problem … now it’s even bigger[/b]

Now that a Texas judge has ruled that the entire Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional all because of its individual mandate a new [link=https://www.axios.com/aca-ruling-republicans-politics-changed-f54f7a3f-53f4-47f2-9deb-2c4c424534b6.html]Kaiser Family Foundation poll[/link] suggests Republicans may find themselves wishing for a different outcome.

There is little hope of a deal with Democrats on health reform in a divided Congress if the decision is upheld. Democrats will now use the 2020 campaign to paint Republicans as threatening a host of popular provisions in the ACA. And heres the kicker: protections for pre-existing conditions, the provision that played such a big role in the midterms, is not even the most popular one.

Here are some of the more popular provisions that would be eliminated in order of their popularity:

[ul][*]Young adults can remain on their parents health insurance policies until age 26: 82% of the public supports this, including 66% of Republicans.[*]Subsidies for lower and moderate income people: 81% support this, including 63% of Republicans.[*]Closing the donut hole so theres no gap in Medicare prescription drug coverage: 81% like this, as do 80% of Republicans.[*]Eliminating costs for many preventive services: 79% support this, as do 68% of Republicans.[*]Medicaid expansion: 77% like it, as do 55% of Republicans. [/ul]  

[kayla.meyer_144]

Repeal of the ACA the American Brexit? All the people who made promises about how much better things would be suddenly find they get their wishes & suddenly everyone finds out they never had a plan in the first place – it was just an empty pose.
 
 

[Unknown Member]

Its called sheeting bricks

[btomba_77]

[b]Trump Lies About His Position on Health Care[/b][/h1] [b]
[/b]
 
President Trump has misrepresented his position on pre-existing conditions protections in the past, but even by previous standards his tweet on Monday stands out by falsely taking credit for the protections existing in the first place, saying he saved them, while actively trying to remove them, [link=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/blog/meet-press-blog-latest-news-analysis-data-driving-political-discussion-n988541]NBC News[/link] reports.
 
[link=http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/01/trump-preexisting-conditions-lie-health-care-obamacare.html]Jonathan Chait[/link]: Since he began running for president, Donald Trump has been lying about health care in general, and protections for patients with preexisting conditions in particular. Trumps long-standing lie is that he has a plan to help people with preexisting conditions afford insurance, or will shortly unveil such a plan. His most recent version of this lie goes even farther. Trump is now saying that he actually created the protection for preexisting conditions, and that Democrats are trying to take it away.
 
[b]This is the literal polar opposite of reality.[/b]

 

[Unknown Member]

Im sure the minions believe him too

Winnnnnnnning

[kayla.meyer_144]

His minions have no idea of what is what or up or down. What ever Donald says, they cheer. 
 
NAY-TOE-ME! What a stable genius he is!

[Unknown Member]

They just want to win Internet and Facebook fights with liberals

Thats all they care about

Doesnt matter if they dont have health care or a raise in 10 years

Trump fights with liberals

[kayla.meyer_144]

No, they want those “free” things like living wages and welfare (assistance) and healthcare. They want to believe that Democrats only give those things to minorities. So the ACA is a GOOD thing but Obamacare is BAD! Trump is FOR GOOD healthcare insurance but AGAINST Obamacare! 
 
Trump knows this because he has claimed responsibility for many “GOOD” things in the ACA but is AGAINST the many BAD things in Obamacare. So he did GOOD things like making sure “pre-existing conditions” did not allow insurance companies to exclude his base, unlike Obamacare.
 
Sorry for the CAPS but this is not a factual rational thing but purely alternate facts about what they all believe.
 
Oh yeah, Obamacare also made insurance too expensive for everyone as it was cheaper before.
 
 

[kayla.meyer_144]

4 Pinocchios! Should be 11 – 1 “louder” 
 
[link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/01/13/trumps-traffic-jam-false-claims-pre-existing-conditions]https://www.washingtonpos…re-existing-conditions[/link]

[btomba_77]

[link=https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/422535-republicans-face-2020-repeat-on-health-care]The Hill[/link]:[b]Republicans Face 2020 Repeat on Health Care

[/b] When a district judge in Texas ruled Obamacare unconstitutional last week in a case brought by Republican states, it gave Democrats another opportunity to box in GOP lawmakers on protections for people with pre-existing conditions a line of attack that Democrats credit with helping them win back the House.

With an appeal of the decision certain, and a possibility it will reach the Supreme Court, the case could haunt Republicans defending their seats in 2020, when Democrats hope to take back the Senate and the White House.

[btomba_77]

Trump Now Claims He Fixed Obamacare[/h1]  
 
In the last three months, President Trump has called Obamacare a disaster, a catastrophe and something that just doesnt work, [link=https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/24/politics/donald-trump-obamacare-adequate/index.html]CNN[/link] reports.
 
But on Monday, he conceded, its working at least adequately now.
He added: And we had that choice to make. And politically its probably not a good thing that I did, but its the right thing to do for a lot of people.

 

[kayla.meyer_144]

And he fixed by how?

Oh yes, by Declaration he fixed it.

[btomba_77]

From “fixed” to arguing for full repeal…
 
[blockquote]  Tomorrow the Trump admin is going to court to argue that the entire ACA should be overturned.

They are going to argue that insurance companies should be able to charge the 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions higher rates or deny them coverage outright.

[/blockquote]
[blockquote]  They’re going to argue that insurance companies should be able to charge women more. 

That young adults should be kicked off their parents’ plans.

That insurance companies shouldn’t even have to cover basics like prescription drugs, maternity care or hospital trips.

[/blockquote]

 

[kayla.meyer_144]

Now thats a winning strategy! 

[kayla.meyer_144]

Now thats a winning strategy!  

[kayla.meyer_144]

Trump rule that drug companies must disclose their list price has been struck down saying that is the role of Congress to do.

Waiting for Hades to freeze over & pigs to fly on that one.

[btomba_77]

Biden rolls out healthcare plan.
 
