Trump’s Plans Would Increase US Debt Significantly More than Harris’s, Study Finds

[webfact]

Saving Obamacare: the US president pleads for his legacy

Catherine Hardy

 

 

WASHINGTON: -- US President Barack Obama has urged fellow Democrats to preserve his legacy-defining healthcare law.

 

Republicans have launched their long-desired bid to scrap it in what Vice President-elect Mike Pence has called “the first order of business” of Donald Trump’s administration.

 

The process

 

The Senate has opened a debate on a resolution setting in motion the Republican drive to repeal the Democratic-backed 2010 Affordable Care Act, known as “Obamacare”.

 

This has helped more than 20 million previously uninsured Americans obtain medical insurance.

 

What Obama is saying
 

He has gone to Capitol Hill to urge Democratic lawmakers to protect the measure.

 

Obamacare is considered his signature domestic policy achievement.

He hands the presidency over on January the 20th.

 

Obama “encouraged us to fight” Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings told reporters after the meeting with the president.

The Democrats have accused the Republicans of trying to rip the nation’s healthcare system apart, with no firm plan to replace it.

“The Republican plan to cut our healthcare would not make America great again,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters, quoting Donald Trump’s campaign slogan.

 

“It would make America sick again and lead to chaos instead of affordable care.”

 

What the Republicans are saying

 

The Republicans, who will control both chambers of Congress and the White House when Donald Trump takes office, have stepped up their rhetorical attack on Obamacare.

 

They say it is a government overreach.

 

Vice President-elect Mike Pence met Republican lawmakers to plot the path forward on scuttling the law.

 

Afterwards, they stepped up their rhetorical attack on the initiative.

 

House Speaker Paul Ryan said the law ruined the US healthcare system.

 

“The first order of business is to keep our promise to repeal Obamacare and replace it with the kind of healthcare reform that will lower the cost of health insurance without growing the size of government,” Pence said.
 

Have the Republicans come up with an alternative?

 

Not yet.

Pence and Ryan offered few details on what a Republican-backed replacement for Obamacare would look like.

However, Ryan said lawmakers will take action that does not “pull the rug out from anybody.”

 

Tell me more about Obamacare

 

The initiative helped people obtain insurance by expanding eligibility to the Medicaid healthcare program for the poor.

It provided government subsidies to help people obtain coverage from private insurers through government-run exchanges.

 

What has Donald Trump said?
 

The US President-elect has vowed to protect some popular parts of Obamacare, for example barring insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions.

 

However, he wants to replace it with a system that is “much better and less expensive.”
 

The American Medical Association
 

The doctor’s group is calling for caution in making changes to Obamacare, which it supported.

 

“In considering opportunities to make coverage more affordable and accessible to all Americans, it is essential that gains in the number of Americans with health insurance coverage be maintained,” the AMA said in a letter to congressional leaders.

 

The organisation said policymakers should provide details of what will replace the system before any action is taken.

 

“Patients and other stakeholders should be able to clearly compare current policy to new proposals so they can make informed decision about whether it represents a step forward in the ongoing process of health reform,” the group said.

 

 

-- © Copyright Euronews 2017-01-05

[pgrahmm]

This administration has lined many pockets.....

 

But - they got the Robin Hood thing backwards......

[kamahele]

20 million people insured under "Obamacare" who will be out uninsured when repealed. These people will then show up at emergency rooms when finally too ill to carry on. Costs then passed on to the taxpayers and through insurance premiums and a rise in hospital costs.

Cost of repeal = 365 billion dollars

Republicans have been talking about a plan to replace Obamacare for 6 years. No plan ever introduced.

Their plan seems to be to repeal and then delay and never actually replace.

While Obamacare is the stated cause of a rise in insurance rates, it has also caused medical care to decrease and the deficit to decrease....

[chilli42]

Why is it such a drama for the USA to put together a comprehensive national health care plan that everyone can participate in?  Those that can afford and want private health care can still have it.

