Thaksin and Pheu Thai Party face constitutional showdown

[webfact]

Trump vows another healthcare vote next year, eyes executive order

By Jeff Mason and Susan Cornwell

 

Protesters, mostly handicapped, line the hallway outside the Senate Finance Committee hearing room hours ahead a hearing on the latest Republican effort to repeal Obamacare on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump, faced with the latest Republican failure to undo Obamacare, pledged on Wednesday to tackle it again next year, suggesting without evidence that he had the votes to pass reform and promising to work with Democrats in the meantime.

 

Trump told reporters at the White House that he also was working on an executive order, possibly to be signed next week, that would allow individuals to buy health insurance across state lines.

 

Senate Republicans abandoned their latest effort to repeal former President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act on Tuesday after failing to secure sufficient support from fellow Republicans.

 

Trump said there would be another vote on healthcare in the first few months of 2018 and he would work with Democrats to make the effort more bipartisan. Democrats strongly oppose repealing and replacing Obama's signature domestic policy achievement.

 

"I am ... going to meet with Democrats and I will see if I can get a healthcare plan that's even better," Trump said.

"So I will negotiate with Democrats, but from the Republican standpoint, we have the votes. We'll vote in January, February or March."

 

Trump did not explain the discrepancy between his conviction that the votes were there and the fact that not enough Republican senators supported the latest bill, forcing Republican leaders to scrap plans to hold a vote.

Republicans control the Senate by a 52-48 margin.

 

The bill's sponsors vowed to try again but face steeper odds after Saturday, when special rules expire that allow them to pass healthcare legislation without Democratic support.

 

Trump told reporters that one of the votes they needed was of a senator who was in the hospital, Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi. Cochran's office said the senator was not in the hospital but was recovering after being treated for a "urological issue."

 

Republican Senators John McCain, Susan Collins and Rand Paul opposed the bill.

 

ACROSS STATE LINES

 

Paul has encouraged Trump to legalize nationwide health associations, which he says would allow people to get group health insurance across state lines. Trump said he was working on a measure to do that.

 

"I am considering an executive order on associations and that will take care of a tremendous number of people with regard to healthcare and I'll probably be signing a very major executive order where people can go out, cross state lines, do lots of things and buy their own healthcare," Trump said.

 

He said the order was in the process of being finished. The effort appeared to be a move to woo Paul. Trump said later he thought the senator from Kentucky would come around on the broader push for legislation.

 

"I think Rand will be there for us," Trump told reporters.

 

UCLA Professor Mark Peterson expressed doubt that insurance prices would be reduced by selling across state lines because insurers would still be subject to ACA regulations requiring coverage of hospital care, prescription drugs, pregnancy and childbirth needs and mental health services.

 

"What drives cost of care is the cost of medical care. If I’m in California, which is an expensive medical care state and I buy my insurance from Delaware, which is not, I’m still going to doctors and hospitals that are very expensive and the insurance plan is either going to cover that or not," he said.

 

Congressional leaders said on Tuesday they were moving on to tax reform legislation. But the Senate's No. 2 Republican, John Cornyn, said on Wednesday that lawmakers would continue to work on healthcare. He said the authors of the most recent Obamacare repeal bill, Senators Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy, hoped to increase support for their proposal.

 

Republican Senator Lamar Alexander and Democrat Patty Murray resumed their bipartisan talks on Wednesday seeking a deal to help stabilise health insurance markets, a Murray spokeswoman said. She had no details.

Alexander chairs the Senate health committee and Murray is the panel’s top Democrat.

 

(additional reporting by Richard Cowan, Susan Heavey, Makini Brice, Doina Chiacu and Michael Erman; Editing by Bill Trott and Cynthia Osterman)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-09-28

[darksidedog]

57 minutes ago, webfact said:

Trump did not explain the discrepancy between his conviction that the votes were there and the fact that not enough Republican senators supported the latest bill

He is either not very good at maths, or this is just more bullshit, possibly both.

[tonray]

It's only a matter of time until they bribe enough senators/reps for the repeal. They have to keep the promise before the 2018 elections or else. 

