Posted on 03/13/2017 12:23:03 AM PDT by Pinkbell
Janice Phelps, a 60-year-old disabled factory worker in Evansville, Indiana, knows how expensive healthcare is. Each month, shots for her severe asthma cost $3,000. Quarterly injections for knee pain cost $3,200.
Medication for depression costs $900. She has had seven back surgeries, two shoulder surgeries, and two knee surgeries since 1985. The largest public health programs in America – Medicaid and Medicare, which aid the poor and the elderly – paid for nearly all of it.
Yet, those programs are now threatened by the men she voted for: Donald Trump and former Indiana governor Mike Pence.
“I’m all in favor of repealing it,” she said about Republicans’ push to do away with the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. But, she said when you talk about cutting Medicaid: “I don’t agree with that at all.”
Dramatic changes to Medicaid – the scheme to help poorer Americans get healthcare – are just part of the reforms in a Republican bill leaders are trying to force through Congress at lightning speed. However, since it was introduced last Monday, the American Health Care Act has met opposition from the left, significant sections of the Republican party, and a slate of doctor, hospital and patient associations. It’s been called a “legislative orphan appealing to no one”.
(Snip)
This is Pence’s home state. When he was governor, he took political advantage of Obamacare and used federal funds it made available to provide healthcare for half a million of the poorest people in his state.
(Snip)
Yet here, in a rural corner of Indiana where Trump won 40,000 votes to comfortably beat Hillary Clinton by 10,000, many low-income people are covered by a program Pence put in place only two years ago and which Republican proposals would severely cut.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
This is what we are up against. Do you think The Guardian, NYT, or WaPo are going to balance stories like this out by writing stories of people negatively affected by Obamacare? Nope. The same will hold true for the network coverage on every channel except Fox News and OANN (I guess cause I don't get it).
Look at the comments' section to the article. It's full of liberals saying people who voted for Trump are stupid, they got conned, that he's out to enrich the wealthy and insurance companies, etc. It's all the usual talking points - talking points which they will descend upon the public with if/when Ryancare goes amiss. If you read those comments, though, Obamacare is perfect to those people. Again, they only read/view the leftwing media, and they are much smarter than you the Trump voter (I know because they say so), so they will never see the other side of the coin of the people negatively affected by Obamacare because the media doesn't show it.
Note: While saying the media doesn't show it, the Guardian actually did in this article without acknowledging it and briefly moving on, but I caught it. See this:
Cindy Rosser, a 46-year-old mother of five and grandmother of one, manages two dry cleaning locations and uses HIP 2.0 for insurance. After being laid off in 2015 (she was told the company could not afford workers’ health costs), she discovered a pre-cancer in her esophagus and her 11-year-old adopted son was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
That sounds to me like she was let go because of the cost of Obamacare.
Anyway, I firmly believe that Obamacare is not as popular as those in the leftwing bubble would have us believe. The Tea Party arose with a goal of repealing Obamacare, and the Republicans have been given the House, Senate, and Presidency in part in order to repeal it - although I do believe they expect a replacement.
We have a situation where some of the working class voters that Trump brought into the fold rely on Medicaid or Obamacare. For those that want a flat repeal, I understand the purely conservative perspective, but from a political perspective - it's suicide. If you repeal and millions lose insurance sans an affordable alternative, it will spell doom for 2018 and 2020. The media will run story after story of people losing their coverage, the Democrats will promise to give it back and then some, and off they go. It would be a gift for a party in turmoil that still can't understand why it lost the last election.
On the other hand, we have a good deal of the base that put Donald Trump in office who are solid conservatives. Now people vary of course, but there are those who flat out want it repealed. Period. Nothing else. Trump is not going to do that, and he made it clear his entire campaign that he wouldn't. As I said above, I believe that to be political suicide. There are others who want it replaced with a free market system but not paying for healthcare for those who can't afford it after that. I'm a little more liberal on this issue. I think they need to develop the best free market, affordable system possible, but I do think if someone is too sick or unable to afford care, I support providing care for them. Trump also said this when campaigning. He said he would repeal and replace and that he wouldn't let people "die in the street" if they couldn't afford care.
It's so important that the Republicans slow down and do this right Not only are millions of lives at stake but so is the political future of the party. They are caught between a good deal of the base (the conservatives) who Trump needs as he really has no one else to fight for him and those who voted for him but are working class or poor and are trusting him to build up the economy and provide a better healthcare alternative but currently are getting some coverage from Obamacare (some of these folks might make up the base that went to rallies and fought for Trump too).
There are two ways they can go about this in my opinion:
1. Let Obamacare continue. Do it by either doing nothing or bringing a bill forward like Rand's that probably won't make it. Obamacare continues. It will take it really collapsing fully for people like those in the comments' section of the article to want it replaced.
A couple downsides to this:
A) Those who are struggling with Obamacare and voted in the Republicans to replace might not vote Republican again out of frustration, although many in the conservative base would understand the tactic. If they bring Rand's bill forward, they can say that the Democrats were an impediment. Like I said, it could backfire with those who voted for Trump to get Obacamare repealed. They might feel betrayed and not vote.
B) If people don't vote out of anger and/or if the Democrats do well in 2018 and regain the majority, then we may have lost our one shot to repeal/replace Obamacare, and that will be very bad for Trump in 2020.