[zaphod reborn]

40 minutes ago, chilli42 said:

Why is it such a drama for the USA to put together a comprehensive national health care plan that everyone can participate in?  Those that can afford and want private health care can still have it.

 

It's called opposition lobbying by the healthcare and insurance industries, some of the most powerful and wealthy lobbyists in Washington.  Obama initially presented a reasonable alternative to the private system, but he couldn't get it passed in Congress because of opposition by these industries.  There's just too much profit at stake, particularly for the completely overbloated insurance industry which adds about 50% to the costs of healthcare in the US.

Edited January 5, 2017 by zaphod reborn

[Berkshire]

What do the people want?  Who knows anymore.  But here is one poll conducted by a Republican congresswoman....

 

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/republican-congresswoman-marsha-blackburn-s-obamacare-twitter-poll-backfires-n703271

 

[A Twitter poll by ardent Obamacare foe Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., on whether the health-care law should be repealed backfired big-time Wednesday as lots more people — a whole lot more people — tweeted "No," rather than "Yes."]

[Sup Slick]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

This has helped more than 20 million previously uninsured Americans obtain medical insurance.

 

This is not true. Its touted as truth all over the place, but not the truth. 

 

Just because 20 million people got insurance from the exchange, does NOT mean they were previously uninsured, and Obamacare has saved them. 

 

Tons of people lost thier plan and were FORCED into the exchange, not only were they forced into the exchange, but at higher rates than ever before for LESS coverage. 

 

"If you like your plan, you can keep your plan" Lie of the year by politifact:

 

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2013/dec/12/lie-year-if-you-like-your-health-care-plan-keep-it/

 

Quote

So this fall, as cancellation letters were going out to approximately 4 million Americans, the public realized Obama’s breezy assurances were wrong.

 

Thats from 2013, thats 4 million insurance cancellations, and you can bet on it, that its not improved since then. Gotten worse and more expensive. 4 Million in 2013/14 driven to the healthcare exchange. 

[CaptHaddock]

1 hour ago, chilli42 said:

Why is it such a drama for the USA to put together a comprehensive national health care plan that everyone can participate in?  Those that can afford and want private health care can still have it.

 

The US healthcare system consumes 18% of US GDP or about USD 2.88 Trillion which is about the same size as the GDP for the whole of the UK.  That means that the stakeholders are well-financed to resist reforms detrimental to their financial interests.  Doctors, as just one such interest group, are over-represented in Congress and comprise about 40% of the richest 1% of the population.  One result is that the doctors are able to restrain trade in medical services by requiring medical residencies (hospital training) of foreign-doctors, but there are not enough residency slots to train them.  So, the result is US doctors make twice what doctors in the UK make.  And they certainly don't want that to change.

 

In addition to the doctors there are the drug companies, for-profit hospitals, medical schools, equipment manufacturers, etc.  In the US plutocracy the interests of these groups dominates the agenda.  Even Obama's reforms were only limited.  The Affordable Care Act was written by the insurance companies who stood to gain from the mandatory insurance requirement.

 

Usually major reforms opposed by powerful groups can only be achieved during crises.  For instance, the British NHS system was put in place during WWII by the end of which it was too entrenched for the Tories to dismantle. 

[Thaidream]

The  only way to have universal health care in Ameerica is to go to a single payer system and take the insurance companies and big pharma out of the picture. Healthcare must be viewed as a right and not another commodity that is bought and sold. Everyone should have the right to get medical care regardless of their income.

Neither the Republicans or Democrats at this stage have a really workable plan. Obamacare is a poor plan because it still excludes many and allows the insurance industry and the pharmaceuticals companies to run it.

The solution is simple- expand the Medicare program to everyone and pay for it out of a tax on wages. If one is unemployed or over the age of 65- the coverage is free. In addition, the treatment should be available anywhere in the World. Using the Medicare model will take insurance companies out of the picture- force doctors and hospitals and drug companies to provide services at a reasonable price because if everyone is on Medicare- the charges and costs are fixed.