 

Once they do , then the fun begins....craft a plan that does not drop millions and raise premiums as costs continue to rise in healthcare no matter what. Let them prove how difficult the whole issue is.

 

But Trump is correct in that they will eventually get it passed.

[stevenl]

1 hour ago, tonray said:

It's only a matter of time until they bribe enough senators/reps for the repeal. They have to keep the promise before the 2018 elections or else. 

 

Once they do , then the fun begins....craft a plan that does not drop millions and raise premiums as costs continue to rise in healthcare no matter what. Let them prove how difficult the whole issue is.

 

But Trump is correct in that they will eventually get it passed.

"It's only a matter of time until they bribe enough senators/reps for the repeal. They have to keep the promise before the 2018 elections or else. "

Problem is the republicans made the promise, but they'll have to bribe democrats who will want to expand.

[tonray]

4 minutes ago, stevenl said:

"It's only a matter of time until they bribe enough senators/reps for the repeal. They have to keep the promise before the 2018 elections or else. "

Problem is the republicans made the promise, but they'll have to bribe democrats who will want to expand.

Perhaps not...McCain may be out of action before the elections, Paul and others can be swayed. I would not bet against repeal before next September.

[stevenl]

44 minutes ago, tonray said:

Perhaps not...McCain may be out of action before the elections, Paul and others can be swayed. I would not bet against repeal before next September.

Doesn't matter how many Republicans can be swayed or are out of action, Republicans alone don't have the votes anymore from 1 October onwards.

[tonray]

2 minutes ago, stevenl said:

Doesn't matter how many Republicans can be swayed or are out of action, Republicans alone don't have the votes anymore from 1 October onwards.

Yes.. Next year's budget process starts a new clock for reconciliation 

[ilostmypassword]

I hope he does issue an executive order allow cross state insurance. It will prove what an empty idea it is.

[Thaidream]

Trump does not have the votes and he damn well knows it. The reason people like Mcain and a few others refuse to vote yes is that the healthcare bill is a lose-lose.  It does not provide universal healthcare; does not actually lower premiums; and allows states to choose whether they want to allow pre existing conditions.  In addition, every bill the Repubs have sent for a potential vote throws millions off the healthcare roles.

 

The only solution is a single payer system where everyone is covered by medicare.  It is paid for out of the medicare taxes every working American has to pay.  Every industrialized country in the World has universal healthcare except the US. Even Thailand has a universal healthcare program.  Instead Trump has raised the defense department budget  by an astonishing $60 Billion. It was already the largest military budget in the World and now he wants to give the wealthy a tax break.  

 

It is an absolute disgrace- that Americans do not have universal healthcare and Trump continues to  advocate for increased military spending and the rich while Americans actually die because of healthcare issues.

[Srikcir]

7 hours ago, tonray said:

Yes.. Next year's budget process starts a new clock for reconciliation 

60 votes will be required for passage in the Senate. Republicans control the Senate by a 52-48 margin. Trump needs 8 Democrats and likely more should Republicans will fall short of the full 52.

[attrayant]

5 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

I hope he does issue an executive order allow cross state insurance. It will prove what an empty idea it is.

 

We already know this because it's been allowed since January 2016.  

 

Quote

 

For the last 10 months, states have been legally allowed to let insurers sell plans outside their borders.  Despite the idea’s enduring popularity, no states have signaled interest in the policy, insurance experts and regulators say. And the federal government never even finished writing the rules for how it would work.

 

“Insurers aren’t interested at this point,” Linda Blumberg, a senior fellow on health policy at the Urban Institute, said in an interview. “It’s kind of a lot of effort for no necessary return.”

 

 

[Srikcir]

13 hours ago, attrayant said:

the federal government never even finished writing the rules for how it would work.

Federal regulations cannot be issued like Presidential Orders. They require a legal process involving committee drafting, publication and review of feedback (typically from Congress, industry leaders and lobbyists) - may take a year or more if proposed regulations need significant reconciliation with industry practice or opposition. "Water-downed" regulations can have the effect of neutralizing the original intent of the Order.