The usually rightie mouthpieces are all excited by a NEW Republican plan to REPLACE OBAMACARE. What did they come up with that’s NEW?
Um, not much. It’s all tweaks of old plans. But let’s look anyway.
It would allow more age rating of insurance. Under Obamacare insurers cannot charge older and sicker people more than three times what the young folks pay. The NEW plan would allow older folks to be charged five times what the young folks pay.
It would not require insurance companies to insure people with pre-existing conditions. They would be required to offer a plan to someone who has had continuo8us coverage — in other words, if they currently have or just lost insurance — but we’re not told what “must offer” might mean. It could be a plan nobody could afford, for all we know.
Everyone the private insurance companies won’t touch would auto-enrolled in high-risk pools, which have been tried before but turned out to be hideously expensive to the point of being unworkable. The GOP plan appears to be a bit fuzzy about how that will be paid for without bankrupting the participants. But, hey, it sounds like a plan.
They’re especially proud of a plan to cap tax exclusion for employee benefit plans and use the difference in revenue to provide subsidies for the very poor. Medicaid would be changed to something like a block grant to states plan, although not exactly.
Basically, it’s a milder form of the same old screw job they’ve been proposing for years. It’s basically a scheme to dig more money out of everyone’s pocket for the benefit of the insurance industry. See Joan McCarter for more.
Update: See GOP offers Obamacare replacement — and it’s a mess
I guess we can call this the UCA… the Unaffordable Care Act.
These hucksters just can’t help themselves, can they?
The conclusion of the article at Salon by Brian Beutler says it all.
“These Republicans have recognized that Obamacare has permanently altered the healthcare debate, but they haven’t accepted that the new reality is centered around an iron-clad healthcare guarantee. Until they do there just isn’t that much to talk about.”
BTW – I don’t see if the proposal is specific enough to be scored by the CBO. That would say a lot about how much individual costs would potentially go up – what would happen to the federal deficit, how many people would be priced out of the market and lose coverage completely.
OT – I’m seeing a coordinated attack on Hilary Clinton via Bill Clinton and Monica The reason I say coordinated is because in at least two Monday reviews of GOP talking heads from Sunday, the move seems to be to discredit by association – and get people back in scandal mode. Frankly, I think it will backfire. The former first lady handled an ugly situation with class. The GOP stands to create more sympathy than hostility. My guess is that they are staging to the whisper campaign that if Bill is the ‘first spouse’, he will actually be running the show – Hilary will just be a figurehead. A vote against Hilary is a vote against Bill. Again, weak strategy – Bill Clinton has high approval ratings, last time I checked.
Sounds like it’s a rhetorical plan, it exists only to blunt the criticism that they have none.
Doug…I agree. I think it’s going to blowup in their faces. And it’s certainly not going to help them shed their war on women stigma. I see where Greta Van Susteren lashed out at Erick Erickson for his cheap shot at Wendy Davis. It seems they are getting a little sensitive to people pointing out their observations about the war on women.
I don’t know who is coming down the pike as candidates for 2016, but as it stands now I’ve committed my vote to Hillary if she decides to run. She’s earned my respect. I think it’s time for a woman president.
And all this time I thought their plan was a roll of duct tape, a bottle of aspirin, some pork fat,and a bible. It worked just fine for momma Huckabee.
As for Monica and bill, let’s start a rumor that Monica was a foreign agent who got bill in a “honey trap”. It happens all the time .I would give my left testicle to hear the first conversation between bill and hill after the poop hit the fan.I’m thinking bill would rather have jumped into a pool of jellyfish and crawled over scorpion beach than to mess with ms Monica and have it go public.what in hell was he thinking? Oh, never mind…..
So, now the Republicans are forced to act as if they have a health care act.
All of their recent political activities and approaches seem to either be from Kabuki, or The Theatre of the Absurd.
OH NO!!!
The great, GREAT Pete Seeger has died, at age 94!
A well-lived, and useful life.
R.I.P. Pete Seeger.