This system works everywhere in the developed World- Japan; UK: France; Canada etc.

The problem in America is that the Insurance industry and Big Pharma have continued to bribe politicians to oppose universal healthcare because they are greedy; selfish; and want to continue to make huge profits off the back of the ill.  I am still waiting for a politician to do something for the American people instead of themselves.

[thaibeachlovers]

Obama may plead for his "legacy" to be preserved,  but it was doomed the instant Trump won the election.

[JLCrab]

Twitter version ThaiVisa instant analysis: 

 

So when the new Congress votes on ObamaCare it will be whether there are more corrupt politicians for it than corrupt politicians against it

(140 characters)

Edited January 5, 2017 by JLCrab

[Thaidream]

The corruption of politicians takes place when they set up PACS and monies pour in from 'friendly' business who then expects the politician to vote their way rather than the politician voting what their constituents want and what is best for the country. Until laws are changed and money is taken out of politics the wealthy and greedy corporations will continue to control America and the people will have no power, This is exactly why healthcare in America is a business . This must be stopped and healthcare considered a human right not a commodity to make a profit on. No other developed country treats its citizens as poorly as Americans are treated by their succession of inept governments.

Politicians and their minions continually lie to the American people about what other countries have and how it will never work in America. They continue to fall back on the theory of American exceptionalism and the mantra of America being the best in the World. America is neither exceptional nor is it that great simply because it operates on the theory that 'greed is good' and to hell with the 99% of the population. When 1% of a country control the majority of wealth , somethig is radically wrong and needs to be fixed.

[JLCrab]

1222 characters -- anything over 140, Trump won't read it.

 

And given that the soon-to-be President Trump will get to nominate a new Supreme Court Justice to replace the late Justice Scalia, it is doubtful, with a conservative Court majority, that laws will be changed such that money is taken out of politics any time soon.

Edited January 5, 2017 by JLCrab

[Thaidream]

Donald Trump will never fix healthcare because he knows only one thing- put a price and make a profit....He is the1%. The only politician who I have ever heard actually articulate what will make America great again- is Bernie Sanders. Had he run- he would have beaten Trump because his message was for a positive change- not the change that Trump will bring in that will make the wealthy -super wealthy and the rest fighting over the crumbs.

Edited January 5, 2017 by Thaidream

[JLCrab]

As a regular visitor to Vermont for 40+ years I've known of Bernie Sanders since he was the Mayor of Burlington, VT.  I voted for him in the Florida Primary -- and so what? The country seems to want to go in a different direction.

Edited January 5, 2017 by JLCrab

[Sup Slick]

41 minutes ago, Thaidream said:

Donald Trump will never fix healthcare because he knows only one thing- put a price and make a profit....He is the1%. The only politician who I have ever heard actually articulate what will make America great again- is Bernie Sanders. Had he run- he would have beaten Trump because his message was for a positive change- not the change that Trump will bring in that will make the wealthy -super wealthy and the rest fighting over the crumbs.

 

You are correct, Donald Trump himself will not fix healthcare. His team/advisors will do SOMETHING other than just let it roll on screwing the working class. 

 

The rest is just opinion, parroted opinion over and over again like somehow the 'other guys' have more integrity or 'morals' or by your logic, that Democrats/Independents 'care' more than Republicans and have more 'integrity'. 

[Thaidream]

Neither have any integrity- that is the point- the only way Trump can fix the healthcare problem is to go to a single payer which is the Us Government which puts insurance companies out of business. I would be shocked if Trump would do this but if he does -it would be the right solution. Time will tell. I do know that Bernie Sanders would do it - if he could.