Looks to strengthen the ACA, provided subsidies further up into the middle class, expand Medicaid, add a public option.
 
Goes out of his way to rhetorically hug Obama while marking himself as in favor of maintaining private insurance:
 
“If you like your health care plan, your employer-based plan, you can keep it. If, in fact, you have private insurance, you can keep it.”
 

[kayla.meyer_144]

Missouri showing effects of the state not providing assistance under the ACA. People owing medical charges, hospitals closing, etc.
 
[link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/the-follow-up-appointment/2019/08/17/1be5ded6-b936-11e9-a091-6a96e67d9cce_story.html]https://www.washingtonpos…a96e67d9cce_story.html[/link]
 

By 9 a.m., more than two-dozen people were crowded into the room for what has become the busiest legal docket in rural Butler County.
 
Lots of medical cases again today, the judge said, and then he called court into session for another weekly fight between a hospital and its patients, which neither side appears to be winning.
 
So far this year, Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center has filed more than 1,100 lawsuits for unpaid bills in a rural corner of Southeast Missouri, where emergency medical care has become a standoff between hospitals and patients who are both going broke. [size=”0″]Unpaid medical bills are the leading cause of personal debt and bankruptcy in the United States according to credit reports, and whats happening in rural areas such as Butler County is a main reason why. Patients who visit rural emergency rooms in record numbers are defaulting on their bills at higher rates than ever before. Meanwhile, many of the nations 2,000 rural hospitals have begun to buckle under bad debt, with more than 100 closing in the past decade and hundreds more on the brink of insolvency as they fight to squeeze whatever money theyre owed from patients who dont have it.[/size]
 
The result each week in Poplar Bluff, a town of 17,000, has become so routine that some people here derisively refer to it as the follow-up appointment 19 lawsuits for unpaid hospital bills scheduled on this particular Wednesday, 34 more the following week, 22 the week after that. Case after case, a hospital that helps sustain its rural community is now also collecting payments that are bankrupting hundreds of its residents.

 
 
Good thing Missouri is working hard to make a better life for its citizens.

[btomba_77]

Democrats Back Off Medicare-for-All

Washington Post: The idea of Medicare-for-all a unified government health program that would take over the basic function of private insurance became a liberal litmus test at the outset of the presidential campaign, distinguishing Democratic contenders who cast themselves as bold visionaries from more moderate pragmatists.

But in recent months, amid polling that shows concern among voters about ending private insurance, several of the Democratic hopefuls have shifted their positions or their tone, moderating full-throated endorsement of Medicare-for-all and adopting ideas for allowing private insurance in some form.

This unmistakable, if sometimes subtle, shift in tone stems in part from Democrats fear of giving away a newfound advantage over Republicans on health care.

[kayla.meyer_144]

Good.

[kaldridgewv2211]

Quote from dergon

Democrats Back Off Medicare-for-All

Washington Post: The idea of Medicare-for-all a unified government health program that would take over the basic function of private insurance became a liberal litmus test at the outset of the presidential campaign, distinguishing Democratic contenders who cast themselves as bold visionaries from more moderate pragmatists.

But in recent months, amid polling that shows concern among voters about ending private insurance, several of the Democratic hopefuls have shifted their positions or their tone, moderating full-throated endorsement of Medicare-for-all and adopting ideas for allowing private insurance in some form.

This unmistakable, if sometimes subtle, shift in tone stems in part from Democrats fear of giving away a newfound advantage over Republicans on health care.

I think the most obvious thing is to put up a public option plan in which people can buy into medicare.  My buddy was paying $1800 a month on a cobra plan after his wife had a baby.  She’s a teacher in a good district but stayed out of work for some extra time to take care of the baby.  She just went back to work for the start of the school year so they’re able to get back on the normal teacher insurance plan.  $1800 a month is like highway robbery.  Make a public buy in plan that’s is better than the $1800 BS and people will buy in.

[btomba_77]

Yep. Allowing people, especially those over 50 yo, to buy in to Medicare also has a very high level of public support. (77% overall and 69% of Republicans )

[kayla.meyer_144]

Well, can’t entirely blame the insurance company when the American way is that companies’ first responsibility is to the shareholders above everything else.
 
[link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/08/19/lobbying-group-powerful-ceos-is-rethinking-how-it-defines-corporations-purpose/]https://www.washingtonpos…-corporations-purpose/[/link]
 

A group representing the nations most powerful chief executives on Monday abandoned the idea that companies must maximize profits for shareholders above all else, a long-held belief that advocates said boosted the returns of capitalism but detractors blamed for rising inequality and other social ills.
 
[link=https://opportunity.businessroundtable.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Business-Roundtable-Statement-on-the-Purpose-of-a-Corporation-with-Signatures.pdf]In a new statement[/link] about the purpose of the corporation, the Business Roundtable, which represents the chief executives of 192 large companies, said business leaders should commit to balancing the needs of shareholders with customers, employees, suppliers and local communities.
 
Americans deserve an economy that allows each person to succeed through hard work and creativity and to lead a life of meaning and dignity, said the statement from the organization, which is chaired by JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. We commit to deliver value to all of them, for the future success of our companies, our communities and our country.
 
The statement comes amid a growing national debate about the responsibilities of corporations at a time of stark economic inequality

 
[link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/08/19/top-ceos-are-reclaiming-legitimacy-by-advancing-vision-whats-good-america/]https://www.washingtonpos…on-whats-good-america/[/link]
 
And Congress is also the problem as even with Medicare, Congress has forbidden Medicare from negotiating drug prices for Medicare patients! Republicans are afraid Medicare has too much power to control medical pricing! As if that could never be the point. Let the Free Market determine pricing removing all regulations!
 
See how well that has worked for decades as costs have increased way beyond cost of living inflation each year, only slowing with the ACA, but still advancing.
[link=https://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2012/sep/04/tammy-baldwin/uncle-sam-barred-bargaining-medicare-drug-prices-s/]https://www.politifact.co…edicare-drug-prices-s/[/link]
 
[link=https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwasik/2018/08/10/why-medicare-cant-get-the-lowest-drug-prices/#47e9df11302b]https://www.forbes.com/si…g-prices/#47e9df11302b[/link]
 

When you’re one of the biggest buyers of pharmaceuticals on the planet, you should have a big stick to negotiate the best prices.
 
