U.S. House speaker Paul Ryan says Obamacare replacement will pass this year

[webfact]

U.S. House speaker says Obamacare replacement will pass this year

By Susan Cornwell

REUTERS

 

U.S. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (L) talks with U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) as they wait to hear U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of his nominee for the empty associate justice seat at the U.S. Supreme Court, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S. January 31, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives' Republican leader said on Tuesday that legislation to replace former President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law would be completed this year, trying to dispel the idea that the party is retreating from its campaign promise to dismantle Obamacare quickly.

 

"The question is how long does it take to implement the full replacement of Obamacare," House Speaker Paul Ryan told a news briefing. "We hope to get this done as fast as possible."

 

Ryan was responding to questions about Republican President Donald Trump's weekend interview with Fox News in which he said it might take until next year to replace the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, which Republicans consider federal government overreach.

 

Trump and congressional Republicans campaigned on a promise to scrap the 2010 healthcare law. But they are struggling to agree on a replacement for the law, which has enabled up to 20 million previously uninsured Americans to obtain health coverage.

"Maybe it'll take till sometime into next year," Trump said.

 

On Tuesday at the White House, spokesman Sean Spicer said the administration was "optimistic about getting this thing completed by this year."

 

Spicer also said Trump still favors lowering drug prices as part of healthcare reform, with the government negotiating directly with companies on prices to be paid by the Medicare insurance program.

 

Spicer said Trump was committed to using his "skills as a businessman" to drive pharmaceutical prices down.

 

Ryan said it was important to get U.S. Representative Tom Price confirmed as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services soon, so he too can "get to work with replacing" the healthcare law. The Senate is expected to confirm Price this week.

 

Ryan said he was not bothered by recent protests against dismantling Obamacare that have taken place at some Republican lawmakers' meetings with constituents. "Peaceful protests are something we honor in this country," he said.

 

While Republicans voted last month to start scrapping Obamacare, they missed a target date of Jan. 27 to begin drafting legislation. This raised some doubts about how quickly they will be able to undo the complicated law, even though they have the majority in Congress.

 

At a recent congressional retreat, Republican leaders told lawmakers they hoped Congress would legislate the repeal by March or April, as part of a process known as budget reconciliation. But some Republicans, like Representative Tom McClintock, have said they think doing it this way will actually make repealing Obamacare "harder and slower, while further disrupting an already faltering healthcare market."

 

(additional reporting by Susan Heavey and Emily Stephenson; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and David Gregorio)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-02-08

[elgordo38]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

"We hope to get this done as fast as possible."

Haste makes waste as my sainted old grandmother used to say. 

[kamahele]

What replacement? The one you have been talking about for 6 years and still haven't presented to the public yet?

[humqdpf]

There is a small problem which goes as follows:

 

USA has the most expensive healthcare system in every sense (most expensive medicines, most expensive doctors etc).

Expensive healthcare is only matched with what has been a really nasty insurance system that has been coddled up to by the politicians. This has reached such an outrageous situation that people are afraid to lose their jobs because they might lose their corporate health cover, thus affecting labour mobility in the country. It has also led to the level of uninsured and otherwise uncovered for health population that one usually only finds in less developed countries.

Obamacare tried to force the insurance system to accept the less well off as subscribers. The insurers seemed willing to spend huge amounts on lobbying and trying to turn the population away from this program rather than actually spending on covering their subscribers.

But now comes the really good part. Trump has promised everyone and some Republicans have gone along with him (such as Ryan) that not only will they get rid of Obamacare but they will replace it with a program that will be much CHEAPER.

OOPS - you cannot make the insurance costs cheaper without hiking the deductibles. But wasn't that the problem with Obamacare? You could make the insurance costs cheaper by reducing cover? But that would not be popular - there has been a history of people being left to rot in the USA because they "ran out of cover."

There are two solutions: one is to force everyone into one obligatory scheme which they pay through their taxes or mandatory deductions. The British National Health Service is an example. But that would be considered "communism" by most American lawmakers and so you cannot have that.

Another solution would be to look at why other folks from other countries can have full health coverage without paying a fortune. Hint - an actual case, a private provider covers a man in his late 50s for anywhere in the world, including repatriating him or evacuating him to a good hospital if he is in a less developed country for less than $5000 per annum but won't cover him for the USA at all.

