DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... What is the alternative to Obamacare?

Yeah, my international customers for my online business never complain about healthcare, now that I think about it.

There are complaints and problems with the system and I've seen the factual data before from economic studies. It is out there and exists, all you have to do is look.

So you would be all right with paying very high income taxes? I don't understand that position.

I'm okay paying higher taxes as long as they benefit all Americans.

I look at it as reinvesting into the future of our country. Healthcare and Education remain primary concerns, and free healthcare and tutition is something I'm willing to help finance through higher taxes.

Christ argues to let go of as much as you have, and use what you can to help others in need. That's the social justice Gospel in a nutshell.

J/C

Most Pharmaceutical research and Medical research companies get all or a fairly large portion of their money through government grants so why can't the government just say look you want our money then were gonna set the prices?

Also when my company had their annual insurance meeting last fall a woman from a company that my company uses to find the best insurance deals told us that insurance premiums are going to take a huge jump next year because when they did this AHCA they vastly underestimated the number of sick people who would be signing up.

GOP governors who turned down Medicaid money have hands out

https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-governors-turned-down-medicaid-091012213.html?ref=gs

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republican governors who turned down billions in federal dollars from an expansion of Medicaid under President Barack Obama's health care law now have their hands out in hopes the GOP-controlled Congress comes up with a new formula to provide insurance for low-income Americans.

The other GOP governors, such as Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who agreed to expand state-run services in exchange for federal help — more than a dozen out of the 31 states — are adamant that Congress maintain the financing that has allowed them to add millions of low-income people to the health insurance rolls.

These two groups of Republicans embody the difficulty the emboldened GOP congressional majorities face: Make good on their promises to repeal the 2010 health care law while preserving popular provisions.

Republican governors and lieutenant governors were in Washington pleading their cases with GOP leaders and the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday as the GOP majority has taken the first step to dismantling the law.

In a letter he carried to Capitol Hill, Kasich warned that repealing the law without an alternative in place could interrupt health care coverage for hundreds of thousands in Ohio and urged he "be granted the flexibility to retain the adult Medicaid coverage expansion." Ohio has added roughly 700,000 recipients to the program since the law took effect in 2013.

GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said he envisioned "a transition from right now to where we're going to ultimately end up," and hoped "to get their feedback," referring to meetings with Republican governors.

Unlike Kasich, 19 Republican governors successfully defied the Affordable Care Act's mandate that states open up Medicaid to more people.

It was a major expansion of the state-federal health insurance system whose primary purpose has grown in its 52 years from backstop medical assistance for the poor to the go-to program for closing gaps in private health insurance system.

In the three years since the Affordable Care Act went into effect, Medicaid enrollment has grown by about 18 million people, to roughly 75 million, according to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.


Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker notably turned down more than $500 million for his state. Determined to win over conservative voters for his presidential bid, he doubted the federal government would keep its word to cover 100 percent of expansion costs in the first three years, and 90 percent over the long term.

On average, the federal government's contribution accounts for 56 percent of a state's Medicaid budget, making the financing terms under the health care law much more generous. Wisconsin's federal split is about 60-40.

Instead of taking the extra money, Walker used the existing formula to shore up coverage for Wisconsin's poorest and release less-poor Medicaid recipients into the private insurance market and public program in the Obama law.

"The simple message is this: Vote to repeal and replace Obamacare immediately and send Medicaid funding to the states in the form of a block grant," Walker wrote last week in a letter to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

Republicans have long sought block grants or lump-sum payments for health care. The money has helped them maintain their budgets, while the relative lack of heavy regulation has allowed governors freedom to experiment with social services policy.

But with Republicans, backed by President-elect Donald Trump, pursuing repeal of the law, Walker and others GOP governors are asking specifically for the Medicaid money, and fewer rules for spending it.

"What they're really saying is let's look at this again through the lens of greater freedom and flexibility from those constraints, and we'll take a fresh look at expansion," said Dennis Smith, who was Medicaid director for President George W. Bush.