Medicare, which insures more than [link=https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/CMS-Fast-Facts/index.html]60 million beneficiaries[/link], doesn’t have that power, mostly because Congress stopped it from getting the best drug prices years ago.

 
 
 
 

[kaldridgewv2211]

I’ll believe this when I see it.  There was some staggering number I saw the other day like the Walmart heirs make about $4million an hour.  I strongly believe that even low skill entry level work should pay a living wage.  There’s a certain group that thinks it’s socialism, welfare or whatever.  However, it’s basically corporate welfare.  Places like Walmart get tax abatements, and the USA foots bills for SNAP and other welfare programs.

[kayla.meyer_144]

I did not predict it would happen, only that is the American ideal of corporate responsibility. Social concerns are just Socialism & everyones envy or the deserving rich and wanting to give free stuff away, and so on ad nauseum.

[kayla.meyer_144]

I did not predict it would happen, only that is the American ideal of corporate responsibility. Social concerns are just Socialism & everyones envy of the deserving rich and wanting to give free stuff away, and so on ad nauseum.

[19462008]

Quote from DICOM_Dan

I’ll believe this when I see it.  There was some staggering number I saw the other day like the Walmart heirs make about $4million an hour.  I strongly believe that even low skill entry level work should pay a living wage.  There’s a certain group that thinks it’s socialism, welfare or whatever.  However, it’s basically corporate welfare.  Places like Walmart get tax abatements, and the USA foots bills for SNAP and other welfare programs.

I somewhat agree with your statement. 4 Million a day, Wow. Is it net? Gross? EBIT? We don’t know. But I do believe the golden parachute for all industry owners CEO’s and Board Members need to be dialed back, including politicians, media and Hollywood (actors and studios). How about we leave it to a greedy person rather than their political party? Remember… We’re Humans first and we have a pecking order as a herding species. We will never have a Utopian / Socialist “Star Trek” prime directive on this planet. Your success is based on your own actions.
 
[i]This book is about how Washington is rigged to work for those who can hire armies of lobbyists and lawyers and make sure that everything that they want gets done in Washington. The game is rigged to work for those who already have money and power.” — [link=http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/05/mega-rich-elizabeth-warren-system-is-rigged-for-rich-people/][b]Elizabeth Warren[/b][/link]. Net Worth: [link=http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/10/elizabeth-warren-obtained-federal-fee-waivers-despite-high-6-figure-income-and-8-figure-net-worth/][b]14.5 million.[/b][/link][/i]
 
[i]What more do they want? They have a number of homes, the bigger the yacht, da da da da da, the taller the mast, the whole thing. They have museum quality art. They want immortality. (laughter) They want so much money that their names are all, for prestige they could never get any other way, they could buy with endless money. Because what else could you possibly want?” — [link=http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2011/08/31/pelosi_goes_nuts_on_the_rich][b]Nancy Pelosi[/b][/link]. Net worth: [link=http://www.rollcall.com/50richest/the-50-richest-members-of-congress-112th-2012.html][b]26.43 million[/b][/link][/i]
 
[i]How in the world do you, Mitt Romney, justify making more in one day than the median American family makes in a year while paying the effective tax rate of the guy who has to scan your shoes in the airport?” — [link=http://newsbusters.org/blogs/randy-hall/2012/06/19/jon-stewart-slams-romney-rich-while-being-mum-his-own-wealth][b]Jon Stewart[/b][/link]. Net worth: [link=http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/richest-comedians/jon-stewart-net-worth/][b]80 million[/b][/link].[b] [/b][i] [/i][u][/u][strike][/strike][/i]
 
[i]”It’s time to make the rich pay. Tax them! How much? Not enough! How much? Still not enough! They are thieves. They are gangsters. They are kleptomaniacs. They have tried to take our democracy and turn it into an hypocrisy.” — [link=http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/320-80/7606-occupy-wall-street-michael-moore-in-liberty-plaza][b]Michael Moore[/b][/link]. Net Worth: [link=http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/directors/michael-moore-net-worth/][b]50 Million.[/b][/link][b] [/b][i] [/i][u][/u][strike][/strike][/i]
 
[i]”If youve got a business, you didnt build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didnt get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.” — [link=http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-if-youve-got-business-you-didnt-build-somebody-else-made-happen][b]Barack Obama[/b][/link]. Net Worth: [link=http://www.therichest.com/celebnetworth/politician/president/barack-obama-net-worth/][b]11.8 million[/b][/link][b] [/b][i] [/i][u][/u][strike][/strike]
[/i]
 
[i]
[/i]

[kayla.meyer_144]

You are totally missing every point by making false comparisons and conclusions. Youre not even asking the correct questions. 
 
The. Issue is the Walmart family making $4 mil and hour while they pay their employees non-living wages and help them to apply for public assistance to boot. The entertainment people you have not shown to be paying their employees non-living wages. As for the politicians, whats your point? People who are in office are only allowed to have $X in their bank accounts and investments? That would apparently disqualify Trump then.

[kaldridgewv2211]

Correct that was per hour. So almost $100mil a day over $300m a year. I totally get it capitalism. It should be embarrassing to have that much $ and have a large part of your workforce making a meager wage.

The thing is say they paid everyone $50k a year to start even for stocking shelves. How much of that is just going to be fed back into the business in the form of consumerism. Rising tide lifts all boats.

[kayla.meyer_144]

Looks like the old story of Ford paying his employees enough to buy a Ford is officially dead and for some years now. Yeah, they CAN afford shopping at Walmart, just nowhere else -& Walmart does offer advice on applying for government assistance.
 
$50K per would not impoverish the family.
 
Now shareholders & Wall Street would likely not be happy for awhile.

