Estimated 23 million would lose health insurance under Republican bill - CBO

[webfact]

Estimated 23 million would lose health insurance under Republican bill - CBO

By Yasmeen Abutaleb

REUTERS

 

An electronic patients chart is shown on the wall to a hospital room at the newly constructed Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical Center hospital in San Diego, California April 17, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An estimated 23 million people would lose health coverage by 2026 under Republican legislation aimed at repealing Obamacare, a nonpartisan congressional agency said on Wednesday in the first calculation of the new bill's potential impact.

 

The report from the Congressional Budget Office also said federal deficits would fall by $119 billion between 2017 and 2026 under the bill, which was approved this month by the Republican-dominated House of Representatives and is called the American Health Care Act.

 

The CBO's assessment further complicates the task for the U.S. Senate, which is writing its own healthcare bill. The Senate is unlikely to be able to adopt much of the House version because of the report's finding that it would result in massive coverage losses. The CBO also found that an amendment in the House bill would over time block some unhealthy people from buying insurance.

 

After the CBO score's release, several Republican senators said they do not support the House bill.

 

"While I am in favour of repealing Obamacare, I am opposed to the American Health Care Act in its current form," Republican Senator Dean Heller said in a statement. "The AHCA is a first step but not the solution."

 

House Republicans came under sharp criticism for passing the bill before the CBO could make its assessment. The Trump administration already has relied on the House bill's healthcare spending cuts in its proposed federal budget.

 

The bill would fulfil a long-running Republican goal - repealing and replacing much of former President Barack Obama's 2010 Affordable Care Act, which provided health insurance to 20 million and came to be known as Obamacare. President Donald Trump, who made dismantling it a key campaign promise in 2016, and other Republicans say Obamacare is too costly and creates unwarranted government interference in healthcare decisions.

 

RECONCILIATION STRATEGY

 

Congress is aiming to pass the bill under a process called reconciliation, which requires only a simple majority of votes in the Senate, where Republicans hold a 52-48 majority, instead of 60 votes. Under those rules, all elements of the bill must have a direct budgetary impact or else they must be stricken from the legislation.

 

A group of 13 Republican senators led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are expected to draft their own version of the healthcare bill in the coming months. McConnell, however, told Reuters on Wednesday he does not yet know how Republicans will get the necessary votes.

 

The House bill would eliminate most Obamacare taxes that help subsidize private health coverage for individuals, roll back the government's Medicaid health plan for the poor and disabled and replace the law's income-based tax credits for buying medical coverage with credits based on age.

 

Groups representing hospitals, insurers and doctors who have been against the House bill said the CBO report showed the Senate should start fresh with an eye to maintaining coverage and benefits.

 

Democrats also blasted the bill and said the CBO report proved it would be catastrophic for millions of people who would lose health insurance. "The report makes clear Trumpcare would be a cancer on the American healthcare system," Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said at a news conference.

 

23 MILLION UNINSURED

 

The new CBO score predicts the AHCA would cover 1 million more Americans than a previous version of the bill, which the agency estimated would have left 24 million more people uninsured than Obamacare in 2026.

 

In the weeks leading up to the House vote on May 4, two controversial amendments were added to the bill that ultimately helped secure its passage, including one that was added the day before the vote.

 

One amendment would allow states to opt out of a popular Obamacare provision that prevents insurers from charging people with pre-existing conditions higher rates, as well as one that required insurers to cover 10 essential health benefits such as maternity care and prescription drugs.

 

The CBO found that the amendment would cause instability in the individual insurance market for about a sixth of the population because it would become difficult or impossible for less healthy people to purchase comprehensive coverage. However, the agency found that healthy people could purchase insurance with relatively low premiums.

 

Another amendment allocates an additional $8 billion over five years to help people with pre-existing conditions cover medical costs but the CBO said it would not significantly help sick people pay their premiums.

