U.S. healthcare bill appears doomed after Collins says no

[webfact]

U.S. healthcare bill appears doomed after Collins says no

By Susan Cornwell and Richard Cowan

 

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) departs after the weekly Republican caucus policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S. September 19, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A last ditch Republican effort to repeal Obamacare appeared doomed late on Monday after Senator Susan Collins became the third Republican senator to announce opposition to the bill.

 

Collins, who joined Senators John McCain and Rand Paul in opposing the legislation, told reporters that sweeping cuts in the Medicaid program was the main reason for opposing the bill to end Obamacare, a top priority for President Donald Trump.

 

Collins said the bill would have taken more than a trillion dollars out of Medicaid, a program for low income citizens and disabled children, between 2020 and 2036. She also opposed the bill for weakening protections for people with pre-existing conditions, such as asthma, cancer and diabetes.

 

"So for those reasons, I cannot support the bill," Collins told reporters outside the Senate chambers.

 

Collins' decision came even after the sponsors of the bill, Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy, offered sweeteners for her state, Maine, and Alaska.

 

For seven years, Republicans have vowed to get rid of Democratic former President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law, which extended health insurance to some 20 million Americans. They believe it is an unwarranted and costly government intrusion into healthcare, while also opposing taxes it imposed on the wealthy.

 

Collins announced her opposition shortly after the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said that the number of people with health insurance covering high-cost medical events would be slashed by millions if it were to become law.

Collins said the White House had lobbied her hard in recent days.

 

“The president called me today, the vice president called me in Maine over the weekend, Secretary Price has called me, it would probably be a shorter list of who hasn’t called me about this bill,” she said.

 

Television talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, who had become part of the debate on U.S. healthcare legislation in May after discussing his newborn son's heart surgery, had taken aim at the bill in recent days. On Monday he tweeted: "Thank you @SenatorCollins for putting people ahead of party. We are all in your debt."

 

Senator John Cornyn, the chamber's second most powerful lawmaker, said no decision had been made on whether to have a vote on the healthcare bill.

 

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell and Richard Cowan; Additional reporting by Philip Stewart, Makini Brice Alistair Bell and Timothy Gardner in Washington and Caroline Humer in New York; Editing by Bill Trott and Mary Milliken)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-09-26

[LannaGuy]

So funny they complain for 8 years and now can't get their act together because of a few rogue senators. GOP is in a real mess and ordinary citizens suffer. I blame Obama and the organisation of the ACA, instead of making it a real 'care for all' they fudged it. Follow UK's example! 'free at point of delivery' and be done with it.

[Jingthing]

A tiny percentage of republicans have a conscience. Good on them!

 

 

[mania]

Meanwhile here in the USA we are still stuck with this O-Care

which if any of you actually live here you know is 10x

worse than what we previously had.

 

[stevenl]

28 minutes ago, LannaGuy said:

So funny they complain for 8 years and now can't get their act together because of a few rogue senators. GOP is in a real mess and ordinary citizens suffer. I blame Obama and the organisation of the ACA, instead of making it a real 'care for all' they fudged it. Follow UK's example! 'free at point of delivery' and be done with it.

They fudged it because republican support was not enough to go any further.

All is needed is improving the present ACA.

[gk10002000]

I sure hate Obamacare. It tripled my medical costs.  Luckily I got a direct job offer with the large aerospace company I had been contracting with, and my medical premiums actually got cut from what I was paying. But as an independent contractor the costs were almost un-tenable.  At 60,  $580/month for the worse and cheapest Bronze HMO plan in Florida!  My investment income is high enough to not make me eligible for subsidies.   I now am planning for Medicare and the supplements I have to buy and that should be OK.  I plan to keep this job until 62 or 63 then will simply live overseas for a while and avoid having to partake of this nonsense.  Things may change in the next year or two, including my job.  Either way I can punch out if necessary.  Being a veteran I can even knock down my investment income so I can qualify for VA Medical if I choose to. 

[darksidedog]

Universal healthcare is the real answer, but that wont happen because the blood sucking Insurance industry would lose too much profit. Obamacare is indeed beset by a multitude of issues, but recent efforts to replace it with something far worse, just for the sake of repealing Obamacare, have been disgraceful. Millions of people now owe their continuing healthcare to three people, who actually have a conscience it would seem.

