Finger Pointing The Republican Health Care Flop

National Politics, News and Events42 Comments

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Promising to change Washington and cut wonderful deals for the American people, Donald Trump flunked his first major test. Not easy for a president to be king.

From The New York Times:

The blame game is a time-honored Washington tradition. Here’s a look at who’s blaming whom for the failure of the House bill, in public and in private.

Publicly, Mr. Trump immediately blamed Democrats for the bill’s failure–even though Republicans control both the House and the Senate.

He also said he was “disappointed” and “surprised” that he had not been able to get more members of the hard-line Freedom Caucus to sign on to the plan. And he seemed to acknowledge his lack of Washington experience: “We learned a lot about the vote-getting process.

Full story here.

FOX News perspective:
Trump claimed he never said he would “repeal and replace [ObamaCare] within 64 days,” though he repeatedly promised during the campaign he’d do it on Day One.

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42 comments

  1. Didn’t President Obama get Obamacare passed without a single Republican vote when the Democrats controlled the House, Senate and the White House? Pure bull.

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  3. Come on Donald say it, “Obamacare is the law of the land and Obama is still the man. Nancy Pelosi is the woman who got Obamacare passed something Paul Ryan couldn’t do. Imagine, a black guy not born in America and a white woman, Nancy Pelosi, who is 76, did something The Donald couldn’t do.”

    Former Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner said, “In the 25 years that I served in the United States Congress, Republicans never, ever, one time agreed on what a health care proposal should look like. Not once.”

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    1. Andy,
      What State? Which plan, Gold, Platinum, Silver, Bronze? Any dependents included? Any riders added for dental or vision?

      Those are a few of the things that might cause what seems like a high rate assuming this is an individual plan. Call me if you are interested in a fuller answer. Time will tell.

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        1. Andy, the Republicans control the White House. The Republicans control the House of Representatives. The Republicans control the Senate. They did not need one Democratic vote to help the “average working person.” They failed. Why?

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          1. Lennie, if the Republicans didn’t do anything to help the “average working person” by not repealing the ACA then the Democrat screwed the “average working person” by enacted it.

            In my opinion, not having read the 2000 page ACA bill, it, ACA requires employers to provide health care coverage for their employees and employees are paying more out of their check and pocket for it. Employers are doing whatever they can to avoid giving coverage. If an employer doesn’t have to they won’t give health care coverage. It requires everybody to purchase health care, if they don’t get it from work or other means in order to help cover the cost for coverage of the poor, while allowing kids to stay on their parents’ coverage until the age of 26. At some point somebody is going to have to pay for health coverage, be it by work, individual, or government.

            Are we not having the conversation about city, state unfunded health liabilities? That is ultimately going to have to be paid by taxpayers and is burdensome to the city that could be facing Bankruptcy?

            Skip the cost of health care, what I aforementioned is just access. The Republicans could not pass a bill with the mandate, changing the terminology from government subsidies in the ACA exchange to a tax credit to purchase coverage on the open market to help them pay for it, is not going to drive down the cost. Saying if Insurance companies were able to sell products across state lines is somewhat factually misleading, I’m sure the major insurance carriers sell insurance in more the one state.

            To go to Andy’s point. Since the 2008 crash wages have gone down while everything has gone up. There is more working class on food assistance than ever before, never mind the poor. If you don’t get health care through your employer it’s barely affordable to the middle class never mind the growing lower middle class and poor, that are going to have to be covered by Medicaid through taxes.

            To answers Lennie’s question they, Republicans can’t help them. The private market can’t provide coverage to the poor and the middle lower class that can’t afford it that are not getting it through work or government (employees) and the government can’t pay private insurance companies for their coverage so they make a profit, call it subsidies or tax credits.
            We spend close to $10,000 per person on health care where France spends half that amount, and they are ranked #1.

            www .youtube.com/watch?v=_yF69KVbUaQ

            www .youtube.com/watch?v=UPA5wVNbsuY&t=178s

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    3. PS those 2000 pages were only part of the ACA. There was another part that was another 2000 pages. That’s a 4000-page bill. And the Republicans were planning to replace it with (I believe) a 126-page repeal bill. That’s a bill that is 16 inches high compared to Republican’s 1/2-inch thick repeal bill. Maria was correct in her initial comment.

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  7. The real losers are the people on Obamacare. With premiums skyrocketing along with co-payments, the sick will never find caregivers except PA’s and APRN’s. You may as well pray to Zeus and burn incense.