[ilostmypassword]

Here's a link to an interesting analysis about the difficulties of undoing Obamacare:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/01/05/republicans-are-about-to-feel-obamas-pain-on-obamacare-and-he-knows-it/?utm_term=.157b24d4f1b0

[ilostmypassword]

3 hours ago, Sup Slick said:

 

You are correct, Donald Trump himself will not fix healthcare. His team/advisors will do SOMETHING other than just let it roll on screwing the working class. 

 

The rest is just opinion, parroted opinion over and over again like somehow the 'other guys' have more integrity or 'morals' or by your logic, that Democrats/Independents 'care' more than Republicans and have more 'integrity'. 

Actually, it's blue collars workers who were some of the chief beneficiaries of Obamacare thanks to their lower income and subsidies. There is no way, Trump and the Republicans can do better. If there were such a way, they would already have proposed it. I mean, they've had 6 years to come up with a replacement plan. Why don't they have one?

[Sup Slick]

Just now, ilostmypassword said:

Actually, it's blue collars workers who were some of the chief beneficiaries of Obamacare thanks to their lower income and subsidies.

 

Plenty of regular ole joes, millions since inception, lost company sponsored plans and forced into the healthcare exchange at a higher rate even with subsidies. Not everyone needs pregnancy coverage, birth control, addiction treatment, etc.. Your statement is plain false. Did some get insurance that they didn't have before? Yeah sure. But for all the success stories, the cost is too great. Even the OP is wrong in its statements. My entire family is blue collar and I don't know a single person that has in any way benefitted from obamacare. Personally mine almost tripled for an equivalent platinum plan and being a single male, and its forced me to stop partaking in insurance in the states as I live in Thailand. Better to just pay the yearly tax penalty. I never did that before as it was only about $250 for a 'decent' plan, and I carried it all the time. 

 

4 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

There is no way, Trump and the Republicans can do better. If there were such a way, they would already have proposed it.

 

Why even propose anything under Obama? Why even try? Not like thats going to do anything, and honestly they will have a better chance at repeal/replace after it continues to get worse. And it is. And people see it. Obama would have cockblocked it no matter what. 

 

5 minutes ago, ilostmypassword said:

I mean, they've had 6 years to come up with a replacement plan. Why don't they have one?

 

How to you know they don't have any replacement plan? How do you know they don't have anything? You don't. Its all speculation. It would be very naive to assume that Republicans don't have any idea on what to do about it. Wether its repeal/replace or amend/modify to bring cost down. Anything is better at this point than letting this shitshow steamroll on. 

[Trouble]

Obamacare was never thought out properly.  First off, the thousands of pages of the bill were never read by the Congress before it was passed.  Even Jonathan Gruber, the MIT professor who was architect of Obamacare joked about the measures taken to keep the facts of the plan from the American people. The guy basically laughed at the lack of transparency and how they had to craft the bill to get it through Congress. The Democrats just took the Administrations word that it was going to work and was the solution for everything.  Even if we accept the fact that it insured 20 million that were not previously insure (a debatable figure), it did so at the cost of disrupting the health care plans of others and increased the premiums of others. So what it amounted to was a vast program shifting cost for insuring the uninsured to others without creating a tax to do so. There is no longer much choice in Arizona where the insurance companies just pulled the plug. Anyone looking at the website of the exchange in California (Covered California) can quickly see that low cost coverage exists but the deductibles are sky high.  The program is much too comprehensive which made it overly complicated and bureaucratic and ended up punishing the people who already had health coverage.  Like everything the government does, it gets it wrong.  The concept is good, this particular law was bad. It tried to do too much. It should have included certain basic elements limited in scope to get it started and expanded as needed and practicable without disrupting the entire healthcare industry depended on my the majority of Americans. Obamacare needs replacement. Those of you who blindly support Obamacare because of the concept of universal health care need to start talking to people in the health care industry, you might be surprised how much disruption it has caused and the financial burden it has placed on the average middle class American. 