[19462008]

Quote from Frumious

You are totally missing every point by making false comparisons and conclusions. Youre not even asking the correct questions. 

The. Issue is the Walmart family making $4 mil and hour while they pay their employees non-living wages and help them to apply for public assistance to boot. The entertainment people you have not shown to be paying their employees non-living wages. As for the politicians, whats your point? People who are in office are only allowed to have $X in their bank accounts and investments? That would apparently disqualify Trump then.

As always, your lack of understanding is now someone else fault. Typical Liberal Diatribe. You, nor I, know exactly if they are making 4 million an hour.  I’m sure it’s from a left wing blog. You don’t know what they give back, what they invest for the improvement and job creations. Granted wages could be better from all retail and some medical corps, just not Walmart. Amazon, Costco, Kroeger, McKesson, Target. They all could improve. Entertainment people should… entertain unless they want to volunteer or be part of the political systems by running for a spot. Same goes with the music industry. Clinton sucked at playing the Sax. Madonna should shave her unibrow and sing. 
 
 

[kayla.meyer_144]

Quote from CudaRad

As always, your lack of understanding is now someone else fault. Typical Liberal Diatribe. You, nor I, know exactly if they are making 4 million an hour.  I’m sure it’s from a left wing blog. You don’t know what they give back, what they invest for the improvement and job creations. Granted wages could be better from all retail and some medical corps, just not Walmart. Amazon, Costco, Kroeger, McKesson, Target. They all could improve. Entertainment people should… entertain unless they want to volunteer or be part of the political systems by running for a spot. Same goes with the music industry. Clinton sucked at playing the Sax. Madonna should shave her unibrow and sing. 

Uh, like I stated to cigar/IB, very easy to research/google. Bloomberg Left-wing? Ok, your right-wing media must have some facts, somewhere. Forbes? Is Forbes too left-wing for you?
 
[link=https://www.forbes.com/profile/walton-1/#1e42b9aa6f3f]https://www.forbes.com/pr…walton-1/#1e42b9aa6f3f[/link]

The Waltons are the richest family in America thanks to their ironclad control over the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart. Seven heirs of founders Sam Walton (d. 1992) and his brother James “Bud” (d. 1995) own about half of the company’s stock. Founded in 1962 in Rogers, Ark. and taken public in 1970, today it’s the biggest business in the U.S. in terms of revenues, with $482 billion in sales.

 
[link=https://www.bloomberg.com/features/richest-families-in-the-world/]https://www.bloomberg.com…families-in-the-world/[/link]
 

The numbers are mind-boggling: $70,000 per minute, $4 million per hour, $100 million per day.
Thats how quickly the fortune of the Waltons, the clan behind Walmart Inc., has been growing since last years Bloomberg ranking of the worlds richest families.
At that rate, their wealth wouldve expanded about $23,000 since you began reading this. A new Walmart associate in the U.S. wouldve made about 6 cents in that time, on the way to an $11 hourly minimum.
Even in this era of extreme wealth and brutal inequality, the contrast is jarring. The heirs of Sam Walton, Walmarts notoriously frugal founder, are amassing wealth on a near-unprecedented scale and theyre hardly alone.
The Walton fortune has swelled by $39 billion, to $191 billion, since topping the June 2018 ranking of the worlds richest families.
Other American dynasties are close behind in terms of the assets theyve accrued. The Mars family, of candy fame, added $37 billion, bringing its fortune to $127 billion. The Kochs, the industrialists-cum-political-power-players, tacked on $26 billion, to $125 billion.
 
As the tension increases, even some billionaire heirs are backing steps such as wealth taxes.
If we dont do something like this, what are we doing, just hoarding this wealth in a country thats falling apart at the seams? Liesel Pritzker Simmons, whose family ranks 17th on the Bloomberg list, said in June. Thats not the America we want to live in.

 
 
[link=https://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2013/dec/08/one-wisconsin-now/just-how-wealthy-wal-mart-walton-family/]https://www.politifact.co…al-mart-walton-family/[/link]
 

“The [link=http://www.businessinsider.com/meet-the-waltons-wal-mart-family-tree-2013-10]Walton family[/link], which owns Wal-Mart, controls a fortune equal to the wealth of the bottom 42 percent of Americans combined.”
 
Total Walton family wealth: $144.7 billion.

And how do they all give back? No, I don’t know, do you? They aren’t Bill Gates or Warren Buffett giving away a large portion of their wealth for public service. And what would that do for improving people’s living standards? Would that not make them “dependent?” Would it not be better to improve pay to re-build the middle class? 
 
What is the median household income again?
 
[link=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/20/opinion/business-roundtable.html]https://www.nytimes.com/2…siness-roundtable.html[/link]

I write this at a time when most Americans are struggling. [link=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/11/business/low-unemployment-not-seeking-work.html?module=inline]Sure, the unemployment rate is near a record low[/link], but that figure masks the fact that many families are not financially secure. A 2017 survey by the Federal Reserve Board showed that 40 percent of Americans [link=https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/other20180522a.htm]do not have $400 for an emergency.[/link] We all have relatives, friends and acquaintances who are struggling to keep up. Being broke while working is not an American value. Poor financial health creates stress, reduces hope and undermines capitalism. It is a cancer waiting to metastasize.

 
And DUH! The links did speak to other businesses other than just Walmart. It was Jamie Dimon  after all who  said,
 

Americans deserve an economy that allows each person to succeed through hard work and creativity and to lead a life of meaning and dignity, said the statement from the organization, which is chaired by JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. We commit to deliver value to all of them, for the future success of our companies, our communities and our country. 

 
He was NOT speaking to the Waltons only.
 
What am I supposed to have missed? Please spell it out, I only clearly see what’s in front of my nose, not so clear on what’s out there on the fringes where you live.
 

[kayla.meyer_144]

Interesting opinion on the quality and organization of American healthcare. I can’t say I’ve seen this level of workarounds & we don’t have these specific kind of problems this writer complains about but I have definitely seen workarounds due to poor but rigid implementation. Of EMRs. And I have seen a lot of scribes for physicians, especially in the ED.
 
