Senate Health-Care Debate Opens With Rejection of McConnell Plan
The Senate rejected Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s health-care proposal late Tuesday at the start of several days of debate with no clear idea of what Obamacare-replacement plan the senators will ultimately be asked to pass.
The 43-57 vote against a modified version of McConnell’s plan, with 60 required to adopt it, came hours after a dramatic 51-50 vote to begin debate. Vice President Mike Pence broke a 50-50 tie after Senator John McCain, who is undergoing brain-cancer treatment, flew in from his home state of Arizona to cast the tying vote to move the bill forward.
The Senate plans to vote Wednesday on an amendment similar to an Obamacare repeal bill passed in 2015 by the Senate and vetoed by President Barack Obama. That proposal is also expected to fail, and it will be followed by a number of other proposals.
McCain entered the chamber to applause from Republicans and Democrats, but then fired off a warning to his own leadership, saying he won’t vote to pass the latest version of the GOP health bill.
“We keep trying to win without help from the other side of the aisle,” McCain said in a speech on the Senate floor after the vote. “We are getting nothing done, my friends, we’re getting nothing done.”
“All we’ve managed to do was make more popular a policy that wasn’t very popular,” he added, referring to Obamacare.
‘Giant Step’
President Donald Trump praised Senate Republicans for the vote to open debate, calling it a “giant step” to begin dismantling Obamacare.
“The Senate must now pass a bill and get it to my desk so we can finally end the Obamacare disaster once and for all,” he said in a statement.
Two Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, voted not to open debate. Both have insisted that Obamacare shouldn’t be repealed without an adequate replacement. Opposition from one more Republican would be enough to sink a health-care bill.
McConnell is aiming for a final vote this week, but the path is unclear and it’s far from certain he’ll get the votes to pass a final bill. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 3 Senate Republican, said he expects the Senate to hold an all-night session Thursday into Friday, known as a "vote-a-rama," where senators in both parties will be able to offer nearly unlimited numbers of amendments.
"This is just the beginning,” McConnell told reporters. “We’re not out here to spike the football.”
‘Fight and Fight’
Senate Democrats pledged to fight against all of the GOP’s repeal efforts.
“We will do everything we can inside this building,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said at a news conference, adding that people outside Washington should organize too. “We are going to fight and fight and fight until this bill is dead.”
The McConnell amendment defeated Tuesday night included a controversial provision from Republican Ted Cruz of Texas that would allow insurers to offer stripped-down plans that exclude people with pre-existing conditions, charge women more, and offer far skimpier benefits. The version also included language from Rob Portman of Ohio that would provide an additional $100 billion for those affected by provisions rolling back Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid.
"It is a prescription for trouble for millions of Americans," Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon said of the amendment.
An earlier version of McConnell’s bill would cause 22 million fewer people to have health care by 2026, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said. The Cruz and Portman provisions required 60 votes to advance because they hadn’t been analyzed by the CBO, McConnell said.
Republican leaders have promised senators they’ll each get a chance to vote on their preferred plan, with a final measure to be put together by leadership at the end of the debate.
Senators may also consider a so-called skinny repeal that would eliminate the requirements that individuals obtain insurance and employers provide it to their workers, while keeping the expansion of Medicaid.
Markets Unmoved
Health-care stocks were unmoved by the vote to begin debate, barely budging after senators approved the motion. Hospital stocks had dropped earlier in the day after HCA Healthcare Inc. reported weaker-than-expected earnings results. The BI North America Hospitals Valuation Peer Group was down 4.6 percent as of 3:06 p.m. in New York.
Health insurers, many of which have already pulled back from Obamacare’s markets, were little changed, and the Standard and Poor’s 500 Managed Health Care Index was down less than 1 percent.
The American Hospital Association said it was “disappointed” by Tuesday’s vote, and that it opposes Medicaid cuts or other legislative action that would boost the number of people without health insurance.
“Although we are certainly disappointed by today’s development, we are also more determined than ever to help advance solutions aimed at protecting coverage,” Rick Pollack, the hospital group’s chief executive officer, said in a statement. “Any legislative efforts that entail devastating cuts to the Medicaid program or coverage losses will be opposed.”
The Senate parliamentarian issued more rulings Tuesday that complicate GOP efforts to change Obamacare’s rules on how insurance prices are set. The Senate GOP proposal would allow older people to be charged as much as five times more than young people, compared with the 3-to-1 ratio under Obamacare. The change would result in lower premiums for young people, and was backed by by Republican lawmakers who hoped it would draw more young people into the market.
