Health Care Reform

[River]

The spooky thing is they aren't actually talking to any hospital groups, insurance companies, doctors, or groups like the AARP.

[Primula Baggins]

Whadda they know?

[Frelga]

List of undecided representatives as of this morning

uploadfromtaptalk1493744020781.jpg (75.62 KiB) Viewed 9180 times

https://www.trumpcaretoolkit.org/

[Voronwë the Faithful]

It is looking more likely to pass the House, as some so-called moderates (who not very long ago would have been considered far right fringe) have negotiated an amendment that if anything makes the bill even worse, but gives them cover to pretend that they are doing something to help people with pre-existing conditions.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/201 ... pcare.html

[Voronwë the Faithful]

They now claim they have the votes and will hold a vote tomorrow.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/02/politics/ ... index.html

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk

[River]

Remember, if you live a good life and refrain from being born with a defect or genetic disorder, if you refrain from getting diagnosed with asthma, allergies, or an autoimmune disease, if you refrain from being either unfortunate enough to get diagnosed with cancer young or foolish enough to live long enough to eventually develop cancer, if you're a woman and refrain from developing trouble in the lady bits either because PCOS, endometriosis, and those other things only happen to bad people or because lingering complications of childbirth only happen to bad people, and/or if you refrain from being on the receiving end of someone else's very bad decisions (oh, you thought your spouse would be forever faithful and you'd never ever contract a lovely infection? should've done a better job keeping him or her happy, sweetie) then you'll never have to worry about a pre-existing condition.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Or if you live in a blue state, since the bill provides that states have the right to opt out of the protection for pre-existing conditions.

In any event, the odds against this bill ever becoming law are still very low. It seems highly unlike that it will pass the Senate in anything approaching this form, and if the Senate changes it and then passes it, it is highly unlikely that anything like that will pass the House. Moreover, the CBO hasn't even analyzed the new version, and once it does, it will likely show an even high number of people losing coverage from this version than the 24 million they estimated with the last version. The GOP may well be shooting itself in the foot by rushing to vote on this bill, only to have it subsequently die. GOP House members are going to be on record supporting a bill that would kill some of their constituents. That is not going to go over well. It might not be enough to flip the House in this day and age of gerrymandered districts, but it could make things more interesting in 2018.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I split off the discussion about Election Integrity and Systems of Government

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Meanwhile, in the Senate, there are rumblings that there may be enough votes to pass a version of the GOP "repeal and replace" after all. Whether that is true, and whether if so, it could be reconciled with the House bill to the point where it could pass both houses, remains to be seen.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Well this is very interesting. I had no seen this before, but apparently while California is working on passing an almost-impossible-to-actually-happen single payer system that would upend health care coverage in the state, the Nevada legislature has passed a plan that would essentially offer Medicaid to residents as a de facto public option , in which people could purchase Medicaid as their health plan on their exchange. It is unclear whether the moderate Republican Governor, Brian Sandoval, will actually sign the legislation, or whether the Trump administration would try to block it, but this could potentially be a model that could work.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/healthca ... spartanntp

[Frelga]

So right now, 13 male Republican Senators are working on ACHA, in what amounts to complete secrecy.

Republican senators to call include AZ, CO, OH, and other states.
https://trumpcaretoolkit.org

For the blue state voters, Indivisible suggests calling to offer encouragement and to ask them to withhold unanimous consent until Republicans agree to review the bill in public.

They also suggest calling to ask for the Senator's legislative assistant who handles health care.

More resources: https://www.indivisibleguide.com/stop-trumpcare/
https://www.indivisibleguide.com/resour ... -staffers/

[Cenedril_Gildinaur]

The secrecy cannot last forever - eventually if they finish they will have to introduce their result to the senate to vote on. So it really isn't that big a deal if their writings are secret at this time.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

You can't make this stuff up.

Trump calls House health care bill 'mean'

This, of course, is the same bill that Trump praised so effusively when it passed.

[Frelga]

You can't make this stuff up.

Trump calls House health care bill 'mean'

This, of course, is the same bill that Trump praised so effusively when it passed.

I feel like we need a separate thread for all the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot stuff happening these days, as opposed to substantial news. Stuff like Trump blocking Stephen King on Twitter. Or the memes of Kamala Harris as the Senator from Tremyscira. Or the circle of praise from the Cabinet (did I see the ghost of Our Dearest Leonid Ilyich* float by?).

*Brezhnev. Soviet leader 1964-1982, for the youngsters. Our Dearest Leonid Ilyich was said to be the longest Russian name.

[Cenedril_Gildinaur]

This is government health insurance. They'll pay for everything, and what they won't pay for you can't pay for.

DEATH PANEL: Judge decrees infant must die, parents forbidden to take him home

Ten-month-old Charlie Gard will die soon–against the wishes of his parents, but in accordance with the desires of a judge.

Charlie, who was born on August 4 last year, is one of only 16 cases of mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, a condition that saps energy from the organs and muscles, leaving patients’ lungs so weak that they can only breathe with a ventilator.

He has lived in a London hospital since he was eight weeks old.

In March, doctors told his parents, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, that they should withdraw their child from the ventilator, as there was nothing else they could do, but the parents refused–mostly on the grounds that an untried experimental treatment was available in the United States.

They found an eminent doctor willing to try the unproven therapy, and supporters have helped them raise $1.7 million dollars to pay for it.

But the hospital, in accordance with British health law, fought the parents in court to prevent further treatment, and in early June, England’s Supreme Court agreed with the hospital. This week, the European Court of Human Rights—the court of last appeal—refused to overturn that decision, sealing Charlie’s fate.

[Cerin]

So with our health care system, the child would have died long ago because the insurance company (if the couple even had insurance in the U.S.) would have refused to pay to maintain him on a ventilator.

As far as the parents being allowed to take him home, presumably they don't have a ventilator in their car or at home, so is the child even going to make it home alive?

Perhaps a U.S. billionaire will charitably agree to pay for the child's lifelong maintenance on a ventilator with the tax cuts he receives from the Republican health care plan (which will cause the deaths this year of approximately 24,000 people deprived of coverage, who probably aren't as appealing as this poor child and so won't get any human interest pieces highlighting their personal plights).

What solution would you recommend, C_G, and who would pay for it?

[Frelga]

Reportedly, McConnell sent a new version of the Senate bill to the COB. Once again, our fate is in the hands of the voters in a few States with moderate Republican Senators.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

My understanding is that he has only sent a couple of different outlines of different possible bills to the CBO; there is no agreement on a bill at this time, and is not likely to be for a while, if ever.

[Frelga]

The process is entirely opaque, so who knows, really. Reportedly again, McConnell is hoping for a vote in mid July, raising the possibility that the moderates will be handled.

[Frelga]

McConnell has issued a statement saying that the GOP gives up on replacing the ACA and will instead vote for straight repeal.