Hardly, said Ron Pollack of Families USA, a leading advocate for Obama's law.

"Now that Barack Obama is no longer going to be at the White House, it is going to be much more palatable for Republican governors to seek additional funding," he said.

All Democratic governors in office when the law took effect in 2013 agreed to the expansion. Even Republican governors in 11 states agreed to expand Medicaid, some with specific waivers that still allowed them to claim the federal reimbursement.

Now, Republican leaders in states aren't just asking for money they turned down. They're asking to change the formula to get back what they lost.

The federal Medicaid formula is based in part on how many enrollees a state had as of 2016. By last year, Michigan, for instance, had added 630,000 recipients since accepting the Medicaid expansion.

But Medicaid in Kansas grew at a far slower rate, given Gov. Sam Brownback's opposition to the federal law. Now, he wants Congress to change the formula to benefit his state.

"As it stands now, because you didn't do it, you're going to miss out on a bigger block grant," said Kansas Lt. Gov. Jeff Coyler.

its a good solution if you like waiting for care...

Im just now getting back up to speed after dealing with some heart issues.

That being said i need to see someone NOW....not 1 hour from now, not tomorrow, not next week, NOW

I went to the best Dr in the region, the only one in the area with 5 Stars on Web MD and other such sources.

it wasn't cheap...but guess what? if you want the best care..you gotta pay for it...

a single payer system is not the answer...you will get crap care, and no resource to advocate for yourself when you get poor care of the DR screws up...you will be stuck with sub standard care...

I think the answer to fixing insurance is allowing the states and insurance companies to create large insurance pools and allow any employer in the state to enter that pool for its employees, get 100,000 or more people in the same pool costs come down a lot, the employer wins, the employee wins, the state wins, and the insurance company all win.

what we have in Obama care is a flipping disaster...

in 2008 i had a zero out of pocket expense insurance plan that was pretty cheap

today i have 3,000 dollar out of pocket expense and my plan is 70% more expensive then it was in 2008...it still didn't stop me from seeing a good DR.

Obama care ruined insurance plans for the middle class in this country, i am just one of many that its proof of it....

Actually what you just explained is what Obamacare was set to do with the state health insurance exchange pool. The disaster was, that a bunch of states elected not to participate in those exchange pools.

I just wanted to add to your comments.

I am on Medicare. I have, generally, 4 or 5 options as to the Medicare Advantage plans that are available to mt. However, i have exactly 1 option to which all of my doctors belong. Fortunately, it is a good plan.

I am very lucky in that I do not have to go to the exchanges to buy garbage coverage. I pay an incredibly small premium, and get very good (overall) coverage. If I had to do that, I would have had to do without care. Being on a very fixed income means that I have seen my finances stretched to their limits. I have gone through pretty much every penny of my savings over the past 5-6 years. If I had to pay a $3000, $4000, or even a $5000 deductible, I'd be sunk.

I have many friends who used to have (employer provided) decent coverage. Yeah, we all complained about the rather modest increases, but man, I have friends who went from having a $500 deductible and an 80/20 co-pay, (usually up to the 1st $5000-$8000, depending on their plan,) to having a ridiculous co-pay, and an even more difficult co-pay. Obamacare was supposed to help people, and it has in some cases, but it has practically destroyed others. I have friends who have put off care, and medical procedures, because they just can't afford it anymore.

Further, there are people who have exactly 1 choice of plans in many states. I am certain that this was not the intention of the law, yet it is a result.

There has to be a better solution than this horrible law.

You gentlemen would know this better than me. It takes 51 votes to repeal, but doesn't it take 60 to put something new in?

Not if it goes through the budget process ..... at least as I understand it.

This assumes that insurance's #1 goal is to provide good healthcare.

My assumption is that the law that the Democrats passed was supposed to provide quality coverage.

That's because the Republicans who passed the law assumed insurance companies were in the healthcare business.