Medical records these days, specifically EMRs, seems less about passing on medical information about the patient’s condition than it is about coding and billing. Healthcare is all about coding and billing. That alone provides major employment in healthcare.
 
[link=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/05/opinion/hospital-workaround-health-care.html]https://www.nytimes.com/2…round-health-care.html[/link]
 

Workarounds are legion in the American health care system, to the extent that ECRI (formerly the Emergency Care Research Institute) listed them fourth among [link=https://www.ecri.org/EmailResources/PSRQ/Top10/2018_PSTop10_ExecutiveBrief.pdf]its list of[/link] top 10 patient safety concerns for health care organizations in 2018. Workarounds, the group writes, are an adaptive response or perhaps one should say maladaptive response to a real or perceived barrier or system flaw.
 
Staff use workarounds because they save valuable time. According to Anita Tucker, a business professor at Boston University, system breakdowns, or what she calls operational failures, and the workarounds they stimulate, can consume up to 10 percent of a nurses day. Most hospital nurses are stretched to their limits during their 12-hour shifts. No nurse has 90 minutes to lose to a slow pharmacy or an inefficient hospital bureaucracy.
 
I saw the common sense that can underlie workarounds when my hospital floor instituted bar code scanning for medication administration. Using a hand-held scanner to register bar codes on medications and patients hospital bracelets sounds smart. But then some medications routinely came without bar codes, or had the wrong bar codes, and we nurses werent given an easy way to report those errors. Patients wrist bands could be difficult to scan and the process disturbed them, especially if they were asleep. The lists of medications on the computer screen were also surprisingly hard to read, which slowed everything down.
 
Consider the use of medical scribes, who complete doctors electronic paperwork in real time during patient visits. The American College of Medical Scribe Specialists reported that 20,000 scribes were working in 2014, and expects that number to climb to 100,000 in 2020.
 
I have heard doctors say they need a scribe to keep up with electronic medical records, the mounting demand of which is driving a burnout epidemic among physicians. Scribes allow doctors to talk with and examine patients without having a computer come between them, but at base they are a workaround for the well-known design flaws of electronic medical records.
 
As a nurse, when I first learned about scribes, I was outraged. On the job, nurses hear repeatedly how health care companies cant afford to have more nurses or aides to work with patients on hospital floors and yet, money is available to pay people to manage medical records. Doctors who use scribes tend to see their productivity and work satisfaction increase, but the trade-off is still there: Scribes demonstrate the extent to which paperwork has become more important than patients in American health care.

The “program works as designed.”
 
Who designed this again?
 
 
 

[kayla.meyer_144]

And regarding billing, how going for healthcare can bankrupt people, starting with balance billing, co-pays and deductibles, and that’s  for people who have insurance. Patients cannot find out real estimates before treatment especially if someone treating them is out of network.
 
The fact is that insurance isn’t the sole culprit in healthcare costs and patients’ eating up their savings. For single local providers especially in rural areas, insurance companies have little ability to negotiate. And patients have zero ability since often they have to pay “list price” on the Chargemasters which as often as not, is not rooted in reality other than profits.
 
[link=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/03/health/carlsbad-hospital-lawsuits-medical-debt.html]https://www.nytimes.com/2…uits-medical-debt.html[/link]
 

Carlsbad Medical Center is not the only hospital to have filed reams of lawsuits over unpaid bills. In Memphis, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, a nonprofit hospital, [link=https://www.propublica.org/article/methodist-le-bonheur-healthcare-sues-poor-medical-debt]filed 8,300 lawsuits from 2014 through 2018[/link], including some against its own employees, according to an investigation by the journalism nonprofit groups ProPublica and MLK50.
 
In Virginia, hospitals [link=https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2737183]filed more than 20,000 lawsuits over patient debt in 2017 alone[/link], according to a study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University. Just five hospitals accounted for half of the resulting wage garnishments in the state.
 
[b]People across the country are coping with soaring medical costs, opaque pricing and surprise bills, but these issues are felt acutely in one-hospital towns like Carlsbad, where residents have few options for care and must pay whatever prices the hospital sets.[/b]
 
[b]Hospitals that have little competition can negotiate higher rates, because the insurer wants that hospital in their network, said Sara Collins of the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund. Patient deductibles, which must be paid out of pocket, are rising for almost everyone, she added.[/b]
 
Nationally, more than one in four consumers in 2018 [link=https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/201907_cfpb_third-party-debt-collections_report.pdf]were reported to credit bureaus over unpaid [/link][link=https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/201907_cfpb_third-party-debt-collections_report.pdf]debt[/link], according to the Consumer Credit Protection Bureau. More than half of those reports involved medical bills. One survey of women with breast cancer found that a third of those with health insurance [link=https://meetinglibrary.asco.org/record/166359/abstract]had been referred to bill collectors[/link]; among those without insurance, the number rose to 77 percent.
 
People confronted with medical debt typically [link=https://www.commonwealthfund.org/sites/default/files/2019-02/Collins_growing_cost_burden_testimony_02-13_2019_0.pdf]drain their savings[/link], the Commonwealth Fund has found, and 43 percent said it lowered their credit rating, suggesting that many of these consumers were reported to collections agencies.
 
[b]In a presentation to the state legislature in 2015, the mining company Intrepid Potash, a major employer in Carlsbad, calculated that it [link=https://nmlegis.gov/handouts/LHHS%20082415%20Item%2015%20Monopolistic%20Overcharging%20Abuse.pdf]would be cheaper for one of its workers to travel to Hawaii for a gall bladder operation[/link]  including airfare for two, and a seven-day island cruise than to get the procedure at the local hospital. The company still encourages employees to seek care out of town when possible.[/b]
 
In May, a nationwide survey by the RAND Corporation found that private insurers paid Carlsbad Medical Center [link=https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR3033.html]five times more than Medicare would have paid for the same services[/link]  about twice the figure in the state overall. 
 