 

Some Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, said the report showed the legislation met key goals, including driving down premiums and lowering the deficit.

 

The CBO said premiums would fall for younger people and rise for older people in states that did not request waivers for an overall decline of about 4 percent. In states that made moderate changes to their markets, representing about one-third of the U.S. population, premiums would fall 20 percent on average.

 

Reaction on Wall Street was muted, with shares of hospitals affected by the cuts to Medicaid, like Community Health Systems, and health insurers specializing in Medicaid, such as Molina Healthcare <MOH.N> and Centene Corp <CNC.N> unchanged in light after-hours trading.

 

(Reporting by Yasmeen Abutaleb; Additional reporting by Caroline Humer; Editing by Bill Trott)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-05-25

[YetAnother]

obamacare was a disaster; they came very very close to requiring me to have USA insurance (which wont cover me here) even tho i havent been there in years and years; as it is, i have to file tax returns with the USA ONLY to say i dont live there or get penalized for not having usa insurance !

[mtls2005]

12 minutes ago, YetAnother said:

obamacare was a disaster; they came very very close to requiring me to have USA insurance (which wont cover me here) even tho i havent been there in years and years; as it is, i have to file tax returns with the USA ONLY to say i dont live there or get penalized for not having usa insurance !

 

This gibberish makes no sense.

 

If you live outside the U.S. you are not subject to the ACA Mandate, and can claim an exemption.

 

 

[tonray]

There are no easy solutions. The problem is that both sides offer what amounts to partisan plans that further their respective agendas. When each party decides that healthcare for all is the agenda and not their own ideology, then we will get something that works.

 

It will drag on for another decade or so until it becomes so unpalatable to insurers and health care providers that they will start the push for some sort of universal coverage or Single Payer. It will happen but will take about 10 years and the failure of both partisan systems.

 

My favorite quote from Winston Churchill applies here:

 

"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else."

Edited May 25, 2017 by tonray

[ilostmypassword]

49 minutes ago, tonray said:

There are no easy solutions. The problem is that both sides offer what amounts to partisan plans that further their respective agendas. When each party decides that healthcare for all is the agenda and not their own ideology, then we will get something that works.

 

It will drag on for another decade or so until it becomes so unpalatable to insurers and health care providers that they will start the push for some sort of universal coverage or Single Payer. It will happen but will take about 10 years and the failure of both partisan systems.

 

My favorite quote from Winston Churchill applies here:

 

"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else."

I don't know why you're calling Obamacare a partisan system. Given the health insurance situation in the USA - where employers cover about half the population - that was probably the best that could be done. Most Americans covered under the present employer based system are still opposed to changing that. As deductibles keep on climbing and more employers opt out, that will change.

[darksidedog]

If Obamacare was such a disaster, I would like someone to explain to me, why it is so popular.

23-24 Million people losing their healthcare to me sounds like a disaster.

[tonray]

6 minutes ago, darksidedog said:

If Obamacare was such a disaster, I would like someone to explain to me, why it is so popular.

23-24 Million people losing their healthcare to me sounds like a disaster.

It's only popular to about 50% of the population as evidenced by the most recent election and the last Congressional midterms. Some of that is ignorance of course but much of that is due to the fact that while ObamaCare (more correctly the Affordable Care Act) did increase coverage and benefits, it did little to contain the real problem that will kill any plan, health care cost inflation. The ACA solution was simply to have government to subsidize cost increases, no matter what they are, and the right's plan is to simply limit benefits and coverage to contain costs. Neither solution is tenable long term. That is why I believe the health care insurers will ultimately start the path to Universal Coverage in some form when they realize that their market and margins keep shrinking.

[worgeordie]

23 Million,they are not the 1%,so the current administration does not give a jot about them,a World leader,America needs to stop spending so much money on, weapons,space exploration,and been the World's policeman,and think more about

its own population,many who are in dire need, thinking that a free health service is one step away from communism is just ridiculous,so come on America, look after your own.not been American this is only my view looking from the outside ,in.

regards worgeordie

[mtls2005]

I believe the health care insurers will ultimately start the path to Universal Coverage

 

In other news, Tooth Fairy to provide dental care.