[ilostmypassword]

1 hour ago, Sup Slick said:

 

Plenty of regular ole joes, millions since inception, lost company sponsored plans and forced into the healthcare exchange at a higher rate even with subsidies. Not everyone needs pregnancy coverage, birth control, addiction treatment, etc.. Your statement is plain false. Did some get insurance that they didn't have before? Yeah sure. But for all the success stories, the cost is too great. Even the OP is wrong in its statements. My entire family is blue collar and I don't know a single person that has in any way benefitted from obamacare. Personally mine almost tripled for an equivalent platinum plan and being a single male, and its forced me to stop partaking in insurance in the states as I live in Thailand. Better to just pay the yearly tax penalty. I never did that before as it was only about $250 for a 'decent' plan, and I carried it all the time. 

 

.So are saying that you don't get the 90 something thousand dollar exemption from U.S. taxation?  That you are still in the eyes of the IRS a resident of the USA?

[Sup Slick]

3 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

So are saying that you don't get the 90 something thousand dollar exemption from U.S. taxation?  That you are still in the eyes of the IRS a resident of the USA?

 

Yes, and what has that got to do with anything, anything at all. 

[thaibeachlovers]

12 hours ago, Thaidream said:

Donald Trump will never fix healthcare because he knows only one thing- put a price and make a profit....He is the1%. The only politician who I have ever heard actually articulate what will make America great again- is Bernie Sanders. Had he run- he would have beaten Trump because his message was for a positive change- not the change that Trump will bring in that will make the wealthy -super wealthy and the rest fighting over the crumbs.

Well, you can blame the corrupt DNC that rigged the primaries to get HRC to stand.

You are probably right that Bernie would have won.

Even the British NHS is incompetent because it is run by bureaucrats.

[ilostmypassword]

22 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Well, you can blame the corrupt DNC that rigged the primaries to get HRC to stand.

You are probably right that Bernie would have won.

Even the British NHS is incompetent because it is run by bureaucrats.

More nonsense about rigged primaries. As the hard real evidence shows, if certain democrats were planning to rig the primaries, they were massively incompetent at doing so.  If you care to read an intelligent debunking of that cr*p, here's the place to go. The title of the piece is The DNC's Emails Show It Had No Idea How to Rig an Election.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2016/07/25/the_dnc_s_emails_show_it_had_no_idea_how_to_rig_an_election.html

[Luckysilk]

Headlines like this make my day, Barry pleading 5555555.

 

It was broken from the start and another one of his weak promises. 

 

Yes we can......... no you can't.... you FAILED

 

Bye bye Barry.

[mrwebb8825]

The Republicans have had a plan longer than Obama but, it's a Republican plan therefor it could never get approved by a Dem POTUS who had made it his 1 goal to pass a Dem plan. And pass it he did. People are now paying a higher cost for the treatment to their throats of having his crap rammed down them.

 

Anybody else remember Trump's plan to ban lobbyists? 

 

And now we've got that lame duck doing everything in his majorly reduced power in his last 2 weeks to throw up blockades for President Trump while smiling at the camera, lying to the American people and promising a "smooth transition of power".

[Grubster]

In the early to mid 70s, The Insurance lobby, the AMA, and the Bar association took over our medical system,  Obama care while providing insurance for more people is still only feeding into those three very powerful organizations. Single Payer plan is the only real option but requires cutting the Lawyers and insurance companies out of the deal. Good luck with that.

[ilostmypassword]

Republican Skepticism Grows Over Strategy on Health-Law Repeal. Growing number doubt move to dispatch with Affordable Care Act if they don’t know what will replace it

WASHINGTON—Republicans in both the House and Senate are expressing growing skepticism of their party’s approach to repealing the Affordable Care Act, signaling potential peril ahead for a strategy that relies on nearly complete GOP unity.

In the House, some conservatives are balking at a budget document meant to serve as the vehicle to repeal the 2010 health law. Meanwhile, in the Senate, a growing number of Republicans are questioning the wisdom of repealing the law without knowing how they will replace it.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/republican-skepticism-grows-over-strategy-on-health-law-repeal-1483740185