You guys assume too much. None of them bothered to read it before they passed it, so I think they didnt really care what was in it.

j/c

Nephew. 26 years old, with absolutely NO health issues. Lost his work provided insurance. Why, I don't know.

Single 26 year old, no kids, no heath problems.

Best he could come up with in North central Indiana was a policy with a $750 monthly premium, and a $12,000 deductible.

What is the alternative to NOT repealing ObamaCare?

Allowing the entire thing go bust as it currently is.

Let the public see just how dumb Obama and the Democrats are!

Which Republicans voted for the ACA in the House and the Senate?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/...m=.331ec5610d96

Behind closed doors, Republican lawmakers fret about how to repeal Obamacare

During a retreat in Philadelphia, Republican lawmakers discussed national security, defense and foreign policy. Contributors included Sens. John Barasso (Wyo.), Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Reps. Greg Walden (Ore.), Kevin Brady (Tex.), Virginia Foxx (N.C.) and Andrew Bremberg, a top domestic policy adviser to President Trump. (Obtained by The Washington Post)

By Mike DeBonis

January 27 at 11:08 PM 

PHILADELPHIA — Republican lawmakers aired sharp concerns about their party’s quick push to repeal the Affordable Care Act at a closed-door meeting Thursday, according to a recording of the session obtained by The Washington Post.

The recording reveals a GOP that appears to be filled with doubts about how to make good on a long-standing promise to get rid of Obamacare without explicit guidance from President Trump or his administration. The thorny issues with which lawmakers grapple on the tape — including who may end up either losing coverage or paying more under a revamped system — highlight the financial and political challenges that flow from upending the current law.

Senators and House members expressed a range of concerns about the task ahead: how to prepare a replacement plan that can be ready to launch at the time of repeal; how to avoid deep damage to the health insurance market; how to keep premiums affordable for middle-class families; even how to avoid the political consequences of defunding Planned Parenthood, the women’s health-care organization, as many Republicans hope to do with the repeal of the ACA.

[In private meeting, Pence vows ‘full’ probe into voter fraud claims]

“We’d better be sure that we’re prepared to live with the market we’ve created” with repeal, said Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.). “That’s going to be called Trumpcare. Republicans will own that lock, stock and barrel, and we’ll be judged in the election less than two years away.”




At the Republican retreat for members of Congress in Philadelphia, President Trump's tweets, speeches and executive orders derailed the GOP's plan to agree upon a replacement for Obamacare and set other policy initiatives. (Video: Jayne Orenstein/Photo: Getty Images/The Washington Post)

Recordings of closed sessions at the Republican policy retreat in Philadelphia this week were sent late Thursday to The Post and several other news outlets from an anonymous email address. The remarks of all lawmakers quoted in this article were confirmed by their offices or by the lawmakers themselves.

“Our goal, in my opinion, should be not a quick fix. We can do it rapidly — but not a quick fix,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.). “We want a long-term solution that lowers costs.”

[Republicans attempt to hash out health-care plan]

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) warned his colleagues that the estimated budget savings from repealing Obamacare — which Republicans say could approach a half-trillion dollars — would be needed to fund the costs of setting up a replacement. “This is going to be what we’ll need to be able to move to that transition,” he said.

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.) worried that one idea floated by Republicans — a refundable tax credit — would not work for middle-class families that cannot afford to prepay their premiums and wait for a tax refund.

Republicans have also discussed the idea of generating revenue for their plan by taking aim at deductions that allow most Americans to get health insurance through their employers without paying extra taxes on it. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who has drafted his own bill to reform the Affordable Care Act, said in response, “It sounds like we are going to be raising taxes on the middle class in order to pay for these new credits.”

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Tex.), who chairs a key tax-writing subcommittee, countered, “I don’t see it that way,” adding that there is “a tax break on employer-sponsored health care and nowhere else” equal to $3.6 trillion over 10 years.


“Could you unlock just a small portion at the top to be able to give that freedom [to self-employed Americans]? That is the question,” Brady said.