[LannaGuy]

1 hour ago, stevenl said:

They fudged it because republican support was not enough to go any further.  All is needed is improving the present ACA.

That's true but better to go to the country and say "this is what we need" and win the next election than do an "Obama Fudge" and now look at the chaos

[dundas]

I seem to recall hearing that changing anything in the US health system is almost impossible because of the vested interests involved -- big pharma, insurance companies and hospitals (not to mention the medical profession). 

 

As it is now, Cuba has better health options for its citizens. Something for Cuba to be proud of, I guess!

[tonray]

2 hours ago, gk10002000 said:

I sure hate Obamacare. It tripled my medical costs.  Luckily I got a direct job offer with the large aerospace company I had been contracting with, and my medical premiums actually got cut from what I was paying. But as an independent contractor the costs were almost un-tenable.  At 60,  $580/month for the worse and cheapest Bronze HMO plan in Florida!  My investment income is high enough to not make me eligible for subsidies.   I now am planning for Medicare and the supplements I have to buy and that should be OK.  I plan to keep this job until 62 or 63 then will simply live overseas for a while and avoid having to partake of this nonsense.  Things may change in the next year or two, including my job.  Either way I can punch out if necessary.  Being a veteran I can even knock down my investment income so I can qualify for VA Medical if I choose to. 

While your premiums tripled during Obamacare's implementation, it does not necessarily mean it was the root cause. In NJ I was also an independent contractor and my premiums tripled 5 years before ObamaCare was even proposed...in fact the Silver plan I was able to get with a small subsidy made insurance affordable again. So it really shows that a fractured market is why we need a Universal care option.

[attrayant]

30 minutes ago, dundas said:

I seem to recall hearing that changing anything in the US health system is almost impossible because of the vested interests involved -- big pharma, insurance companies and hospitals (not to mention the medical profession). 

It's one-fifth of the economy, so it should be hard to change without overwhelming public support and a lot of input from the medical establishment.  Neither Graham nor Cassidy know anything about writing healthcare law.  What business have they got pushing this mess down our throats?

 

But it's not impossible to change healthcare because we did change it eight years ago.  And now, those vested interests you're referring to are all in rare uniform agreement that the current repeal bill is a huge steaming pile of pig doots:

 

American Medical Association

American Academy of Pediatrics

AARP

Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

Planned Parenthood

Kaiser Permanente

America’s Health Insurance Plans

American Heart Association and 16 other patient and provider groups

Association of American Medical Colleges

HIV Medicine Association

The Alzheimer’s Association and Alzheimer’s Impact Movement

American Cancer Society

National Association of Medicaid Directors

American Hospital Association

American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

Children’s Hospital Association

Public Health Institute

 

Not to mention the Medicaid Directors of all fifty states.

 

Edited September 26, 2017 by attrayant
reworded

[retarius]

4 hours ago, Jingthing said:

A tiny percentage of republicans have a conscience. Good on them!

 

 

But Obamacare is a disaster. The rates have risen tremendously. My son ( a fit young 40 year old who hasn;t been to a doctor in 10 years) says even catastrophic coverage for him with a $5000 deductible is 

more than his mortgage payment. A public option is badly needed like Medicare for all. Even Medicare is $450 a month for basic coverage, gap insurance and drug cover....I politely declined as it doesn't cover outside the US.

[attrayant]

1 minute ago, retarius said:

But Obamacare is a disaster. The rates have risen tremendously. My son (a fit young 40 year old who hasn;t been to a doctor in 10 years) says even catastrophic coverage for him with a $5000 deductible is 

more than his mortgage payment.

 

An annual premium that is around the cost of a mortgage payment sounds pretty good to me.  Am I reading you right?

 

Those who are on the "it sucks for me personally" bandwagon need to remember that it's not just about you.  Insurance is about spreading the risk pool across as many people as possible.  While that might result in some premiums going up, the overall effect is that more people are covered and the population as a whole benefits.  Whether you feel it or not, you personally benefit from that.  You should have a vested interest in seeing that your fellow humans stay healthy.  I don't want to live in a country full of sick people, and I'm willing to pay higher premiums to help make that happen.