But the parliamentarian said it doesn’t qualify under the fast-track procedures used by the Senate to pass the measure with 50 votes.
The House bill, H.R. 1628, would wind down the expansion of Medicaid and eliminate $1 trillion in taxes on the wealthy, insurers and drugmakers used to fund the law. Republicans say it would allow a market-based system that would let people make more health-coverage decisions for themselves. It would replace Obamacare subsidies with tax credits based primarily on age that phase out for people with incomes above $75,000.
Trump and House Republicans celebrated the May 4 passage of the bill with an outdoor ceremony at the White House, though the president later called the bill "mean." The nonpartisan CBO said it would cause millions to lose health coverage.
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The circus that they call the republican party.
Good to see they haven't given up. Just keep plugging away at it until we free ourselves from this socialism. A clean repeal is what they should be shooting for.
Healthcare costs with Obamacare are projected to go up 27% this year in Colorado.
Healthcare costs with Obamacare are projected to go up 27% this year in Colorado.
If only the R's would get off their lying azz's and start doing their share of governing the Country.
The ACA was a fine step forward and, for those States that worked with the bill, things have been improved.
Current problems with our Nations health care is less about what Pres Obama and the D's got got done back in 2010 and more about what the R's have and, (more importantly), haven't done since 2010.
Study: Premium growth slowed after Obamacare
By Stephanie Condon CBS News January 8, 2015, 12:01 AM
The Affordable Care Act may be helping to slow down the ever-growing costs of health care, according to a new report. Still, the health care law has yet to entirely live up to its name.
Employer-sponsored health insurance premiums grew more slowly in 31 states and the District of Columbia between 2010 and 2013 -- after the passage of Obamacare -- compared with 2003 to 2010, according to the nonpartisan foundation the Commonwealth Fund.
The slowdown in the growth in premiums is tied to the recent historic slowdown in health care costs, Commonwealth Fund President David Blumenthal told reporters Wednesday, and could be attributed to a variety of factors. Those include the continuing effects of the recession and new Obamacare policies.
State Trends in the Cost of Employer Health Insurance Coverage, 2003-2013
How painful will health care costs be in 2016?
The once-torrid growth rate of health care costs has slowed markedly, at least for now, and should maintain a more languid pace into the New Year and beyond. But why? The answer ranges far beyond the ebbing of general price escalation for other things, such as apartment rentals and new cars.
Of course, medical bill inflation still is rising faster than the broader consumer price index, which remains well south of a 2 percent annual pace. In November, according the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics , consumers' health care inflation was up 2.9 percent. That's far down from the 5 percent expansion in 2007.
The picture is the same for overall health costs. Above what consumers shell out, the government -- through Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare -- and employer plans also chip in to pay medical bills. The PwC Health Research Institute found that this combined spending rose 6.8 percent in 2015 and expects it to climb at a slightly slower clip of 6.5 percent in 2016. That's a far cry from 2007's 11.9 percent.
Colorado health insurers propose 27% rate hike in 2018
Individual market rates rose an average of 20.4 percent for 2017 – the largest such increase since the Affordable Care Act took effect in 2014.
the largest such increase since the Affordable Care Act took effect in 2014.
Thank Pres. Trump, Mitch and the R's for that Dean.
From your linked article;
The filings offer the first glimpse of rates that consumers without employer- or government-based health insurance could pay in 2018. And unlike past years, many insurers appeared to be factoring in the political risk of congressional Republicans’ health care reform struggle, as opposed to merely the medical risk of insuring their policyholders, health care analysts and industry members said.
A recent report by the American Academy of Actuaries echoed that observation, saying uncertainty over the Affordable Care Act’s fate has contributed to rate hikes for 2018 and rising medical costs.
You really should call the White House and tell the Pres to stop being such an A-hole who seems to take so much pleasure in hurting Americans citizens.
Wow, just think the republicans are contributing to the increases in the cost of health care because of their inaction...
The republican circus is now up from 3 rings to 5 rings.
Way to go boys.
The GOP sabotages the ACA and then points to it and bleats like sheep "See! It's failing!". No it is not failing and will not if the GOP was not so deep in the pockets of the rich.
Maybe they will increase you taxes Dean....You know help out those in need,
MITCH McCONNELL … HYPOCRITE!