The solution is to break up the medical cartels, the price-fixing, the overcharging, the unnecessary procedures and attendances etc etc. But that would mean the politicians would actually have to do their job by representing their voters by going up against one of the toughest sets of lobbies around. Hmm. Will that swamp ever be drained?

 

[mduras01]

And once they pass their own bill, the next democratic president will reinstate Obamacare. Case closed.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[elgordo38]

4 hours ago, kamahele said:

What replacement? The one you have been talking about for 6 years and still haven't presented to the public yet?

Yes we have a plan it will be a great plan. Greater than Obama's plan. The plan when it is in place will be stupendous, amazing the best plan that you have ever seen planned. When we show you this plan you will see that is an unbelievable plan. Sean my boy what were we talking about again?? Refresh my memory. 

[rijb]

This slime-ball wants healthcare plans to go the same way as retirement plans.  Let big business off the hook.

 

Everyday people have to become insurance/investment experts to try to deal with shady providers.

[Acharn]

Quote

... further disrupting an already faltering healthcare market....

Yeah, you want to see a faltering healthcare market just repeal without replacing. There ain't no plan for a replacement, period. They don't even have any workable ideas lined up. Every idea presented so far is going to destroy the exchanges, which means everybody's insurance premium going up. A lot. The only plan that won't make things much, much worse if Medicare for all, and Big Pharma and the insurance companies will never allow that, and they own congress just as much as the banks and oil companies do. I'm on Tricare, so I don't expect my situation to be affected, but who knows? Can they do something stupid enough to crash the dollar?

 

ETA: Ryan also wants to destroy Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and eventually, Social Security. That's why he's known as "the zombie-eyed granny starver from the Koch Industries division formerly known as the State of Wisconsin."

Edited February 8, 2017 by Acharn
Add second thought.

[connda]

No doubt it will still be another Charlie Foxtrot. 

[Shroud]

ObamaCare added millions of people into the insurance system, but caused massive hikes to premiums for everybody else. The winners were the insurance companies indeed. The federal budget will never sustain it considering the costs. Kill it & replace it with nothing - leave it to the states.

[Langsuan Man]

10 hours ago, Shroud said:

ObamaCare added millions of people into the insurance system, but caused massive hikes to premiums for everybody else. The winners were the insurance companies indeed. The federal budget will never sustain it considering the costs. Kill it & replace it with nothing - leave it to the states.

Specifics please , who has suffered these massive hikes to premiums for everybody else

 

My Blue Cross coverage went up  $12.58 a month,  hardly what I would call massive 

[elgordo38]

15 hours ago, rijb said:

This slime-ball wants healthcare plans to go the same way as retirement plans.  Let big business off the hook.

 

Everyday people have to become insurance/investment experts to try to deal with shady providers.

Yes the Hypocratic oath is dead replaced by Hypocrisy and profit 

[elgordo38]

15 hours ago, Acharn said:

Yeah, you want to see a faltering healthcare market just repeal without replacing. There ain't no plan for a replacement, period. They don't even have any workable ideas lined up. Every idea presented so far is going to destroy the exchanges, which means everybody's insurance premium going up. A lot. The only plan that won't make things much, much worse if Medicare for all, and Big Pharma and the insurance companies will never allow that, and they own congress just as much as the banks and oil companies do. I'm on Tricare, so I don't expect my situation to be affected, but who knows? Can they do something stupid enough to crash the dollar?

 

ETA: Ryan also wants to destroy Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and eventually, Social Security. That's why he's known as "the zombie-eyed granny starver from the Koch Industries division formerly known as the State of Wisconsin."

Just love your last statement. 

[d123]

15 hours ago, elgordo38 said:

Yes we have a plan it will be a great plan. Greater than Obama's plan. The plan when it is in place will be stupendous, amazing the best plan that you have ever seen planned. When we show you this plan you will see that is an unbelievable plan. Sean my boy what were we talking about again?? Refresh my memory. 

 

A truly beautiful, beautiful post. 

 

Oops nearly forgot...   !

[pegman]

19 hours ago, humqdpf said:

There is a small problem which goes as follows:

 

USA has the most expensive healthcare system in every sense (most expensive medicines, most expensive doctors etc).

