And it is still as bad as before, except now there are a couple of amendments that some moderate Republicans think they can hide behind, so this thing may get a vote this week. What’s wrong with the revised ACHA?
- This revised bill treats people with pre-existing conditions very badly. It will allow states to get waivers from community ratings, it will allow insurance companies to price people with pre-existing conditions out of the market, and won’t provide much of a safety net in terms of high risk pools. This weakening of pre-existing protections comes not just in ACA policies, but also in employer-provided plans as well. So the entire effort is not just to undo insurance protections for people who are in the individual market, but also those in the group markets as well. If this passes, no one is safe from catastrophic losses from medical issues in your family.
- Poorest Americans will still bear the biggest brunt of AHCA — Medicaid still is planned to be reduced by $880 billion dollars over the next decade and there’s no replacement or other medical fallback for these Americans.
- All of this unwinding of pre-existing coverage and Medicaid coverage is meant to finance a massive tax cut for rich Americans.
So right now there is a lot of press chatter on this Upton Amendment which it said to add $8B to this bill that takes at least $880B away from Medicaid. It’s peanuts and a fig leaf for a handful of so-called moderate Republicans to be able to say that they softened the blow od the ACHA. Even though it doesn’t. Not one whit. Giving insurance companies the ability to re-discriminate against Americans with pre-existing conditions still takes that insurance away from those folks. And the new twist here is that employer insurance is also freed from the shackles of “must cover’ too.
Who votes for people who are hell bent to hurt more than 24M Americans by utterly undermining the insurance they thought they bought?
Pay no attention to the bullshit coverage on this Upton Amendment. It is a fraud not meant to help anyone other than the GOP House members looking for a way to not look like they are hurting as many Americans. And the rich people who get the tax cut here. Don’t forget about that.
So… the more it hurts people the easier it is to get Republicans to vote for it?
Apparently. And this looks like it will get a vote tomorrow. Because the Ryan play here is to get it out of the House and over to the Senate to deal with.
In the meantime, while it is imperative Dem Congressional leaders need to be pounding on the Trumpist dismantling of democracy and institutions Dems designed over the decades to help people needing help, the DNC needs to be overlaying non-defensive messaging on key issues we stand for to make better lives for all. This is not happening.
Pelosi said Dems wont fight for abortion rights anymore. ( apologizes to pandora for not taking this seriously enough) She and (first Reid, now) Schumer have always been Rethugs at heart. How else can you explain their record of consistent losing since 2009?
She said no such thing, sheesh.
Whoa… I didn’t hear those words. Can you link to where she said Dems won’t fight for abortion rights anymore?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/05/03/nancy-pelosi-says-abortion-is-fading-as-an-issue-for-democrats-the-opposite-is-true-for-conservatives/?utm_term=.9d9cfc45bce7
That is how I interpret that article. There are a few other quotes about “no need to toe the party line” and this gem from TDB
“You know what? That’s why Donald Trump is president of the United States—the evangelicals and the Catholics, anti-marriage equality, anti-choice. That’s how he got to be president,” Pelosi said. “Everything was trumped, literally and figuratively, by that.” Pelosi added: “It’s kind of fading as an issue. It really is.”
It is not important for them anymore. There is already mixed messaging from Sanders and Perez. They are signaling that they are willing to bend on social issues to win.
Your legendarily bad reading skills are failing you once again.
“In our caucus, one thing unifies us: our values about working families,” Pelosi said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pelosi-democratic-candidates-should-not-be-forced-to-toe-party-line-on-abortion/2017/05/02/9cbc9bc6-2f68-11e7-9534-00e4656c22aa_story.html?utm_term=.e24d7c9ba7cf
“unifies”, “values”, “working”, “families”
If Pelosi and the dems stand for anything it’s virtue words, piled upon platitudes, not anything concrete like abortion rights.
I would love some explanation. I am not the only person to interpret this way. The house party leader has made a statement indicating that dems will no longer demand a party line position on abortion. that… PLUS the betrayal by sanders and Perez (that you pointed out) is very troubling.