When McConnell as a toddler contracted polio, a hospital in Warm Springs Georgia was able to treat him due to funding from the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis … and McConnell made a full recovery.
But McConnell has refused to discuss that organization's concerns with his legislation to kill, disable, or, in some way, hurt many Americans.
Further, McConnell has refused to meet with any charitable foundation to discuss this bill, which includes the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association, and the American Diabetes Association.
Not even the March of Dimes was allowed a meeting with him .
TALK ABOUT "TAKERS"!
The personification of a scum bucket.
Way to go Mitch piss on those that saved your worthless ass.
Many on NT aren't old enough to remember what it was like to live with the possibility of catching polio. It was damn scary.
Mitch gets taken care of and then won't meet with organizations that are instrumental in helping kids.
I thought that I heard and seen the lowest of the low. This is in a class by itself..
The REPUBLICAN MANTRA …
"I'VE GOT MINE … FUCK EVERYONE ELSE!"
The REPUBLICAN MANTRA …
"I'VE GOT MINE … FUCK EVERYONE ELSE!"
And it's the same mantra of some on this site also! It is amazing that so many in the GOP are working so hard to fuck as many people as possible out of life saving health care! Why do they want so many poor people to die? Their apparent enthusiasm for the death of the poor raises the possibility that killing the poor through no health care is much less a fiscal decision and much more a sociological one. They simply want them gone and this is one way to make it happen.
The Democrat mantra: HE'S GOT HIS! TAKE IT FROM HIM!
Ask someone if he'd rather have a $400,000 house if it meant his neighbor would have a $600,000 house or would he rather have a $200,000 house if it meant his neighbor would also have a $200,000 house.
The Republican takes the $400,000 house, the Democrat the $200,000 house.
Well you can ask me Sean....I have a house and really don't care what size or cost my neighbors house is.
This is about helping those that need it, something that seems to be well beyond your understanding.
The Republican takes the $400,000 house, the Democrat the $200,000 house.
The REPUBLICAN knows the PRICE of everything …
… and the VALUE of nothing.
Only the most pathetic excuse for a human being would measure his worth as such, by the "value" of things he possesses or wishes to possess.
Human beings will become chronically ill and some will die so that Sean can have his $400,000 house.
If there's anyone herein who needs me to explain why that offends and sickens me …
… he likely owns a MAGA cap.
I'll take that any day over the immoral thieving Democrats mantra. "What's yours is mine"
The Democrats mantra, I am my fellow American's keeper and helper.
In MY America we help those who can not help themselves and we are judged as a nation and a people on how well we take care of the least among us. As Americans we are all in this together.
The REPUBLICAN MANTRA …
"I'VE GOT MINE … FUCK EVERYONE ELSE!"
And it's the same mantra of some on this site also!
I rest my case.
I'll take that any day over the immoral thieving Democrats mantra. "What's yours is mine"
A pronouncement, broad brush comment that emanates from racist stereotyping … also … THE SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY OF THE EMPLOYER THAT DEMANDS HIS WORKER PULL HIMSELF UP BY HIS BOOTSTRAPS …
… WHILE PAYING THAT WORKER BARELY ENOUGH TO AFFORD FOOD FOR HIS CHILDREN!
The WORKING POOR deserve better but the PIMPS AND WHORES IN LEGISLATIVE POSITIONS SELL OUT TO BIG MONEY.
Myth 1: People on welfare are unmotivated and not working.
Welfare recipients are often characterized as lazy, simply waiting for the next month's benefits to roll in. But nearly 73% of people receiving public benefits are members of working families.
Some programs, like TANF, actually operate under the expectation that families are working but need temporary assistance to become financially stable. Many argue the problem is really income inequality, which leaves minimum wage earners struggling to afford basic needs, and therefore reliant on public assistance.
Viewing people as morally responsible for their own situations "obviously ignores the systemic inequalities in the economy and polity that make people poor in the first place," independent scholar Gwendolyn Mink, who authored Welfare's End and several other works on public assistance programs, tells Mashable . "The kind of income inequality that is in the system puts especially women of color at the lowest end of the earning spectrum, which is a sentence of abject poverty."
Even though welfare recipients are in the labor force, Mink explains, they aren't earning enough money to support a family and provide food security for their children while at the same time pay bills, such as rent and utilities.
Myth 2: Welfare recipients are mostly people of color.
This myth is dripping with racist assumptions about the lives of people of color, but it's also fundamentally untrue.