Carlsbad Medical Center is owned by Community Health Systems, a chain of hospitals based in Franklin, Tenn. An investigation in 2014 by the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper found that the three hospitals [link=https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/health_and_science/steep-hospital-markups-strike-blow-to-uninsured/article_0a8afbd6-d3b9-5a43-a38d-ecbaaf901f0f.html]charging the highest prices in the state were all owned by that chain[/link].
 
In 2015, the company paid $98 million to the federal government [link=https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/community-health-systems-inc-pay-9815-million-resolve-false-claims-act-allegations]to settle charges that it had inflated revenue by admitting patients unnecessarily[/link]. Community Health Systems admitted no wrongdoing.

 
If Community Health ever needs a CEO, they can enlist Sen. Rick Scott for the position. After all, he has direct experience is these sort of things.
 
 

[kayla.meyer_144]

Another article on more predatory hospital billing. Non-profit hospitals, indeed.
 
Yes, who needs Medicare for all with healthcare like this bankrupting people with predatory billing and bill collection. Medicare for all, more “free stuff” Socialism.
 
[link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/uva-has-ruined-us-health-system-sues-thousands-of-patients-seizing-paychecks-and-putting-liens-on-homes/2019/09/09/5eb23306-c807-11e9-be05-f76ac4ec618c_story.html]https://www.washingtonpos…76ac4ec618c_story.html[/link]
 

The family has lots of company: Over six years ending in June 2018, the health system and its doctors sued former patients more than 36,000 times for over $106 million, seizing wages and bank accounts, putting liens on property and homes and forcing families into bankruptcy, a Kaiser Health News analysis has found.
 
Unpaid medical bills are a leading cause of personal debt and bankruptcy, with hospitals from [link=https://www.propublica.org/article/methodist-le-bonheur-healthcare-sues-poor-medical-debt]Memphis[/link] to [link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/johns-hopkins-hospital-sues-patients-many-low-income-for-medical-debt/2019/05/20/d850cafa-7b19-11e9-a5b3-34f3edf1351e_story.html]Baltimore[/link] criticized for their role in pushing families over the financial edge. But UVA stands out for the scope of its collection efforts and how persistently it goes after payment, pursuing poor as well as middle-class patients for almost all theyre worth, according to court records, hospital documents and interviews with hospital officials and dozens of patients.
 
UVA sued patients for as little as $13.91 and as much as $1 million during most of that period, until July 2017, when it restricted lawsuits to those owing more than $1,000, the analysis shows.
 
Every year, the health system sued about 100 of its own employees who also happened to be patients. It garnished thousands of paychecks, largely from workers at lower-pay employers such as Walmart, where UVA took wages more than 800 times.
Under a Virginia program designed to help state and local governments collect debt, it also seized $22 million in state tax refunds to patients with outstanding medical bills in the last six fiscal years most of it without court judgments, said health system spokesman Eric Swensen.
 
Over many years, it filed thousands of property liens from Albemarle County all the way to Georgia.
Beyond its recovery of debts, UVA dunned some former patients an additional 15 percent for legal costs, plus 6 percent interest on their unpaid bills, which over the course of years can add up to more than the original bill.
 
The health system also has the most restrictive eligibility guidelines for financial assistance to patients of any major hospital system in Virginia, interviews and written policies show. Savings of only $4,000 in a retirement account can disqualify a family from aid, even if its income is barely above poverty level.
 
The[b] [/b] hospital [link=https://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/area/va/university-of-virginia-medical-center-6344000]ranked No. 1 in Virginia [/link]by U.S. News & World Report is taxpayer supported and state-funded, not a company with profit motives and shareholder demands. Like other nonprofit hospitals, it pays no federal, state or local taxes on the presumption it offers charity care and other community benefits valued at least as much as those breaks. Gov. Ralph Northam (D), a pediatric neurologist, oversees its board.
 
Patients find themselves unable to pay UVA bills for many reasons: They are uninsured or sometimes have short-term coverage that does not pay for treatment of preexisting illnesses. Or they are out of network, or have a high-deductible plan increasingly common coverage nationwide that can require patients to pay more than $6,000 before insurance kicks in. Virginias Medicaid expansion, which took effect this year, covers families with low incomes but is still projected to leave hundreds of thousands uninsured.
 
Patients also have trouble because like many U.S. hospitals, UVA bills people lacking coverage at rates far higher than what insurance companies pay on behalf of their members. Such bills often have little connection to the cost of care, experts say. Insurers obtain huge discounts off hospital sticker prices 70 percent on average in UVAs case, according to documents it files with Medicare.
 

 
 
 
 

[kayla.meyer_144]

Studies coming in that the ACA made many people healthier as a result.
 
[link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/i-would-be-dead-or-i-would-be-financially-ruined/2019/09/29/e697149c-c80e-11e9-be05-f76ac4ec618c_story.html]https://www.washingtonpos…76ac4ec618c_story.html[/link]
 

Poor people in Michigan with asthma and diabetes were admitted to the hospital less often after they joined Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. More than 25,000 Ohio smokers got help through the states Medicaid expansion that led them to quit. And around the country, patients with advanced kidney disease who went on dialysis were more likely to be alive a year later if they lived in a Medicaid-expansion state.
 

Such findings are part of an emerging mosaic of evidence that, nearly a decade after it became one of the most polarizing health-care laws in U.S. history, the ACA is making some Americans healthier and less likely to die.
 
The evidence is accumulating just as the ACAs future is, once again, being cast into doubt. The most immediate threat arises from a federal lawsuit, brought by a group of Republican state attorneys general, that challenges the laws constitutionality.

 

 

[btomba_77]

I think its a terrible mistake if the Democratic nominee would publicly support Medicare for All.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), quoted by CNN, urging Democratic candidates to focus on improving the Affordable Care Act instead.

[btomba_77]

[h2][link=https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/468034-number-of-uninsured-children-rises-for-second-year-tops-4-million]Number of uninsured children rises for second year, tops 4 million[/link][/h2]  

The report found that increase has wiped out a large share of the coverage gains made since the enactment of the health law in 2014, and is due in large part to policies championed by the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress.

