Keep Talking
Posted by Michelle Moquin on April 8th, 2014
Good morning!
Paula: Thanks for posting what you found.
Readers: While were all on the subject, here is the latest with Ryan and Obamacare from Think Progress:
Paul Ryan Accidentally Reveals The Truth About The GOP’s Obamacare Replacement
House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) admitted on Friday that Republicans would not be able to preserve the most popular elements of Obamacare if they repeal the law as a whole. Ryan’s comments come as House Republicans plan to unveil a replacement bill that will reportedly allow young adults to remain on their parents’ health care plans and provide some level of protection for individuals with pre-existing conditions.
“If you look at these kinds of reforms, where they’ve been tried before — say the state of Kentucky, for example — you basically make it impossible to underwrite insurance,” Ryan told Bloomberg’s Al Hunt when asked if Republicans would maintain the pre-existing conditions regulations, dependent coverage extension, and other rate requirements. “You dramatically crank up the cost. And you make it hard for people to get affordable health care,” Ryan insisted.
The former GOP vice presidential candidate also said that Republicans could offer other alternatives that would expand coverage to people without insurance and lower health care costs. “Yes, and I think there are better ways of dealing with those very serious and legitimate issues without doing it this way, because I think this is the wrong approach.”
In 2009, Ryan offered a joint alternative with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), which would have taxed the full value of employer health benefits and provided refundable tax credits to help families and individuals purchase employer or nongroup coverage. Economists had predicted that equalizing the tax treatment of health care benefits could discourage businesses from offering insurance and lead at least 20 million Americans to lose their employer coverage .
The plan also encouraged states to “establish rational and reasonable consumer protections” by forming State Health Insurance Exchanges. The bill even included “non-profit, independent board” to penalize insurance companies “that cherry pick health patients and reward insurers that cover patients with pre-existing conditions.” It described the board as “a model that works in several European countries.”
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April 8th, 2014 at 2:06 pm
Never trust a Tea Bagging idiot. plain and simple
April 8th, 2014 at 2:06 pm
The irony is now that even if ACA were repealed, the GOP would have to offer some alternative when they were happy to go with absolutely no reform before. So even if it were repealed the President and the Democrats could still show they responsible for the reforms.
The GOP is already quietly passing changes the Democrats wanted.
April 8th, 2014 at 2:07 pm
This site gives a list of pre-existing conditions that medical insurance companies used to deny coverage before the PPACA, aka Obamacare…
Included are acne, domestic violence, and rape.
http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.co…
Pre-Existing Medical Conditions – Summary List
“…This composite list is by no means exhaustive. These are just SOME of the reasons for denial of medical coverage. It was compiled from conditions listed by Anthem (Blue Cross), Assurant, CIGNA, and Kaiser. “Undiagnosed symptoms” is my favorite. That covers everything.
FACT: Medical Insurance is NOT for sick people!
Insurance companies do NOT want to pay for anything that is ALREADY WRONG with you.
Basically, if you are sick, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to get medical coverage.”.
April 8th, 2014 at 2:13 pm
The House of Representatives have voted over 50 times to bring back pre-existing conditions as a way of denying medical insurance.
April 8th, 2014 at 2:14 pm
Why do people listen to idiots like this Ryan character? He speaks as if government based health care insurance has never been tried before.
Doesn’t the fool realize that it is in fact the health care system for the whole first world except the US. It has proved itself many, many times over in reducing costs and increasing coverage to virtually the whole populations of these nations.
April 8th, 2014 at 2:14 pm
I now have insurance, but that doesn’t mean I have health care. I still can’t afford to see a doctor. I have various health issues but they will be untreated until I can afford to get care, which if I can’t find another or a second job, will be years from now.
April 8th, 2014 at 2:15 pm
Every time you think they’ve reached the limit of either batshit crazy and/or stupid they take another step.
Ever notice that the only time a Rethuglicon tells the truth is by accident?
Truth is essential to progress; thus conservatism stands explained.
April 8th, 2014 at 2:16 pm
I don’t want insurance, I want health care. I want a single payer system implemented and to know I can get care when I need it and not worry about whether my insurance will cover it because they wnat to determine who I see and what drugs I take and what procedures they pay for.
