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Where Is The Democrats' Plan To Fix ObamaCare?

  

Category:  News & Politics

Via:  xxjefferson51  •  7 years ago  •  16 comments

Where Is The Democrats' Plan To Fix ObamaCare?
Health Reform: This week ObamaCare suffered two more blows, making a replacement plan all the more urgent. Not that you'd know it, since all anyone wants to talk about is how horrible the Republican replacement plan supposedly would be. Why aren't Democrats being pressured to produce their own fix?

The big news this week is supposed to be the Congressional Budget Office's decree that the Republicans' ObamaCare replacement plan would cost 23 million their insurance coverage. This number should be taken with a huge grain of salt, given the fact that the CBO predicted twice as many would sign up for ObamaCare plans as did so.


What got considerably less attention, however, was the announcement by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas that it will drop out of ObamaCare next year, citing the fact that it had lost more than $100 million on its ObamaCare business, which "is unsustainable for our company."

If no other insurer steps up to the plate, that could leave 25 counties in the region with no ObamaCare plans, adding still more areas in the country that may end up with no insurers in their exchanges next year, after Aetna, Humana (HUM) and Wellmark said they were bailing on some or all of their ObamaCare markets. Idaho is losing an insurer as well, as BridgeSpan announced that it won't be offering plans in the exchange next year.


ObamaCare defenders can talk all they want about ObamaCare's "guaranteed" coverage, but if there aren't any insurers willing to sell ObamaCare plans, the guarantee is completely worthless.

Meanwhile, a report from the Department of Health and Human Services out this week shows that average premiums in the individual markets have doubled since ObamaCare went into effect in 2014. If the three states where insurers have already announced premiums for 2018 are any indication, we're in for another round of eye-popping rate shocks.

Democrats and their water carriers in the press want to blame the Republicans' repeal talk for these developments.

This is false.

Insurance defections and premium-rate shocks have been the norm under ObamaCare. Each year, more insurers dropped out amid massive losses, and those that remained sharply hike premiums. Last spring, for example, saw a raft of insurance company defections, including Blue Cross plans, despite the fact that nobody expected ObamaCare repeal to be a possibility at the time. And each year, ObamaCare backers promised that things will get better next year.

So the question now is, if the GOP plan is so bad, what's the Democrats' alternative? What's their plan to cut premiums, stabilize insurance markets, increase competition, and cut the deficit (all of which ObamaCare was supposed to do in the first place)?

Answer: They don't have one. And they don't intend to produce one.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi bragged to the Washington Post that the Democrats' strategy is not to put out a plan to rescue ObamaCare: "Don't have an alternative until it's time. Keep the focus on what they're doing. Otherwise you just confuse people," she said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the same thing. "Different people have different ideas. We didn't lay out our exact specific plan. We laid out where we want to go." (Democrats haven't even done that.)

Roll Call's Jonathan Allen had it right when he wrote that if Democrats "truly care about preventing regular folks from taking a devastating hit — and the richest Americans from consolidating wealth at the expense of the poor — they'll offer a serious substitute bill that addresses the shortcomings of ObamaCare."

The only fault in Allen's reasoning is that he assumes Democrats actually care about regular folks.

RELATED:

Unlike ObamaCare, The GOP Health Bill Wasn't Built On Lies And False Promises

Some Facts Jimmy Kimmel Left Out Of His Emotional ObamaCare Plea

Dems Taunt GOP For Voting To Replace A Collapsing ObamaCare







http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/where-is-the-democrats-plan-to-fix-obamacare/

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Spikegary
Junior Quiet
link   Spikegary    7 years ago

You do have a point.  What are these folks doing in congress, besides blocking?  Wasn't that their complaint when they were in control?  I'd love to see some suitable alternatives to fix the problems created and/or perpetuated by the ACA.  I still have friends with no health care because they can't afford it, since ACA was started-and they have paid the penalties for it.  God forbid something bad happens to any of them...........

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   Kavika     7 years ago

I guess that since the Republicans have for the last 6 or 7 years promised, ''repeal and replace'' the ACA and have yet to come up with a plan that even republicans can agree on would be a fairly good reason that the democrats haven't presented a bill to improve parts of ACA.

Of course since the republicans hold a large majority in the house it would seem to be a pointless to try to get any thing through that would improve the ACA...

You are aware that the republicans have held a majority in both the house and senate for quite some time and during that time they mantra has been ''repeal and replace'' the ACA..

 
 
 
Spikegary
Junior Quiet
link   Spikegary  replied to  Kavika   7 years ago

Not the question, but nice dodge, Kavika.  They don't support the Right's plan, where is their plan?  Saying 'Well You Suck' is not a plan.  There is one on the table, some say will help, some say won't.  If the politicians were mature and gave a shit about the American People, they would have an alternative that improves on what is already there.

