Late last month President Donald Trump recognized what anyone who is not a billionaire and has bills to pay already knows, that health care is “an unbelievably complex subject”.
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House Speaker Paul Ryan said the bill “is the closest we will ever get to repealing and replacing Obamacare”.
Specifically, Pelosi said she would be willing to accept Republicans’ plan to expand Health Savings Accounts, which are tax-exempt accounts that people can use to pay for medical expenses. This change could shift about $370 billion in health care costs over 10 years to state governments, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
For all the flaws in the Affordable Care Act, the law has changed the conversation about health care.
The Republican-proposed legislation replacing the Affordable Health Care Act was put together in a guarded secure room by a few select Republicans. Still, he has made plenty of promises on how he will improve the health care system. One conservative group, FreedomWorks, was launching digital and social media ads opposing the legislation, while others like Americans for Prosperity, backed by the wealthy Koch brothers, were working against the legislation. Deep-pocketed conservative groups such as the Club for Growth, FreedomWorks, and Heritage Action for America have also panned the House GOP health care plan, and are mounting an aggressive counter-attack.
And there’s this, from the Washington Post: “House Republicans are advancing a series of bills that would make changes to the civil justice system long sought by doctors and USA corporations, including a cap on some medical malpractice awards and new roadblocks for classes of people seeking to sue jointly to address harm”.
He added, “Republicans should be offering a full and immediate repeal of Obamacare’s taxes, regulations, and mandates, an end to the Medicaid expansion, and inclusion of free-market reforms, like interstate competition”.
We deny insurance companies the ability to discriminate against those with pre-existing conditions and allow young adults to stay on their parent’s insurance until age 26.
In the weeks ahead, the House will consider this plan through an open and transparent process, including legislation to allow people to purchase health care across state lines.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) echoed Paul’s sentiment, telling Politico that the GOP bill is merely, “Obamacare by a different form”. Where Obamacare was built on mandates and coercion that make coverage more expensive, our plan takes care of those in need without driving up costs for everyone else.
The Republican governor’s tweet Tuesday comes in response to House Republicans’ health care proposal. Some 30% of health-care spending is waste and there are plenty of blueprints to make things better.
“This bill is moving at light speed and the Congressional Budget Office has not scored it, which means there’s no sense of how much this is actually going to cost on the federal level as well [as the state level]”, Livingston says.
While there are some stark differences between it and Obamacare, many Republicans say it’s not different enough, even dubbing the new plan as “Obamacare Light” and vowing to release a different replacement bill.
However, Trump may have a hard time closing the deal, said Kevin Hardwick, an associate professor of political science at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York and a Republican Erie County legislator.
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Finally, the bill would prevent the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, now former Rep. Tom Price of Georgia, from making payments under Obamacare’s reinsurance program, which provided the opportunity for insurance companies to get taxpayer bailouts.