The insurance market makes it almost certain that we will never be able to know what benefits we have, what something will cost us, and that the costs will continue to rise. We need to promote and access prevention too–free classes, free health clubs, available to all.
I know I can’t lose weight on my own, but I also can’t figure out how to pay for the kind of support and assistance I need. Same is probably true for smokers, for addicts, for anyone with chronic conditions that increases their risk for high expense.
Also, pharmaceutical companies’ patenting needs to be revised. It’s about priorities and values, and so far, our priorities are with the defense department and the wealthy who want to stay wealthy.
April 8th, 2014 at 2:17 pm
Another alternative is to do what is necessary to lower the cost of US health care to a level more comparable with that of the rest of the developed world. The best way to do this is to change the doctor/patient relationship to one of contractor/client.
In such a relationship the client makes the decisions, not the contractor. The job of the contractor is then one of doing what the client wants done. The client also usually gets competitive bids for the work to be done. To do this, we need to first repeal prescription laws for most medical drugs, making them “behind the counter, adult signature required”.
Once this is done, doctors will not longer enjoy their government enforced legal monopoly over access to medical drugs. The doctor is no longer in control of the patient’s life or the medications the patient wishes to take.
This is called “true free market medicine” and it would be a lot cheaper than what we have today. Additionally we need to have the software industry produce software that allows people to diagnose their own medical problems.
This could be in one or both forms of being installed software on one’s computer, or having people access a program on the Internet, probably by one of the major sites like Google, who would have the server capacity needed here. (this was the failure of “Healthcare.gov” in that it did not have the server capacity needed when tens of thousands of people attempted to access the site at the same time.
Do this, and there will be a definite reduction in US health care costs. Another thing is create universal health savings accounts using “pre-tax” money to pay personal health care costs when needed.
Another is to change the health insurance system to one similar to what is done in France. Under their system, the patient pays the doctor, and then collects about 70% of the doctor’s fee back from the insurance company.
In this way doctors no longer have to hire people to bill insurance companies, which means that they can lower their office fees by probably 20 to 30% since none of the “office staff” will be needed.
The doctor will only need an “office nurse”. BTW, I believe at one time we did have an insurance system somewhat along this line, so it is nothing really new.
April 8th, 2014 at 2:18 pm
So in other words, the republicans in order to give the insurance companies what they want they will continue to try to repeal the ACA. What they will give in return for this bill is the same old insurance that we had before the ACA was voted into law.
April 8th, 2014 at 2:18 pm
The Republican plan is no plan at all. What I find most disturbing is that many Senate Dems up for re-election are running away from the ACA and going to the anti-Koch brothers platform without championing any Democratic victories such as Social Security,
Medicare, Unemployment Insurance etc. In other words they are running as Republican lite. Shame on them all.
April 8th, 2014 at 2:22 pm
Alfredo#4, 55 times so far at 5.2 million dollars cost every time the GOP reruns this repeal attempt. Let the GOP pay for this every time they repeat this law after the taxpayers have paid for it the 1st time.
This is the party that claims it is the Democrats that run up the bills. well, from the proof we have seen since Obama became President, it has literally jumped out in the open of all the wastes of taxpayer monies by the GOP. And denying ACORN operating money every year after ACORN was falsely accused of fraud also.
Once something is gone, why does the GOP insist wasting money for something that does not exist anymore. Remember that when you go to the polls in November.
April 8th, 2014 at 2:23 pm
Kerry#6, I know what you mean. I had to borrow money from my daughter to pay my rent last month because I now have health insurance! Yay for me!
April 8th, 2014 at 2:24 pm
Shelia#8, You should run for President.
April 8th, 2014 at 2:25 pm
Thanks, Shelia#8, for saying what needs to be said; and keep repeating it to all who will listen. We need real health care that only a single payer system will provide.
April 8th, 2014 at 2:27 pm
Ah, Shelia#8, someone that makes sense. That’s what we all would have liked to have had. But the republicans tricked the dems into compromising in order to get their vote.
They got the dems to abandon the single plan and then didn’t vote for the alternate healthcare.
April 8th, 2014 at 2:28 pm
Archie#5, that horses ass Ryan collected Social Security to live on after his father dies and when he was still in college also.