According to researchers, ObamaCare helped more children obtain health coverage. But beginning in 2017, the number of uninsured children began to rise.The report specifically cited the confusion surrounding the administrations failed attempt to repeal ObamaCare, the successful elimination of the laws individual mandate, and a months-long delay in funding the Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP). 

In addition, the report cited the Trump administrations decision to dramatically cut ObamaCare outreach and enrollment grants, while also shortening the open enrollment period.

At a time when families need more help navigating the confusing health coverage landscape, fewer resources are available for ObamaCare outreach and enrollment efforts as a result of cuts made by the administration in 2017, the report said.

The report, which was based on an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data, found seven states where the rate of uninsured rate for children increased most sharply. Texas has the largest proportion of uninsured children, and is home to more than one in five uninsured children in the U.S.

Three-quarters of the children who lost coverage between 2016 and 2018 live in GOP-led states that have not expanded Medicaid. The uninsured rate for children in those states increased at three times the rate as children in expansion states.

[/QUOTE]
 

[kayla.meyer_144]

Warren releases her Medicare For All plan.
 
[link=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-warren-medicare/democrat-warren-medicare-for-all-would-not-raise-u-s-middle-class-taxes-idUSKBN1XB466]https://www.reuters.com/a…ss-taxes-idUSKBN1XB466[/link]

Critics like Warren note that the current U.S. healthcare system – a patchwork of private insurance often provided by employers or obtained through Obamacare marketplaces and public programs covering the poor, elderly and disabled – is the most expensive in the world despite leaving tens of millions with no coverage.

 

[kayla.meyer_144]

Suddenly full repeal isn’t something that has to be done now. It can wait.
 
I say let the courts decide now and if repealed, let’s see the “replace” plan of the Republicans as healthcare burns down setting people free to have no insurance at all like the Republicans and Libertarians believe will give people the freedom they deserve.
 
[link=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/upshot/obamacare-lawsuit-delay-sought-trump-republicans.html]https://www.nytimes.com/2…trump-republicans.html[/link]
 

The Trump administration came into office with its top legislative priority clear: [link=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/10/us/repeal-affordable-care-act-donald-trump.html]Repeal the Affordable Care Act[/link]. It [link=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/us/politics/obamacare-partial-repeal-senate-republicans-revolt.html]failed[/link]. Then, when a group of Republican states tried to throw out Obamacare through a lawsuit, the [link=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/health/unconstitutional-trump-aca.html]administration agreed[/link] that a key part of the law was unconstitutional.
 
But now that defenders of the law have asked the Supreme Court to settle the case quickly, the presidents lawyers say they are in no particular hurry. The case, which seeks to invalidate the entire health care law, can wait for the lower courts to consider certain questions more carefully, they said in a filing to the Supreme Court on Friday. There is no present, real-world emergency, [link=https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19-840/128202/20200110134632635_19-840%2019-841%20-%20Cal%20%20House%20-%20Opp%20to%20Motion%20to%20Expedite.pdf]the brief[/link]says, that would require the court to rush the cases progress.
 
The case could have [link=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/18/health/health-care-2020-election.html]major political implications[/link] because the results sought by the Republican states and the Trump administration would cause substantial disruptions. According to estimates from the Urban Institute, [link=https://www.urban.org/research/publication/potential-implications-texas-v-united-states-how-would-repeal-aca-change-likelihood-people-different-characteristics-would-be-uninsured]around 20 million more Americans[/link] would become uninsured because of the elimination of the laws coverage expansions and protections for Americans with pre-existing health conditions.

 
 

[btomba_77]

Supreme Court Will Again Consider Fate of Obamacare

The Supreme Court will hear a third challenge to the Affordable Care Act, this time at the request of Democratic-controlled states that are fighting a lower court decision that challenged the constitutionality of the law, the Washington Post reports.

The courts review will probably come in the term that begins in October, which would not leave time for a decision before the November election. The law remains in effect.

[katiemckee84_223]

“It’s a tax” … even though it was never written that way. It’s an unconstitutional penalty. More “Oh let’s just use the commerce clause BS line” to legislate from the bench
 
Roberts might have another seizure, there is hope for you ACA wads

[btomba_77]

[link=https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/21/trump-administration-obamacare-coronavirus-140806]https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/21/trump-administration-obamacare-coronavirus-140806

[/link]While currently fighting to repeal the entire ACA ….
[h2]Trump officials weigh reopening Obamacare enrollment over coronavirus[/h2] A number of Democratic-leaning states that run their own health insurance marketplaces have recently reopened enrollment.
 

[btomba_77]

[h1][b]Obamacare Must ‘Fall,’ Trump Administration Files at Supreme Court[/b][/h1]  

[link=https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19-840/146406/20200625205555069_19-840bsUnitedStates.pdf]https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19-840/146406/20200625205555069_19-840bsUnitedStates.pdf

[/link]

In a filing with the Supreme Court, the Trump administration has reaffirmed its position that the Affordable Care Act in its entirety is illegal because Congress eliminated the individual tax penalty for failing to purchase medical insurance.
 
Solicitor General Noel Francisco, the government’s chief advocate before the Supreme Court, said in a [link=https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/19-840/146406/20200625205555069_19-840bsUnitedStates.pdf]brief[/link] that the other provisions of Obamacare are impossible to separate from the individual mandate and that “it necessarily follows that the rest of the ACA must also fall.”

 

[btomba_77]

[b]Trumps Riskiest Move Yet[/b][/h1]  
 
 
 
[link=https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/27/politics/donald-trump-obamacare-pandemic-2020-election/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_allpolitics+%28RSS%3A+CNN+-+Politics%29]Maeve Reston[/link]: President Trump has made many questionable decisions in recent weeks as he looks ahead to his increasingly difficult reelection campaign. But his administrations decision to forge ahead with its effort to invalidate the Affordable Care Act through the courts may go down as the decision that carried the most risk for Republicans up and down the ballot in 2020.
The GOP has been fighting to eviscerate Obamacare since it was passed a decade ago. But the effort to strip Americans of health care has never appeared more out of touch and tone deaf than it has during a pandemic, when more than 125,000 Americans have died, more than 2.4 million have been infected and many have lost their employer-sponsored health insurance in the waves of layoffs that have decimated the economy.