 

 

[ilostmypassword]

35 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

I believe the health care insurers will ultimately start the path to Universal Coverage

 

In other news, Tooth Fairy to provide dental care.

 

 

Not at all. In many countries universal health care is very successfully provided through health insurance companies. It is highly regulated, though. No junk policies allowed.

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/333100-aetna-ceo-called-for-debate-about-single-payer-healthcare-report

[Skywalker69]

McConnell: 'I don't know how we get to 50' votes on ObamaCare repeal

 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says he doesn't know how Senate Republicans are going to get enough votes to pass an ObamaCare replacement bill. 

"I don't know how we get to 50 [votes] at the moment.

 

But that's the goal,” McConnell told Reuters in an interview Wednesday. "And exactly what the composition of that [bill] is I'm not going to speculate about because it serves no purpose." 

 

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/334953-mcconnell-i-dont-know-how-we-get-to-50-votes-on-healthcare

[Jingthing]

Even before trump signs trumpcare into law (hopefully NEVER) he's actively, intentionally, and maliciously hurting many Americans with their health care. Shamefully callous so called president. What a nasty, destructive, uncaring man. Shocking that so many people that will now be HURT by him fell for his SCAMS.

 

 

Quote

 

Trump’s latest tantrum will hurt hundreds of thousands of people. Here’s how.

 

We now have our first clear evidence that President Trump’s threats to blow up Obamacare — whether or not he actually intends to make good on them — are going to hurt a lot of people here in the real world. In Trump’s mind, these threats are supposed to force Democrats to make a deal on repeal, but minimal logic reveals that this is extremely far-fetched — meaning the only impact his threats will likely have is a destructive one, for no evident purpose whatsoever.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/05/26/trumps-latest-tantrum-will-hurt-hundreds-of-thousands-of-people-heres-how/

Edited May 26, 2017 by Jingthing

[mtls2005]

On 5/25/2017 at 11:03 AM, ilostmypassword said:

Not at all. In many countries universal health care is very successfully provided through health insurance companies. It is highly regulated, though. No junk policies allowed.

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/333100-aetna-ceo-called-for-debate-about-single-payer-healthcare-report

 

I think this topic is about health care in the U.S., as was my comment.

 

Of course many (most? all?) industrialized, modern countries seem capable of providing single-payer, universal health-care, but again, that's not what we;'re discussing here.

 

 

[ilostmypassword]

Just now, mtls2005 said:

 

I think this topic is about health care in the U.S., as was my comment.

 

Of course many (most? all?) industrialized, modern countries seem capable of providing single-payer, universal health-care, but again, that's not what we;'re discussing here.

 

 

I am not referring to single payer insurance. I am referring to systems where people do pay different insurance companies for insurance. But in those countries subsidies are sufficient so that no one goes without health insurance.

[JAG]

There are no easy solutions. The problem is that both sides offer what amounts to partisan plans that further their respective agendas. When each party decides that healthcare for all is the agenda and not their own ideology, then we will get something that works.
 
It will drag on for another decade or so until it becomes so unpalatable to insurers and health care providers that they will start the push for some sort of universal coverage or Single Payer. It will happen but will take about 10 years and the failure of both partisan systems.
 
My favorite quote from Winston Churchill applies here:
 
"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else."

I do hope that you are right.

Over the years until this happens we have the astonishing, no bizarre situation whereby a significant proportion (+/- 10%?) of the population of the worlds wealthiest nation have no effective health provision!

[ilostmypassword]

Trump calls for more spending on health care so it’s ‘the best anywhere,’ but he just proposed big cuts

President Trump on Sunday evening called for more spending on health care and said his plan to overhaul the tax code “is actually ahead of schedule,” two statements that are at odds with the budget proposal he unveiled just last week.

