U.S. Senate votes to unravel Obamacare, defund Planned Parenthood

[webfact]

U.S. Senate votes to unravel Obamacare, defund Planned Parenthood
BY BNO NEWS

WASHINGTON: -- The U.S. Senate has voted to repeal key elements of President Barack Obama’s health care law and cut most of Planned Parenthood’s federal funding, but Obama is expected to veto the legislation.

In a vote late on Thursday, Senate Republicans succeeded in passing the measure in a 52-47 vote. The bill will now head to the U.S. House, where it is likely to pass, and will then proceed to Obama’s desk.

H.R. 3762 would repeal key elements of the Affordable Care Act and cut federal funding for Planned Parenthood by 80 percent for one year. Republicans have long sought to repeal Obama’s signature healthcare reform law, and recently set their sights on Planned Parenthood.

Full story: http://ethailand.com/breaking-news/u-s-senate-votes-to-unravel-obamacare-defund-planned-parenthood/614/

-- eThailand 2015-12-04

[stevenl]

As always they're against.

[NeverSure]

They're against stupidity.

1. Obamacare isn't national health care. It's state by state and varies all over the place.

2. Obamacare isn't government provided health care. It's a mandate that requires all Americans to buy health insurance from private insurance companies.

3. As a result it has become welfare for the big insurance companies, something they salivated over while it was being passed.

4. It is overpriced. When you force someone to buy something but don't put in price controls, the sellers of medical care and insurance get richer.

5. The implementation sucks. It has never been well organized. It was thrown together without much planning and it has never really worked.

6. Bottom line is that it sucks but Obama's narcissism won't allow him to admit that something he pushed through is a failure.

7. The refusal to roll it back is based on pride and not common sense. The whole program stinks.

[Stradavarius37]

They're against stupidity.

1. Obamacare isn't national health care. It's state by state and varies all over the place.

2. Obamacare isn't government provided health care. It's a mandate that requires all Americans to buy health insurance from private insurance companies.

3. As a result it has become welfare for the big insurance companies, something they salivated over while it was being passed.

4. It is overpriced. When you force someone to buy something but don't put in price controls, the sellers of medical care and insurance get richer.

5. The implementation sucks. It has never been well organized. It was thrown together without much planning and it has never really worked.

6. Bottom line is that it sucks but Obama's narcissism won't allow him to admit that something he pushed through is a failure.

7. The refusal to roll it back is based on pride and not common sense. The whole program stinks.

Your memory of events if funny, if nothing else....

[chuckd]

They're against stupidity.

1. Obamacare isn't national health care. It's state by state and varies all over the place.

2. Obamacare isn't government provided health care. It's a mandate that requires all Americans to buy health insurance from private insurance companies.

3. As a result it has become welfare for the big insurance companies, something they salivated over while it was being passed.

4. It is overpriced. When you force someone to buy something but don't put in price controls, the sellers of medical care and insurance get richer.

5. The implementation sucks. It has never been well organized. It was thrown together without much planning and it has never really worked.

6. Bottom line is that it sucks but Obama's narcissism won't allow him to admit that something he pushed through is a failure.

7. The refusal to roll it back is based on pride and not common sense. The whole program stinks.

Your memory of events if funny, if nothing else....

Why don't you give us some data that refutes these points?

I think we would all like to hear how Obamacare is a roaring success.

[attrayant]

It has to be either a roaring success or a dismal failure, right? It couldn't possibly be anything in between. Nice black and white world you live in.

The ACA's insurance exchanges opened to pre-order insurance on October 1st, 2013. The uninsured rate in the USA at the beginning of 2015 was 9.2% (7 million fewer people than in 2014). That is the first time EVER - in the entire history of health care - that the uninsured rate has been under 10%.

In 2014, once the exchanges kicked in, the uninsured rate dropped dramatically:



Naturally, there are more people on public coverage now, but the drop in the uninsured is accompanied by a significant uptick in private coverage as well:



There's also the stupidity of the red states, whose governors pigheadedly refused to adopt the Medicate expansion. In those states, uninsured rates dropped 'only' 6%, but in states that did adopt the Medicate expansion, the uninsured rate has dropped 8%.

The ACA wasn't meant to be a cure-all for all that's wrong with health care, so statements like "Obamacare is a roaring success" is a straw man that's all too easy for you to knock down... congratulations on that victory.

ACA or no, for many people health care is still too expensive. Universal health care is what we should have, but that was politically out of reach at the time, so we went for what we could get. It's a step in the right direction by almost any objective metric we care to look at. The country still spends 17% of its GDP on health care, where as countries with UHC spend anywhere from 8%-12% and manage to have health care outcomes that are as good or better than the USA. That's a problem the ACA wasn't designed to tackle in its entirety.