 

[btomba_77]

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Enhancement Act:

The bill is designed to strengthen and expand upon the Affordable Care Act (ACA), shore up the Medicaid program, and lower prescription drug prices. The House Rules Committee will take up HR 1425 on June 24, with consideration by the full House after that.

HR 1425 would improve marketplace access and affordability. Among other changes, the bill would expand the availability of ACA subsidies to additional income brackets, make premium tax credits (PTCs) more generous, eliminate the family glitch, fund outreach and navigators, fund state-based reinsurance or subsidy programs, fund state efforts to set up their own marketplaces, and rescind Trump-era guidance on state waivers under Section 1332. Most of these priorities have been included in prior ACA legislation or considered as stand-alone bills in the House and Senate. Some of the changes are also consistent with some of former Vice President Joe Bidens health care campaign proposals.

[btomba_77]

The House Monday passed the first significant expansion of the Affordable Care Act since its birth a decade ago, providing Democrats a high-wattage platform to castigate President Trump for his efforts to overturn the landmark law during a pandemic and an election year, the Washington Post reports.

The 234-179 vote, almost entirely along party lines, was a hollow exercise in terms of any chance the bill would become law and reshape federal health policy Still, the vote was laden with political implications. Less than five months before presidential and congressional elections, it forced Republicans to go on the record about the ACA and showed anew the parties highly charged ideological differences on health care an issue that consistently polls as a prime concern among U.S. voters.

[btomba_77]

Obamacare  showing strong popular support even as the  Trump administration is pushing for the SCOTUS to throw it  out in its entirety – 

Trumps decision to ask the Supreme Court to throw out the Affordable Care Act may alienate the independent voters who can swing the presidential election. That could be especially important in battleground states.

The big picture: Many of the ACAs benefits are hugely popular with independents even beyond protections for people with pre-existing conditions, which gets the most attention.

By the numbers: Our KFF polling asked independent voters whether they would want certain ACA policies to remain in place even if the ACA were thrown out.
[ul][*]93% of independent voters want insurance companies to continue to be prohibited from setting lifetime limits on coverage.[*]82% want to retain subsidies to help people pay for insurance.[*]80% want young adults to keep the option of staying on their parents plans[*]And 90% of independents want to see protections for people with pre-existing conditions continue if the court throws out the ACA. [/ul]

 

[clickpenguin_460]

Honestly at this point, Trump should support Obamacare or re-label it like he did with NAFTA. If he doesn’t, he risks a single-payer system and/or something much worse.

[kayla.meyer_144]

TRUMPCARE!
 
ONLY LOSERS GET SICK & DIE! 

[btomba_77]

[b]Obamas Medicaid Expansion Keeps Gaining Ground[/b][/h1]  
President Trump is still trying to overturn Obamacare, but his predecessors health care law keeps gaining ground in places where it was once unwelcome, the [link=https://apnews.com/a535f2211b7d536813119362d5de3578]AP[/link] reports.
Missouri voters this week approved Medicaid expansion by a 53% to 47% margin, making the conservative state the seventh to do so under Trump.
That leaves only a dozen states opposed to using the federal-state health program for low-income people as a vehicle for covering more adults, mainly people in jobs that dont provide health care.

 

[clickpenguin_460]

I was actually surprised at how close it was given the money that went into the campaign in MO and how the issue was framed to the voters – aka that Missouri taxpayers are paying for other states healthcare instead of getting money for free.  Repeated ads.
 
On a related note, I’m resolved to the fact we have to pick between bad and worse at this point due to the lack of Republicans having any sort of coherent plan so I would much rather go the medicaid/Obamacare route than blow it up and end up with government single payer.

[btomba_77]

[b]Support for Obamacare Hits New High[/b][/h1]  
A new [link=https://morningconsult.com/2020/09/29/obamacare-support-polling-supreme-court/]Morning Consult poll[/link] finds a record-high 62% of voters support the Affordable Care Act, including 85% of Democrats and 36% of Republicans.
 
Also interesting: 56% of voters say the ACA should be improved and strengthened, while 20% say the law should be struck down and 9% say it should be left alone.

 

[btomba_77]

 
PROTECT PREEXISTING CONDITIONS. VOTE!
[link=https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1313073591974592512]https://twitter.com/realD…us/1313073591974592512[/link]

Trump endorses Biden!

(cognitive side effects of the dexamethasone must be kicking in 😉

[kaldridgewv2211]

I kind of wonder if Trump supporters actually think he has this grand plan.  I feel like it’s kind of easy to see through the sham.  They’re trying to kill Obamacare.  SCOTUS just coming back in session.  Trump or the GOP has yet to show anything.  It’s all bluster.  You’ll see the plan next week.  Life is great for the political class who get great benefits.

[nicolasvg.1003]

I feel they won’t strike down the entire ACA.  They will say there is “sever-ability” and keep the ACA intact.  I just can’t see a SCOTUS which is already wrapped up in major controversy doing something that will massively hurt many, many citizens and only increase the negative views towards the court. 

[btomba_77]

[h1]Key Justices Signal Support for Affordable Care Act[/h1]

[link=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/us/supreme-court-obamacare-aca.html]https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/us/supreme-court-obamacare-aca.html?[/link]
 

At least five justices, including two members of the courts conservative majority, indicated that they were not inclined to strike down the balance of the law. In legal terms, they said the mandate was severable from the rest of the law.

It does seem fairly clear that the proper remedy would be to sever the mandate provision and leave the rest of the law in place, said Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. made a similar point. Congress left the rest of the law intact when it lowered the penalty to zero, he said.
[/QUOTE]