2. Take their time, don't rush it, and really work to come up with the best bill possible utilizing the free market as best as possible so people get the best plans with the lowest costs. However, I think there will have to be some compromise involved to ensure that people who can't afford care can get it. It just has to be done right - otherwise the Republicans will own this and it will be an albatross around their necks the Democrats can use in future elections. (It's actually frustrating to me that they had 7 years. They should have perfected a plan by now.) I'll end with this Trump quote with reference to this second point:
We’re going to get private insurance companies to take care of a lot of the people that can afford it. That’s going to take a tremendous burden off, and they’re going to be able to have plans that are great plans,” Trump said.
“And it’s going to be much less expensive,” he continued. “And you will be able to actually have something to say about who your doctor is and your plan.”
“So — and we’re going to have — you know, we have to cover people that can’t afford it. And that’s what I’m talking about. And we’ll probably have block grants of Medicaid back into the states. And we’ll do things — because there are people that can’t afford it. And nobody is going to be dying on the streets with a President Trump,” he promised.
http://nypost.com/2017/01/18/trump-no-one-will-die-in-the-street-with-new-healthcare-plan/
The article says funding for Medicaid will be reduced. I thought that OCare was structured so that the feds would pay for the increase in Medicaid expenses at first, but that each year thereafter, the fed’s share would go down 10% til the states had absorbed the increase?
And the article said that without insurance, people could rack up thousands in bills very quickly. A lot of those programs have deductibles in the thousands. So they still can rack up thousands of dollars in bills....
And tbh, it seems like they are trying to figure out how to get people covered by health insurance. But none of them seems to be looking at the root causes of the increases in costs for medical care; so they are just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
1. Let Obamacare continue....Fine but, ObamaCare dies in 2018.
2020.
2. Take their time, don’t rush it, and really work to come up with the best bill possible utilizing the free market as best as possible so people get the best plans with the lowest costs.
Fine but, ObamaCare dies in 2018
Prepare for parades of these poor victims of evyil Trump.
Indeed. I want to see the parade of victims of Obamacare, but I won’t hold my breath. Those liberals who believe the MSM provides complete and unbiased coverage won’t see them either, thus confirming their narrative.
Yes, people can rack up thousands of dollars in healthcare bills overnight, literally.
I have been thinking about all this ‘healthcare and insurance’ stuff lately. Trying very hard to step out of the current dysfunctional view and get something fresh.
A very disturbing thing I noticed was when the orthopedist bill arrived the other day...they billed me $545 for the aircast walking boot. I located the exact same boot, exact same boot brand new on Amazon for under $150. So, what truly justifies the orthopedist office charging $545 for an item they surely buy in bulk at a discount? The doctor charged $350 to look at my digital x-ray and determine the aircast was appropriate treatment. A physical therapist “fit” me for the small boot and instructed me on how to use it. Funny, I could have read the directions and ordered the $150 boot from Amazon. I won’t even get into the crazy billing from the trip to the ER several nights earlier.
The medical field has a captive consumer with often critical needs. Yes, these are ‘needs’ and not luxury wants like that fancy car parked next to me in the ER lot or the latest botox injection. Nobody wants to pay for someone else’s care, but we all do somewhere along the way.
Are we trying to ‘fix’ the wrong thing? I am beginning to strongly consider the premise that fixing health insurance is the contradiction. Healthcare has become so grossly expensive as to even make reasonable people unable to afford basic insurance. When doctors can gouge patients for products available in the market place because they have a captive consumer, something is evil in the system.
“Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.”
The answer isn’t going to be found in health insurance rules, regulations, or requirements. The health care field has priced itself out of the market. Unfortunately, like so many other things in modern life like electricity, heat, healthcare is a critical necessity to the modern infrastructure of life. We do have to find a way to provide it at a reasonable cost to all of us.
Trump has to better control the messaging...Spicer needs to be out there saying whose plan this is and push Ryan and McConnell around. Hang the plan on the Rinos and make them fear for their losing elections.
Control the message!!!
If GOP does not kill Obamacare in 17 forget 18 or 20.
Like all entitlements it is popular with those benefiting from the program and not as popular with those who are not.
If you repeal and millions lose insurance sans an affordable alternative, it will spell doom for 2018 and 2020.
If you repeal and replace with something under which millions lose insurance then where are you better off?
Agree, we need to do this right.
ObamaCare 2.0.
Vote Rand or Cruz 2020.
| THE SYMPTOM | THE REASON |
| monthly shots for severe asthma $3k | Lives with 15 cats and won't stop chain smoking. |
| seven back surgeries | Morbidly obese |
| two shoulder surgeries | Morbidly obese |
| two knee surgeries | Morbidly obese |
| Medication for depression costs $900 | I'm a morbidly obese chain smoking cat lady |
But that’s her right! /s
We’re doomed.
Why the HELL hasn’t someone pulled the plug on the healthcare.gov servers yet?
PULL THE GODDAMNED PLUG!!!!!
-PJ
Look at the COST of this persons care, THAT’S the problem. Medi-whatever is simply going to go broke under that load. What would it have cost in, say 1957?
Funerals are of course much cheaper.
She has had seven back surgeries, two shoulder surgeries, and two knee surgeries since 1985..
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Janice Phelps? Was she the first woman to go PRO in the NFL?
Sorry, but what the hell? Why so many surgeries?
Asthma, knee surgeries and depression?
How does she get medicare at 60?
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