Trump's budget plan, assembled by White House Office of Management and budget director Mick Mulvaney, called for cuts of between $800 billion and $1.4 trillion in future spending on Medicaid, the health-care program for low-income Americans.

 It did not propose new health-care spending, as Trump alluded to in one of his Twitter posts Sunday evening.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/05/28/trumps-sunday-night-tweets-on-healthcare-and-taxes-contradict-what-the-white-house-said-just-last-week/?utm_term=.abcdd0a6125b

[mtls2005]

Hopefully they'll be doing away with Obama's "death panels".

 

 

[funandsuninbangkok]

On 5/27/2017 at 7:55 AM, mtls2005 said:

 

I think this topic is about health care in the U.S., as was my comment.

 

Of course many (most? all?) industrialized, modern countries seem capable of providing single-payer, universal health-care, but again, that's not what we;'re discussing here.

 

 

Most of those countries cannot defend themselves in a war. World is changing. They will need to pay thier own defense now.

 

Expect long ques in the hospitals in Europe soon. 

[ilostmypassword]

1 hour ago, funandsuninbangkok said:

Most of those countries cannot defend themselves in a war. World is changing. They will need to pay thier own defense now.

 

Expect long ques in the hospitals in Europe soon. 

Because Russia will be invading? Because your budget math makes no sense. 

[pegman]

17 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

Trump calls for more spending on health care so it’s ‘the best anywhere,’ but he just proposed big cuts

President Trump on Sunday evening called for more spending on health care and said his plan to overhaul the tax code “is actually ahead of schedule,” two statements that are at odds with the budget proposal he unveiled just last week.

Trump's budget plan, assembled by White House Office of Management and budget director Mick Mulvaney, called for cuts of between $800 billion and $1.4 trillion in future spending on Medicaid, the health-care program for low-income Americans.

 It did not propose new health-care spending, as Trump alluded to in one of his Twitter posts Sunday evening.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/05/28/trumps-sunday-night-tweets-on-healthcare-and-taxes-contradict-what-the-white-house-said-just-last-week/?utm_term=.abcdd0a6125b

How much suffering and needless deaths equate to $800-1,400b?  Many with Jai Dam on here.

[ilostmypassword]

Trump vows ‘insurance for everybody’ in Obamacare replacement plan

 

President-elect Donald Trump said in a weekend interview that he is nearing completion of a plan to replace President Obama’s signature health-care law with the goal of “insurance for everybody,” while also vowing to force drug companies to negotiate directly with the government on prices in Medicare and Medicaid.

Trump declined to reveal specifics in the telephone interview late Saturday with The Washington Post, but any proposals from the incoming president would almost certainly dominate the Republican effort to overhaul federal health policy as he prepares to work with his party’s congressional majorities.

Trump’s plan is likely to face questions from the right, after years of GOP opposition to further expansion of government involvement in the health-care system, and from those on the left, who see his ideas as disruptive to changes brought by the Affordable Care Act that have extended coverage to tens of millions of Americans.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-vows-insurance-for-everybody-in-obamacare-replacement-plan/2017/01/15/5f2b1e18-db5d-11e6-ad42-f3375f271c9c_story.html?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.1e25d648e6a0

[Jingthing]

trump INTENTIONALLY sabotaging the ACA.

Insurance companies are leaving. Not because of the existing law.

Because of trump. 

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-gops-obamacare-sabotage-continues/2017/06/09/c0469574-4d40-11e7-a186-60c031eab644_story.html

[habanero]

It is my understanding that the penalty for not having health insurance will be removed. That alone involves some 20 million young people that will choose not to purchase healthcare. They are not loosing healthcare, they are choosing not to have it.

But, the Dems are choosing to spin it as though the Republicans are taking it away.

Edited June 27, 2017 by habanero