In reality, approximately 40% of SNAP recipients are white, making white people the largest racial group on food stamps. When it comes to TANF recipients , approximately 30% are white, 30% are Latino and 30% are black, with several other racial groups making up the remaining 10% of recipients.
Considering systemic inequalities that put people of color behind white people in terms of wage earnings , this somewhat even distribution of need-based aid is actually concerning. Due to racism in the wage system, people of color should theoretically receive more governmental assistance. Yet, those who need welfare programs often don't have access to them — which is the real issue.
"Only 27% of families who need welfare, who are in poverty [and] who qualify for welfare … actually receive it," Mink says. "Most people who need it don't get it. The law is so cruelly structured to incentivize non-participation or to actually exclude participation."
Myth 3: Undocumented populations are stealing welfare benefits from citizens.
This isn't just false — it's impossible. Undocumented populations are ineligible for all welfare programs, except emergency medical care.
"It's illegal to afford public benefits of the TANF or food stamp variety to undocumented immigrants ... who have not been in this country for a situated amount of time as legal residents," Mink says.
Even for immigrants who are now legal residents, federally funded programs have strict criteria for participation. For example, food stamps are only available to immigrants with legal status who have lived in the country for five years, are receiving disability-related assistance or are under 18 years old.
Some programs also allow states to make their own guidelines for immigrant populations, leading to disparities in assistance from state to state.
"The TANF law permits states to bar any immigrants all together, if they wanted to," Mink says.
Myth 4: Countless "welfare queens" are working the system's loopholes.
In any debate of welfare, you'll often hear stories of the "welfare queen" — a racialized term used to describe women who are accused of cheating the system to gain maximum benefits.
Her origin can be traced back to a Ronald Reagan campaign rally in 1976, where the former president said , "In Chicago, they found a woman who holds the record. She used 80 names, 30 addresses, 15 telephone numbers to collect food stamps, Social Security, veterans' benefits for four nonexistent deceased veteran husbands, as well as welfare. Her tax-free cash income alone has been running $150,000 a year."
But the reality of the undeserving welfare queen is not the rule — it's the exception. Mink says it's unreasonable to make judgments based on "one bad apple in every bunch."
It's also difficult to work the system with the goal of becoming that bad apple. WIC and SNAP are full of restrictions preventing the use of coupons for monetary gain, while TANF is only available for five years within a person's lifetime.
Myth 5: Once a person goes on welfare, they'll freeload off it for years.
Eligibility requirements prevent government aid recipients from getting benefits if they don't demonstrate dire need. TANF programs, for example, have a federal lifetime limit of five years .
"You might be on consecutively for five years and fall off," Mink says, "but if you fall into dire straits five years from now, forget it. You can't get back into the program."
As a result, these requirements often prevent some people from accessing the support they need. For instance, the federal government's food stamp cuts enacted at the end of 2014, which included tighter eligibility restrictions, had experts predicting severe hardships for the nation's poorest by 2016.
Welfare offers basic support to provide families with the bare necessities, if even that. Many families on welfare are simply looking to use government assistance as a way to build up their finances during tough times, with the goal of getting back on their feet.
"Nobody wants to stay on welfare if they can get a decent job with decent wages with decent working conditions," Mink says.
Myth 6: Welfare programs are eating up valuable tax dollars.
A recent study from UC Berkeley found that public assistance programs cost taxpayers $152.8 billion every year (indicating a need for better wages). While this is a sizable chunk of cash, it isn't even close to the amount poor families need.
Benefits per family are minimal, still leaving many scrambling at the end of the month to afford their expenses. As of late 2014, the average monthly food stamp benefit came in at $133.07 per participant . Though TANF benefits can fall anywhere between $200 and $1,000 per family, the average monthly amount of assistance per recipient families was $392 per month in 2010 .
"Are people as concerned about how the military spends their tax dollars or how much money we give to Amtrak?" Mink says. "A very small percentage of the federal budget is consumed by welfare spending..."
Your tax dollars aren't going to waste. These programs are helping families survive, not thrive.
_________________________________________
NOTE: To those who will bitch about "Copy & Paste" because THEY CANNOT REFUTE THE CONTENT OF WHAT IS COPIED AND PASTED …
Consider the information as EDUCATION-FOR-THE-ILL-INFORMED, UNINFORMED, WILLFULLY BLIND AND PREDISPOSED TO THE PREJUDICES THEY NEED TO BELIEVE IN ORDER TO FEEL "ABOVE-THOSE-OTHER-PEOPLE -- THOSE NOT-REAL -AMERICANS".
