Posted on 02/16/2017 9:53:06 AM PST by GIdget2004
House Republican leaders on Thursday presented to their members the most detailed look yet at their plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare, though some key elements remain to be worked out.
A packet distributed to lawmakers at the meeting and obtained by The Hill says the GOP bill will include tax credits, an expansion of Health Savings Accounts, money for high risk pools to care for the sick, and a major restructuring of Medicaid to cap federal payments.
No dollar figures for any of the Republican proposals have been presented yet. Lawmakers said that is because the Congressional Budget Office is still analyzing the plan.
Still, the document circulated Thursday shows progress, with lawmakers getting down to the brass tacks of what an ObamaCare replacement will look like.
The plan calls for a refundable, advanceable tax credit to help people afford healthcare coverage. The tax credit would be based on a person's age, not their income, in contrast to ObamaCare. Democrats argue that by not taking income into account, this system would fail to give enough help to low-income people, but Republicans say factoring in income discourages work.
The plan also calls for repealing ObamaCare's Medicaid expansion "in its current form." After a transition period, states could choose to keep Medicaid open to the newly eligible people, but they would no longer receive extra federal funding to cover the cost. Instead, states would be reimbursed at the traditional, lower rates. That means states would have to put more money into the program if they wanted to keep the expansion.
The plan also calls for a "per-capita cap" for Medicaid, which means the traditional, open-ended federal commitment would be converted into a capped payment to states. The amount would take into account the number of people in the program.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
So who gets the bigger tax credit? young or old? Should be old since premiums will be higher.
Obamacare changed the facts on the ground. It has rewritten everybody's insurance plans and restructured the health insurance industry. Some tens of millions of people now get their health insurance through the exchanges, through the extension of Medicaid, or through coverage on their parents' plan. The Democrats were confident (1) that Obamacare would be popular once people saw it, which of course has backfired on them; and (2) that in any event, Obamacare would rapidly be too big, too complicated, and too embedded to be repealed. (2) is the problem the congressional Republicans must resolve. We can't just repeal it and return to the status quo ante -- and the status quo ante had enormous problems as well, which also need to be addressed.
Good and correct summary. Like trying to put Humpty back in the egg again, is harder than just demanding “repeal every word of it”.
They are going about this all wrong. What they need to do is put more teeth into the DOJ’s trust-busting capabilities and start going after the med-pharma industry for monopolies, racketeering, price gouging, and other types of fraud. They need to remind them that its “America First”. There is no reason why Americans should be paying so much more for medicines, tests, equipment, and all things health care related. I can understand us needing to pay more for the services of health care providers when the costs of those services are salary-driven & subject to supply-demand matters. But Americans are being robbed horribly by unfair monopolistic/fraudulent med-pharma pricing schemes. And even any of you who don’t get any med-pharma services the cost is still high because 37% of the federal government spending last year was on health care & the rate of health care spending growth by the federal government has been 9% per annum for a while and it shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon. This issue alone will shove the USA over the fiscal cliff and we don’t have much time to fix it.
Why is it that so often when we talk about ObamaCare here that we forget to talk about this fact? Its time to set the market free. But right now its anything but free due to our socialized-fascist-corporate medical-pharma system we have here in the USA.
Here’s what needs to happen:
1. Congress passes a law prohibits the USPTO from processing any applications for a certain number of years on any individuals associated with any enterprise convicted of med-pharma monopoly, fraud, or
2. Our Courts are overworked and its time for Congress to push to the end of the line any patent-copyright-trademark protection suits on products manufactured overseas or sold for lower prices overseas.
3. Congress needs to put more teeth into the laws already on the books for prohibiting price fixing, monopolies, and racketeering in the med-pharma industry.
4. Congress needs to shut down grants for the academia industries that produce nothing (i.e. social sciences & humanities departments of these so-called universities is a start) and put the funding instead towards States that open up more slots for med/nursing/pharma students as we have a severe shortage coming.
5. Congress needs to allow individuals to have doctors be able to prescribe drugs/devices that they can have imported from overseas if they are cheaper.
At least SOMEONE gets it. Thank God.
It would also be foolish not to address the underlying flaws of the traditional U.S. insurance model at the same time, as we will almost certainly only get one bite at this apple. Third party payment is the root of many evils. We should shift the entire system towards individually owned and portable insurance plans with high risk pools, subsidized as necessary, for those in legitimate need of assistance.
There have been several Republican plans developed over the last five or six years to do these things. We don't have to reinvent the wheel. The challenge at the moment is to united the Republican House and Senate caucuses behind ONE of these plans, structured in such a way that it is eligible for consideration under reconciliation (since we don't have the votes to break a filibuster). This is not so simple as simply yahooing through a measure repealing Obamacare, period (even if we had the votes to do it, which we don't).
Such are the problems of socialism.
But this new plan... it will be better than the last. How many times are people going to fall for that crap?
I’m not assuming that it will be easy to deal with, but if we trim around the edges and treat it as some delicate plant that we have to be careful not to damage, it will only grow more and more entrenched.
The GOP wants to retain the power over the economy that Obamacare has usurped just as much as the Democrats wanted to, and I’m sure that they will spin any story that supports their inaction that they think the conservative base will be willing to swallow.
the underlying flaws of the traditional US insurance model were clearly rooted in government regulation of mandatory coverage and by placing boundaries on who could purchase insurance from where. Continuing keep government’s hands all over the health insurance industry will do nothing to loosen the grip that is choking the people to death.
I’m willing to wait and see what the GOP does, but I wholly expect that it will closely resemble the results of the Republican Contract with America, as well as promises to limit abortion.
What is your point? You want to scrap Obamacare and go full free market? That would mean you would scrap Medicare as well as Medicaid, withdrawing all federal support for the elderly, the poor, and people with a legitimate need for assistance due to chronic and expensive conditions, entirely outside of their control, that are expensive enough to make them uninsurable.
The federal government assumed a major role in health care almost 60 years ago. That doesn't mean we need to socialize the whole system, and we shouldn't. But unless you are willing to reset the clock to the 1960's -- I want to be there when you tell retirees that you're abolishing Medicare -- the feds will need "a plan." The trick is to develop a plan that doesn't mess up the system for the great majority of Americans under 65 who enjoy good private health insurance.
The biggest underlying flaw of the pre-Obamacare health insurance system was the reliance on third party payment.
> You want to scrap Obamacare and go full free market?
The sooner the better. Additionally, medical care must be de-insurancized for routine care. Routine care should not require insurance.
I want full l disclosure of prices: clean wound, 4-5 stitches... $200. Set cast, arm sling... $300 (made up dollar amounts).
> Medicare
People have paid into Medicare, the promise must be fulfilled. The program should be phased out.
> the poor (Medicaid)
I applaud your altruism and expect you would support your community charity hospital.
So Obamacare taxes are bad but Ryancare taxes are good?
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