Expensive healthcare is only matched with what has been a really nasty insurance system that has been coddled up to by the politicians. This has reached such an outrageous situation that people are afraid to lose their jobs because they might lose their corporate health cover, thus affecting labour mobility in the country. It has also led to the level of uninsured and otherwise uncovered for health population that one usually only finds in less developed countries.

Obamacare tried to force the insurance system to accept the less well off as subscribers. The insurers seemed willing to spend huge amounts on lobbying and trying to turn the population away from this program rather than actually spending on covering their subscribers.

But now comes the really good part. Trump has promised everyone and some Republicans have gone along with him (such as Ryan) that not only will they get rid of Obamacare but they will replace it with a program that will be much CHEAPER.

OOPS - you cannot make the insurance costs cheaper without hiking the deductibles. But wasn't that the problem with Obamacare? You could make the insurance costs cheaper by reducing cover? But that would not be popular - there has been a history of people being left to rot in the USA because they "ran out of cover."

There are two solutions: one is to force everyone into one obligatory scheme which they pay through their taxes or mandatory deductions. The British National Health Service is an example. But that would be considered "communism" by most American lawmakers and so you cannot have that.

Another solution would be to look at why other folks from other countries can have full health coverage without paying a fortune. Hint - an actual case, a private provider covers a man in his late 50s for anywhere in the world, including repatriating him or evacuating him to a good hospital if he is in a less developed country for less than $5000 per annum but won't cover him for the USA at all.

The solution is to break up the medical cartels, the price-fixing, the overcharging, the unnecessary procedures and attendances etc etc. But that would mean the politicians would actually have to do their job by representing their voters by going up against one of the toughest sets of lobbies around. Hmm. Will that swamp ever be drained?

 

So how was it done with Medicare for the elderly?  

[funandsuninbangkok]

Republicans should not touch Obamacare. It is dead already. Next year rates will be up 50% again and membership will plummet. 

 

Pass new law giving non Obamacare people tax free medical accounts. Fund the poor and elderly. Let the people chose their own doctors and negotiate their own prices. Coast of medical treatment will go down 50%. 

[Gecko123]

Interesting article on how health care reform proposals should be evaluated:

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/10/opinion/seven-questions-about-health-reform.html?_r=0

Edited February 11, 2017 by Gecko123

[rijb]

His idea of reform is to privatize everything.  Then, members of Congress will reap the financial rewards from the healthcare industry.

[elgordo38]

On 2/8/2017 at 8:42 PM, rijb said:

This slime-ball wants healthcare plans to go the same way as retirement plans.  Let big business off the hook.

 

Everyday people have to become insurance/investment experts to try to deal with shady providers.

These shady providers were temporarily put on hold but Trump with his executive order zealotism soon put the kibosh to that. Brace yourselves. 

[pegman]

Funny, speaking of god, , the father of single payer health care in Canada was a Baptist minister, Tommy Douglas, who grew up in my hometown.  

[Acharn]

On 2/9/2017 at 0:17 PM, elgordo38 said:

Just love your last statement. 

I stole it from Charles P. Pierce, who has the Politics Blog at Esquire dot com.

[lovelomsak]

I cannot believe that America calls a health care program after their president. Canada's should have been called Tommy Douglas care then. What pompous ass to even allow the term to be used.

[elgordo38]

56 minutes ago, Acharn said:

I stole it from Charles P. Pierce, who has the Politics Blog at Esquire dot com.

Never say stole always say borrow. Sounds better. We live in a sharing world. I "borrow" at times to. 

[Jingthing]

18 minutes ago, lovelomsak said:

I cannot believe that America calls a health care program after their president. Canada's should have been called Tommy Douglas care then. What pompous ass to even allow the term to be used.

It wasn't Obama's idea. The law is called Affordable Care Act. His opposition called it Obamacare as part of their agenda to demonize Obama. 

[ilostmypassword]

1 hour ago, lovelomsak said:

I cannot believe that America calls a health care program after their president. Canada's should have been called Tommy Douglas care then. What pompous ass to even allow the term to be used.

Not only wasn't it the official name, it was the name the Republicans used to tie it to Obama. Are you aware that the USA has something called the 1st Amendment? That makes it kind of difficult for a President, or anyone else for that matter,  to put a stop to free speech.