Rep. John Faso (R-N.Y.), a freshman congressman from the Hudson Valley, warned strongly against using the repeal of the ACA to also defund Planned Parenthood. “We are just walking into a gigantic political trap if we go down this path of sticking Planned Parenthood in the health insurance bill,” he said. “If you want to do it somewhere else, I have no problem, but I think we are creating a political minefield for ourselves — House and Senate.”

The concerns of rank-and-file lawmakers appeared to be at odds with key congressional leaders and Andrew Bremberg, a top domestic policy adviser to Trump, who have laid out plans to repeal the ACA using a fast-track legislative process and executive actions from the administration. However, these leaders acknowledged in Thursday’s meeting, as they have before, that Obamacare cannot be fully undone — or replaced — without Democratic cooperation.

That and other aspects of the unfinished GOP plan prompted several wary lawmakers to urge their leaders to move more deliberately — even as the Trump administration appears to be moving ahead with repeal. Thursday, the White House ordered federal health officials to immediately halt all advertising and other outreach activities for the critical final days in which Americans can sign up for 2017 health coverage through Affordable Care Act marketplaces. The administration partly retracted that directive on Friday, allowing the Department of Health and Human Services to continue to contact people eligible for ACA coverage by email, text and automated phone calls, and reviving use of a HealthCare.gov Twitter account.The new directive also allows airing of some ads if the government would otherwise lose the money it paid for them upfront.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) dismissed the concerns aired in the meeting during an interview at a Politico event Friday.

“We have a responsibility to work for the people that put us in office,” he said. “That’s the oath we take: to defend the Constitution, to fight for the people we represent, and this is a fiasco that needs to be fixed.”


[White House stops ads, outreach for last days of 2017 ACA enrollment]

Of particular concern to some Republican lawmakers was a plan to use the budget reconciliation process — which requires only a simple majority vote — to repeal the existing law, while still needing a filibuster-proof vote of 60 in the Senate to enact a replacement.

“The fact is, we cannot repeal Obamacare through reconciliation,” McClintock said. “We need to understand exactly: What does that reconciliation market look like? And I haven’t heard the answer yet.”

Several important policy areas appeared unsettled. While the chairmen of key committees sketched out various proposals, they did not have a clear plan for how to keep markets viable while requiring insurers to cover everyone who seeks insurance.

At one point Cassidy, a physician who co-founded a community health clinic in Baton Rouge to serve the uninsured, asked the panelists a “simple question”: Will states have the ability to maintain the expanded Medicaid rolls provided for under the ACA, which now provide coverage for more than 10 million Americans, and can other states do similar expansions?

“These are decisions we haven’t made yet,” said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.).

Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) worried that the plans under GOP consideration could eviscerate coverage for the roughly 20 million Americans now covered through state and federal marketplaces and the law’s Medicaid expansion: “We’re telling those people that we’re not going to pull the rug out from under them, and if we do this too fast, we are in fact going to pull the rug out from under them.”

Republicans are also still wrestling with whether Obamacare’s taxes can be immediately repealed, a priority for many conservatives, or whether that revenue will be needed to fund a transition period.

And there seems to be little consensus on whether to pursue a major overhaul of Medicaid — converting it from an open-ended entitlement that costs federal and state governments $500 billion a year to a fixed block grant. Trump and his top aides, including counselor Kellyanne Conway, have publicly endorsed that idea. But doing so would mean that some low-income Americans would not be automatically covered by a program that currently covers 70 million Americans.

Many of the concerns aired Thursday were more political than policy-oriented. Faso’s remarks about Planned Parenthood generated tepid applause. Ryan said this month that he expects the House to pursue the organization’s defunding in the reconciliation bill.

Those expressing qualms included some of the top congressional leaders who are in line to draft the health-care legislation. Alexander, for one, is chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Ryan and other leaders have said they intend to pursue a piecemeal approach, following the reconciliation bill with smaller ones that address discrete aspects of reform.

Bremberg, chairman of Trump’s domestic policy council, offered little detail in the session about particular executive actions the Trump administration intends to take or what legislative proposals the new president favors.