No doubt he was covered under Medicare/Medicaid and probably food stamps also. His mother according to him is independently wealthy and doing good $$$wise yet she collects Social Security. Hypocrite.
Vote this mental incompetent out of office as soon as possible, he has more than proven he is not qualified for the job he is overly paid to do.
April 8th, 2014 at 2:29 pm
Aw, c’mon, this is Paul Ryan, right? Geez, Paul, we’ve been hearing this bullshit from you and your corporate owned republican/democrat friends for years!
Only a libertarian loon could recommend a “contractor/client” relationship between a doctor and patient… More f*cking “free market” bullsh*t!
April 8th, 2014 at 2:31 pm
Marget#10;
The really sad thing is, this isn’t a Democrat plan. What we WANTED was Medicare for Everyone. Go to the DR, get treated. Just like it is for police, fire, and the like.
Instead, we get……….the same insurance companies still dilly farting around, except we have some people telling us we’re required to BUY something. If the republicans REALLY want to get support?
Then Repubs, push for Medicare for Everyone and end total for profit hospitals and health care. Because we’re on the Republican plan, described by Newt Gingrich, back when he was a big wig in congress.
April 8th, 2014 at 2:32 pm
Margaret#10, just remember that this is their “alternative” to the plan they authored, they brought to the table (twice!), and they voted against.
And now we’re supposed to trust them to get it right this time?
April 8th, 2014 at 2:33 pm
Llozano#11, it’s because the people hear and believe the negative comments by the media and believe it though they have no clue.
April 8th, 2014 at 2:34 pm
Notice to the people of Wisconsin:
You’ve got a really important job to do, one that not only affects your state but the whole country.
Come election day SHOW UP for a change and vote that scumbag ryan out of office.
Shitcan walker while you’re at it, and I guarantee you almost all Americans will love you for it.
April 8th, 2014 at 2:34 pm
Ryan has always been a bought and payed for crank box monkey … complete with the hand chimes screeching and making noise.
April 8th, 2014 at 2:35 pm
Ryan’s plan is basically just “Pray you don’t get sick and if you do, pray you can afford the bills.” What else is there to it? Oh, yeah, “Fu(k the poor.” Did I miss anything?
April 8th, 2014 at 2:35 pm
If it’s difficult for insurance companies to underwrite policies come up with a plan that cuts them out of our healthcare. You know, like other civilized countries.
April 8th, 2014 at 2:35 pm
So, those with preexisting conditions and 20-26 year-olds aren’t “‘people”. anymore? Hmm
April 8th, 2014 at 2:36 pm
Is anyone else sick and tired reading about Paul Ryan’s latest BS?
April 8th, 2014 at 5:26 pm
Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll rule that people are corporations.
April 8th, 2014 at 5:26 pm
To paraphrase 1984 “All people are EQUAL but Some people (corporations) are MORE equal
April 8th, 2014 at 5:27 pm
Soon the SCOTUS will rule that corporations are the only “people”.
April 8th, 2014 at 5:29 pm
Cruise#27, I can’t think of a single Republican I’m not sick of reading about. Ryan this week….but I guarantee you Rand Paul will pull a stunt to get the attention back next week.
April 8th, 2014 at 5:30 pm
Cruise#27, then do something about it, mobilize everyone you know and then some and get them to vote the GOP out in the fall.
April 8th, 2014 at 11:29 pm
Just thought someone out there would like to know this:
Lawmakers who voted against the ACA had initially predicted that lowering the subsidy to private insurers would force companies to stop offering coverage, causing 10 million seniors to lose their Medicare benefits.
Republicans introduced numerous amendments instructing Congress to remove the cuts to the Medicare Advantage program and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) even urged seniors to rip up their AARP cards in protest of the organization’s support for the reductions.
Those predictions did not come to pass. Enrollment in Medicare Advantage has grown every year since the ACA was enacted in 2010, premiums have decreased, and 99.1 percent of beneficiaries maintained access to their desired plans.
The government’s overpayments to private insurers also decreased over this period from 14 percent on average when the law passed to 6 percent on average today.
Medicare Advantage plans earned an average profit of 4.5 percent in 2011.