So if your position is that the ACA is a dismal failure, let's have YOUR data and metric justifications.

Edited December 4, 2015 by attrayant

[up2u2]

America has the worst Health Care system in the developed world. It is an absolute laughing stock. The most expensive Health Care system in the developed World with the worst health care outcomes. A 'one payer system' would effectively save 5 Trillion dollars over 10 year forward estimates and provide better health care outcomes for all Americans.

How Americans can allow greedy health insurers and private hospitals to profit from the misery of others is beyond me.

What a bizarre waste of time. As Bernie Sanders put it before Congress: You expect to pass a bill to repeal OBAMA Care and forward it to President OBAMA to sign into law. Note the name OBAMA. Bunch of idiots wasting Taxpayer's money.

[attrayant]

Now about the Planned Parenthood debacle. Republicans have once again, for some unknown reason, decided to hold the entire government hostage by sneaking this into the budget reconciliation act. The last attempt to do exactly the same thing was over the summer, and it failed just like this one is going to. For all who are in favor, I'd like to know why you think that republicans spinning their wheels like this is a wise expenditure of time and taxpayer money.

[elgordo38]

They're against stupidity.

1. Obamacare isn't national health care. It's state by state and varies all over the place.

2. Obamacare isn't government provided health care. It's a mandate that requires all Americans to buy health insurance from private insurance companies.

3. As a result it has become welfare for the big insurance companies, something they salivated over while it was being passed.

4. It is overpriced. When you force someone to buy something but don't put in price controls, the sellers of medical care and insurance get richer.

5. The implementation sucks. It has never been well organized. It was thrown together without much planning and it has never really worked.

6. Bottom line is that it sucks but Obama's narcissism won't allow him to admit that something he pushed through is a failure.

7. The refusal to roll it back is based on pride and not common sense. The whole program stinks.

Are you being forced to pay into this scheme just curious??

[elgordo38]

They're against stupidity.

1. Obamacare isn't national health care. It's state by state and varies all over the place.

2. Obamacare isn't government provided health care. It's a mandate that requires all Americans to buy health insurance from private insurance companies.

3. As a result it has become welfare for the big insurance companies, something they salivated over while it was being passed.

4. It is overpriced. When you force someone to buy something but don't put in price controls, the sellers of medical care and insurance get richer.

5. The implementation sucks. It has never been well organized. It was thrown together without much planning and it has never really worked.

6. Bottom line is that it sucks but Obama's narcissism won't allow him to admit that something he pushed through is a failure.

7. The refusal to roll it back is based on pride and not common sense. The whole program stinks.

Your memory of events if funny, if nothing else....

Why don't you give us some data that refutes these points?

I think we would all like to hear how Obamacare is a roaring success.

He is the mouse that roared compared to that terminator GWB

[elgordo38]

Carrying on like a bunch of spoiled brats that want to pick up their marbles and go home. Rome is burning and these idiots keep fiddling around throwing political Sballs. Things will never change in American politics only get worse. You give power to the wrong people and look what happens.

[chuckd]

Now about the Planned Parenthood debacle. Republicans have once again, for some unknown reason, decided to hold the entire government hostage by sneaking this into the budget reconciliation act. The last attempt to do exactly the same thing was over the summer, and it failed just like this one is going to. For all who are in favor, I'd like to know why you think that republicans spinning their wheels like this is a wise expenditure of time and taxpayer money.

" Republicans have once again, for some unknown reason, decided to hold the entire government hostage by sneaking this into the budget reconciliation act."

I think you will find H.R. 3762 is a stand alone bill and has nothing to do with the Omnibus budget bill.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/3762

[Linky]

Cant go givong poor people access to health care can we.

[kingalfred]

Veteod! How many tries 20-30+ yawn

[slerickson]

True it is a lousy health program. Such is the politics in US that a Republican designed program was made into law since a good unlocked option plan would have never passed. The hypocritical bottom feeders in the republicon party then turn around and attack it. They are the masters of failure and deceit. Yeah half the dems too.

[Emster23]

They're against stupidity.

1. Obamacare isn't national health care. It's state by state and varies all over the place.

2. Obamacare isn't government provided health care. It's a mandate that requires all Americans to buy health insurance from private insurance companies.

3. As a result it has become welfare for the big insurance companies, something they salivated over while it was being passed.

4. It is overpriced. When you force someone to buy something but don't put in price controls, the sellers of medical care and insurance get richer.

5. The implementation sucks. It has never been well organized. It was thrown together without much planning and it has never really worked.

6. Bottom line is that it sucks but Obama's narcissism won't allow him to admit that something he pushed through is a failure.