This is why elections have gone the way they have gone lately.

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   Kavika   replied to  Spikegary   7 years ago

No dodge at all Spike, the dem's plan is in force now. I explained why they are not presenting a bill to improve it...It's really not that difficult to understand.

What it sounds like is that the article is trying to take the heat off the Repubs inability to get their shit together and do what they have been promising for the last 6 years.

 

 
 
 
Spikegary
Junior Quiet
link   Spikegary  replied to  Kavika   7 years ago

So, you're saying that ACA is perfectly fine the way it is and requires no improvement?  I know several families that would beg to differ with you.  Families that are now uninsured because they can no longer afford healthcare, neither can their employers afford to provide it.  If you can see past partisan talking points, you would see that 'no change' is also unacceptable (with the exception of the political arena where no change is a 'win' to some and fuck the citizens).

I would say to either side, govern or get out of the way.  Governing is not happening now.

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   Kavika   replied to  Spikegary   7 years ago

First off Spike, don't put words in my mouth...I never said it was fine in it's current form. What I explained to you was why your not seeing any improvement from the dem side..

The republicans control all braches of government. If it's time for real leaderships, as you call for, then don't you think that the repubs should show some leadership by improving the ACA instead of blowing hot air and demanding repeal and replace.

I also know some people that without the ACA would have NO health coverage.

Actually I am an advocate for single payer system of health care. But that is not something that the retards in congress can accept.

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
link   JohnRussell  replied to  Kavika   7 years ago

Democrats have said, repeatedly, that if the GOP takes repeal off the table they will work with the Republicans to fix the ACA. 

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   Kavika   replied to  JohnRussell   7 years ago

It's better for the repubs to try to blame dems for their own stupidity.

 
 
 
Dean Moriarty
Professor Quiet
link   Dean Moriarty    7 years ago

Asking a Democrat to fix healthcare is like asking a plumber to do brain surgery. The less say they have in it the better off we are. 

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   Kavika   replied to  Dean Moriarty   7 years ago

It would seem that to ask a republican to come up with their so called improved healthcare bill, is like asking a rat to do brain surgery.

The republicans should call in ''Joe the plumber'' to help them out.

 
 
 
Spikegary
Junior Quiet
link   Spikegary  replied to  Kavika   7 years ago

And so what is the answer from your pet Democrats, Kavika?  Nothing?  There's an answer.  We all know that the ACA requires many improvements, but instead of offering improvements, you say well your ideas suck.  Not the way to lead.

 
 
 
Old Hermit
Sophomore Silent
link   Old Hermit  replied to  Spikegary   7 years ago

We all know that the ACA requires many improvements, but instead of offering improvements, you say well your ideas suck.  Not the way to lead.

 

Is that supposed to be a joke?

 

President Obama and the D's tried to work with the R's for the last 6 years to make the needed fixes to the ACA and all they got from the R's were 60 or so votes to repeal the whole bill.

Now that the R's have crapped in the Nations punch bowl with their vindictive health care cock up, it's somehow the D's fault?  bullshit.

Now that America has seen and rejected what the R's are trying to do it's the D's fault? bullshit.

It's America that's telling the R's that their ideas on National health care suck and rightfully so.

 

 

Got to say Spikegary, trying to blame the D's for the R's current mess is Chutzpah on an unbelievable scale!

 

 

 

 
 
 
PJ
Masters Quiet
link   PJ  replied to  Old Hermit   7 years ago

I'm not surprised that the republican NT members are acting as though the republican's health care bill is the democrat's fault.  

They have shown who they really are as human beings and what I've learned is they also aren't capable of being honorable or assigning blame where it rightly belongs.  

These are not the republicans I used to know.  

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
link   JohnRussell    7 years ago

I can answer this very quickly. Democratic leadership has said quite specifically that when repeal of Obamacare is taken off the table they will immediately sit down with the Republicans to work on the "fix". 

 
 
 
Hal A. Lujah
Professor Guide
link   Hal A. Lujah    7 years ago

"Fixing" healthcare in the US involves something that nobody on either side of the isle is willing to do.  Imagine how expensive any private commodity would be, if your life or the life of your spouse and children potentially depended on it.  The only country in the world that has allowed for privatized healthcare, has consequently allowed healthcare to dominate the financial sector.  Healthcare is a key component to our jenga styled economy.  Consistent profits are easy to accomplish when you're permitted rig the system by holding peoples' health hostage.  The rest of the world figured that out long ago.

 
 
 
Dean Moriarty
Professor Quiet
link   Dean Moriarty  replied to  Hal A. Lujah   7 years ago

Most of most of the new life saving drugs and surgical technologies are developed by for profit organizations. Doing stuff for free doesn't yield much. 

 
 

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