Instead, he pointed to the executive order Trump signed last week, his first, as proof of his commitment to undoing Obamacare’s mandates and said his choice of Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) to be his health and human services secretary “should speak volumes to people trying to understand what he’s hoping to achieve.”

“This is not a technocrat,” Bremberg said. “This is an experienced, compassionate doctor who has experienced the health-care system firsthand and who has been a leader here in Washington trying to address the policy reforms that need to take place. Having both of those in a secretary is going to be very important and very powerful.”

Even as Bremberg offered few details about what the president plans to do, he emphasized that last week’s executive order “repeatedly” used phrases “such as ‘to the maximum extent permitted by law’ ” to enable his political appointees to start dismantling the ACA by executive authority.

“I’m sure many of us have been very concerned about the interpretation of that phrase in the last six or so years,” Bremberg quipped, referring to the previous administration. “The president has now officially given direction [not only] to HHS, but to all of these agencies that have responsibility . . . to exercise all available discretion to begin helping the American people and to begin fixing our health-care system.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Bremberg’s remarks.

Faso warned that by defunding Planned Parenthood in the reconciliation bill, “we are arming our enemy in this debate.”

“To me, us taking retribution on Planned Parenthood is kind of morally akin to what Lois Lerner and Obama and the IRS did against tea party groups,” he said, a reference to accusations that the Internal Revenue Service improperly targeted conservative political groups for audits.

Faso continued: “Health insurance is going to be tough enough for us to deal with without having millions of people on social media come to Planned Parenthood’s defense and sending hundreds of thousands of new donors to the Democratic Senate and Democratic congressional campaign committees. So I would just urge us to rethink this.”

Yup. I would think most would know this at the point of history we're in that socialism is NOT the answer. I'm amazed at how many people are attracted by this type of idea. It's almost as if its some new fad....and people don't understand why it doesn't work.

Liberals are always ok with free stuff when other people pay for it. Thats why they are known as Takers.

As far as I know, liberals pay taxes too, so technically they would be paying for it. Which means it is not free.

Tell that to Bernie Sanders.

The top 10 healthcare systems in the world are all single payer/universal systems.

The United States fails to crack the top third of the top 100 countries in the rankings.

Bernie Sanders has nothing to learn from you or the GOP. He is a fair honest hard working Senator that knows real facts about all of this stuff because it's his job to serve us and serve us he does!

Now put away your victim card.

What is the largest single payer system?

Japan, a third of our size, pulls it off quite well.

Now before these "too expensive" arguments, they still pay less in taxes than we do. And those "but we police the works, and spend our money to protect!" arguments? Those never really address the point that universal/single payer=bad.

I'd like a reputable source, no alternative facts, that disproves the rankings from the WHO. None of this should be "I know a guy who" as anecdotal only shows a small sample size. Please tell me why opening borders on insurance companies is the magic cure all.

He's a clueless socialist. A senile old man who tried to scam his way into the whitehouse by promising "free healthcare" and "free college". In no way shape or form is it "free". But a lot of suckers want free stuff so he had a following.

So so clueless.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2014-01-08/what-liberals-don-t-get-about-single-payer

Eve, did you ever even go to Bernie's website to see how he had proposed to get this done or do you want to just keep pushing right wing talking points? It wasn't free. And you probably would have been much better off than whatever the repubs are going to shove down our throat

Lemme guess, with other peoples money?

ITT 40 and Eve learn how insurance works.

Yeah people...Stop breathing all the free air that tax payers pay to keep clean...friggin free loaders.

I posted charts that showed how much he was going to tax us in all tax brackets. It was extremely ridiculous. He would have lost even worse than Hillary did because the american people arent paying for that crap.

I know how Socialism works, not well, not well at all.

How are the tax payers paying to keep the air clean?

Oh relax. Breath in.

Hey, if we are all cashing in some meaningless posts, I'll get one too.

I want to cash in too but I can't afford it. Is there a subsidy that I can get?