7. The refusal to roll it back is based on pride and not common sense. The whole program stinks.

8. it's the best they could do considering insurance, AMA, drug companies totally own Republicans and have a lease on Democrats.

[Benmart]

They're against stupidity.

1. Obamacare isn't national health care. It's state by state and varies all over the place.

2. Obamacare isn't government provided health care. It's a mandate that requires all Americans to buy health insurance from private insurance companies.

3. As a result it has become welfare for the big insurance companies, something they salivated over while it was being passed.

4. It is overpriced. When you force someone to buy something but don't put in price controls, the sellers of medical care and insurance get richer.

5. The implementation sucks. It has never been well organized. It was thrown together without much planning and it has never really worked.

6. Bottom line is that it sucks but Obama's narcissism won't allow him to admit that something he pushed through is a failure.

7. The refusal to roll it back is based on pride and not common sense. The whole program stinks.

Your memory of events if funny, if nothing else....

One line rebuttals leaves me hungry for more. Please elaborate.

[Chicog]

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Albert Einstein

Edited December 4, 2015 by Chicog

[DM07]

I am really sick of debating with Republicans. They just don't give a @#$%!

I never understand, how so many people can vote against their own intrests, just so that some @#$%!* moron can get rich!

[Shaunduhpostman]

Gotta love the logic and scintillating intelligence once again: get rid of Planned Parenthood so people will have less access to birth control and therefor seek more abortions which is so sanctimoniously railed against by the very same people who don't want Planned Parenthood.

[Credo]

Planned Parenthood provides a number of health-care type services. De-funding will leave a void in a number of services which benefit women, children and the unborn.

[Krataiboy]

Never mind about Obama care. Our real concern should be for a President who seems to think he is running a banana republic.

[NeverSure]

It has to be either a roaring success or a dismal failure, right? It couldn't possibly be anything in between. Nice black and white world you live in.

The ACA's insurance exchanges opened to pre-order insurance on October 1st, 2013. The uninsured rate in the USA at the beginning of 2015 was 9.2% (7 million fewer people than in 2014). That is the first time EVER - in the entire history of health care - that the uninsured rate has been under 10%.

In 2014, once the exchanges kicked in, the uninsured rate dropped dramatically:

aca-1.png

Naturally, there are more people on public coverage now, but the drop in the uninsured is accompanied by a significant uptick in private coverage as well:

aca-2.png

There's also the stupidity of the red states, whose governors pigheadedly refused to adopt the Medicate expansion. In those states, uninsured rates dropped 'only' 6%, but in states that did adopt the Medicate expansion, the uninsured rate has dropped 8%.

The ACA wasn't meant to be a cure-all for all that's wrong with health care, so statements like "Obamacare is a roaring success" is a straw man that's all too easy for you to knock down... congratulations on that victory.

ACA or no, for many people health care is still too expensive. Universal health care is what we should have, but that was politically out of reach at the time, so we went for what we could get. It's a step in the right direction by almost any objective metric we care to look at. The country still spends 17% of its GDP on health care, where as countries with UHC spend anywhere from 8%-12% and manage to have health care outcomes that are as good or better than the USA. That's a problem the ACA wasn't designed to tackle in its entirety.

So if your position is that the ACA is a dismal failure, let's have YOUR data and metric justifications.

You failed to address my points which had to do with the cost and the forcing of people to pay for it. Of course there are fewer uninsured, but many struggle to pay for it.

It isn't national health care from the government. It is a mandate that requires people to buy health insurance as welfare for the insurance companies.

Just because people are complying with the law (which is your only apparent justification for it) doesn't mean it's a good law. Health care costs continue to rise unabated and the premiums for mandated insurance also continue to rise.

[NeverSure]

They're against stupidity.

1. Obamacare isn't national health care. It's state by state and varies all over the place.

2. Obamacare isn't government provided health care. It's a mandate that requires all Americans to buy health insurance from private insurance companies.

3. As a result it has become welfare for the big insurance companies, something they salivated over while it was being passed.

4. It is overpriced. When you force someone to buy something but don't put in price controls, the sellers of medical care and insurance get richer.

5. The implementation sucks. It has never been well organized. It was thrown together without much planning and it has never really worked.

6. Bottom line is that it sucks but Obama's narcissism won't allow him to admit that something he pushed through is a failure.

7. The refusal to roll it back is based on pride and not common sense. The whole program stinks.

Are you being forced to pay into this scheme just curious??

No. People who are over 65 yrs old can't get it. We qualify for Medicare which IMHO actually is a good program. I have to buy my medicare insurance but the premiums are supplemented by the government. My only complaint about it is that like many government programs, costs aren't contained in a business-like fashion.

Cheers.

[NeverSure]

I am really sick of debating with Republicans. They just don't give a @#$%!