I provide information … it's FREE KNOWLEDGE … but you must bring your own container, be it a bucket or a thimble … you can fill it to overflowing if you so choose … or …
… you can wallow in your ignorance.
Myth 5: Once A Person Goes On Welfare, They'll Freeload Off It For Years.
This is one of the ones that pisses me off the most because of how untrue, what a lie, it is. Almost 40 years ago my mother was on Welfare in Michigan. They offered her a chance to get educated and to get off Welfare and she grabbed at it. She took a bus almost daily for more then a year and learned how to be a secretary. Through another government funded program offered via the YWCA she was helped out of a horribly abusive relationship, given in depth counseling and offered a path forward. She ended up working for The Social Security Department in Grand Rapids, rising through the ranks to retire as head of the payroll Department. This would not have been possible without government funded programs and her story is just one of millions of successes when those who are in trouble are offered help, just a hand up, by their fellow Americans, instead of just being sneered at and lied about by the truly selfish, the "I've got mine so fuck everyone else" crowd. To that crowd I say what they deserve to hear...FUCK YOU!
I've got mine Dean and Cerenkov, I have no worries along that line. But I'm more than willing to help those that need the help, children, disabled, working poor, elderly unlike you who whine and cry day in and day out that their taxes are to high, and don't give a shit about anyone but themselves.
Well boys have at it, because one way or the other ACA is here to stay and YOUR taxes are going to help pay for it.
Good then help them give your money away just don't try to give mine away against my will.
I will do everything possible to ensure that ACA stays and that YOUR taxes hopefully are increased.
MAGA share the pain Dean.
I will do everything possible to ensure that ACA stays and that YOUR taxes hopefully are increased.
Same here. REAL Americans help out their fellow Americans.
Consider the information as EDUCATION-FOR-THE-ILL-INFORMED, UNINFORMED, WILLFULLY BLIND AND PREDISPOSED TO THE PREJUDICES THEY NEED TO BELIEVE IN ORDER TO FEEL "ABOVE-THOSE-OTHER-PEOPLE -- THOSE NOT-REAL-AMERICANS".
So we see Mac.
Good then help them give your money away just don't try to give mine away against my will.
Clarify that for me, Dean.
A business that pays its working poor such low wages that I HAVE TO PAY MORE IN TAXES BECAUSE THAT BUSINESS MADE IT NECESSARY FOR ITS WORKERS TO REQUIRE FOOD STAMPS …
… that business, for the sake of its bottom line, does PRECISELY WHAT YOU OBJECT TO!
Sure I'm opposed to welfare and government subsidies. Every time the Republicans try to cut welfare the Democrats stomp their feet and say you can't do that that's how we buy our votes. I believe in free market wages and no welfare.
I'm sure that you do Dean, you parrot that line on every article.
MAGA do your duty.
My views are fairly consistent and are very similar to the political views my grandfather had and he was poor during the depression. He was strongly opposed to FDR's policies and I feel the same. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Dean,
If health insurance and health care were NOT FREE MARKET-FOR-PROFIT COMMODITIES, that would mitigate a whole lot of welfare necessity.
Speaking of apples and trees, possibly you can't see the forest.
Your grandfather was opposed to FDR policies...How cool is that, then I guess that the multiple agencies that still serve us today were useless...You know like the TVA, CCC etc etc.
Like your grandfather was the only poor person in the U.S. gimme a break.
Sure I'm opposed to welfare and government subsidies. Every time the Republicans try to cut welfare the Democrats stomp their feet and say you can't do that that's how we buy our votes. I believe in free market wages and no welfare.
Dean, what should happen to people who don't make enough money to survive without help?
Should they become thieves and robbers ?
They should do the same thing my grandparents did. Eat squirrels and carp. People managed to get by for millions of years before government started stealing and redistributing. The result is creating a dumbed down society of people brainwashed into thinking they can no longer provide for their own welfare.
Eat squirrels and carp. People managed to get by for millions of years before government started stealing and redistributing.
What about bugs and twigs ?
I would say the most dumbed down members of our society are the RWNJ.
Dems got CBO to estimate impact of GOP “skinny repeal” bill. One takeaway: Uninsured would go from 26M next year to 44M.
Senate rejects plan to repeal Obama health law and leave replacement for later
Another one down the drain.