I never understand, how so many people can vote against their own intrests, just so that some @#$%!* moron can get rich!

So, you like it that the big insurance companies are getting rich by having everyone forced to buy their product with no price controls?

The debate is about forcing people to buy health insurance while putting no controls on costs. This Obamacare is nothing more than laws that force people to buy insurance from unregulated health insurance companies and health care providers.

Why aren't you at all worried about how rich the insurance companies are getting via this instead of being worried about the people who are forced to buy it at uncontrolled prices?

[gk10002000]

They're against stupidity.

1. Obamacare isn't national health care. It's state by state and varies all over the place.

2. Obamacare isn't government provided health care. It's a mandate that requires all Americans to buy health insurance from private insurance companies.

3. As a result it has become welfare for the big insurance companies, something they salivated over while it was being passed.

4. It is overpriced. When you force someone to buy something but don't put in price controls, the sellers of medical care and insurance get richer.

5. The implementation sucks. It has never been well organized. It was thrown together without much planning and it has never really worked.

6. Bottom line is that it sucks but Obama's narcissism won't allow him to admit that something he pushed through is a failure.

7. The refusal to roll it back is based on pride and not common sense. The whole program stinks.

Well written critique and I believe all true. Let me share my costs. I had Florida blue cross blue shield for the last ten years. The plan did everything I needed. The price has gone up 28% each of the last two years. I now pay 339/month. Single Male, 58 zero health issues, zero claims in 10 years! Obamacare sickly mandates the types of coverage they deem "essential coverage". I am a 58 year old engineer. I am quite capable of seeking my own counsel and selecting the plan and terms that I want. The ACA takes that choice away from me. And since the ACA is administered by the IRS, the USA tax collector, it really is just a tax. My plan was "grandfathered" and I was able to keep it and NOT go through the state exchanges, which are a nightmare by the way. If I go through an exchange, the cheapest plan which is worse than the one I have would be 450/month. I make enough to just not qualify for subsidies. So Obamacare is horrible for me. All that has happened is people are paying more, but with no improvement in service. It is a pure tax on the wealthy to help fund the poor, but nobody does well with it because the cheapest plans that the poorer people will get have such huge deductibles, they will go broke with any significant medical issue.

[gk10002000]

They're against stupidity.

1. Obamacare isn't national health care. It's state by state and varies all over the place.

2. Obamacare isn't government provided health care. It's a mandate that requires all Americans to buy health insurance from private insurance companies.

3. As a result it has become welfare for the big insurance companies, something they salivated over while it was being passed.

4. It is overpriced. When you force someone to buy something but don't put in price controls, the sellers of medical care and insurance get richer.

5. The implementation sucks. It has never been well organized. It was thrown together without much planning and it has never really worked.

6. Bottom line is that it sucks but Obama's narcissism won't allow him to admit that something he pushed through is a failure.

7. The refusal to roll it back is based on pride and not common sense. The whole program stinks.

Are you being forced to pay into this scheme just curious??

Yes. If one does not join a Plan, they are fined, and the fine is administered by the Internal Revenue Service. So they take the money right out of your tax refund. The fines are getting very severe and will get more severe each year so one really has no choice but to buy one of these plans. Now, if one maybe owes taxes, and therefore would not be getting a tax refund, the fine will still be levied and added onto your tax bill. What if you don't pay the tax bill? That is another story and the IRS can and usually will levy judgements against people, sieze property, etc. And they usually do not need to go through any other court system to do that

[DM07]

Never mind about Obama care. Our real concern should be for a President who seems to think he is running a banana republic.

Reading most comments from the right: he does!

[LomSak27]

This is just a PR gimmick for Republican Supporters. It has no chance of passing,

They are doing it to show they are doing something, anything, to their faithful.

[attrayant]

You failed to address my points which had to do with the cost and the forcing of people to pay for it.

Then I suppose you're very much against other government-mandated services for which we're "required" to pay, such as education (even if you don't have children!), fire departments (even if everything you own is made from asbestos and stone) and interstate highways (even if you don't own a vehicle)?

Should we go back to the days of private fire brigades that were owned by insurance companies and fought over territory (sometimes while the property thereupon burned)? The only reason for-profit health care is tolerated is because health insurance companies can obfuscate, delay and deny claims as people don't die from their illnesses as quickly as houses perish from fires.

Such a free market approach didn't work for fire services and it doesn't work for health care services. If your main complaint is that you're forced to pay for it, you're just going to have to put on your big boy pants and deal with it, because that's the system that seems to work best. And just like education and interstate highways, it's necessary for the public good. If the cost is too high, burning down the whole system isn't the answer. Become an advocate for single payer/UHC and do something about it.

Edited December 5, 2015 by attrayant