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    1. Charlie,
      I am over 65 and in a Medicare Plan these days. Do I consider that I am part of Obamacare or the ACA? And if I were signed up as a Medicaid member in CT, Obamacare? Or if I were 27, healthy and decided I would rather pay a fee to not sign up for a plan, and go without insurance or healthcare coverage, would that be someone subject to Obamacare? Just trying to find out what falls in your definition, thank you.
      I have not seen the changes you mention specifically in CT and I have not changed Urologist, Cardiologist, nor Internist in a number of years, though in their practices I also have benefited from expertly trained P.A.s and APRNs doing very specific and necessary skills for which they have been trained to apply when diagnosis is complete. Is there a real problem here? When you are hungry and go out to eat at a diner or restaurant, does the chef serve you or a waiter? Time will tell.

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  9. Nobody including President Obama ever said the Affordable Care Act was perfect and there were problems with it that still need to be fixed like premiums skyrocketing along with co-payments.

    Darius Tahir wrote in Politico where John Boehner said he “started laughing” when Republicans started talking about moving lightning fast on repeal and then coming up with an alternative.

    “In the 25 years that I served in the United States Congress, Republicans never, ever, one time agreed on what a health care proposal should look like. Not once,” Boehner said. ““And all this happy talk that went on in November and December and January about repeal, repeal, repeal–yeah, we’ll do replace, replace–I started laughing, because if you pass repeal without replace, first, anything that happens is your fault. You broke it.”

    ACA needs to be repaired, so Donald it’s up to you to provide health care to every American like you promised. By the way what happened to Vice President Mike Pence, his job along with Speaker Paul Ryan was to whip the Republicans to pass TrumpCare but they failed.

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    1. Perhaps calling single-payer, oh, Capitalist Ideal Premium, and implementing that change, real needed reform could happen. That, and every city, state and federal employee must participate in the national healthcare plan. You make very good points, Ron.

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  10. This comment has nothing to do with the subject of this post, but I read an article about a firefighter in CA who resuscitated a dog involved in a fire. I am an ardent animal lover, more so than a people lover, so I want to thank the former firefighters of Bridgeport for all the dedicated service you gave while active, and remind you that while not all is perfect, Firefighters in our City are the best and bravest. And to those who served and retired, you’ll always fit that description. I’m so impressed with that act of caring.

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  11. Finger-pointing, excuses, as well as re-interpretation about what was really said and meant by Trump and his admin “Zombies” is nothing new! Lord knows there are no more layers left to peel back from the Trump Onion for a stronger stink. A completely new universal medical care bill to replace Obamacare in a little over 60+ days of Trump being in office! No wonder it failed to pass, no? So it’s time to blame the minority Dems. in Congress and the Senate? The white silent minority along with some misled token voters of color must be a bit in shock with their chosen “Anti-Christ” president. *** GOD HELP US ***

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  12. Obamacare is not perfect but Trumpcare is horrible. The thing I disliked about Obamacare is it forces people to get healthcare. I’m 28 years old and I was penalized on my taxes for not having Obamacare which is stupid so this year I made sure I got insurance through my job. But that being said there are people who really have benefited from Obamacare and it’s not fair to pull their insurance. I had a friend whose job did not offer healthcare but got Obamacare and found out he had a condition that he would have never known with having Obamacare. That being said I’ll take a not perfect Obamacare than take Trumpcare.

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  13. This is where party lines blind solid governance.

    What was in Trumpcare that made it horrible? They had three talking points to reduce the cost. Remove the mandate, that you found stupid and required you to get healthcare (through your job). 2. Give tax credits to people to purchase healthcare on the free market instead of subsidies under Obamacare in its exchanges. 3. The not so factual allowing insurance carriers to sell products across state lines to reduce the cost by competition.

    A 126-page bill, I believe it was (TrumpCare), to repeal and replace a 4000-page bill is FAKE NEWS. If anything it would have been a repeal-only bill.

    Praising Obama and the ACA because your friend whose job did not offer health care but got ObamaCare and found out he has a condition that he would have never known without having it is like saying because he lost his job and qualified for state Medicaid, or you asked your employer to give you health insurance because you were penalized on your taxes and found out you had a condition now that you have health care.

    Unless you feel people should die needlessly in this country because they don’t have access to health care or treatments not available to them (that’s another beast), people have to have access to health care.

    France has one of the best cost-effective systems, advance treatments and cures will reduce the cost more than you can imagine. Dealing with obesity, curing diabetes, arthritis, and most cancers, which is “probably already” there. Which accounts for 3/4 of a trillion, if not more in health care cost for chronic treatments of ailments.

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  14. The most embarrassing thing that could have happened to Democrats is the repeal and replacement of Obamacare.

    The next most embarrassing thing for Democrats is the pending collapse of Obamacare.

    Should be an interesting ride as the Obamacare cost impact on Medicaid becomes more of a concern and social welfare programs must be cut to fund it.

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    1. You’re backwards. The most embarrassing thing that could have happened to Obamacare is the repeal and replacement and its collapse to Republicans.

      The next most embarrassing thing to Obamacare is its pending collapse to the Democrats.

      Collapse is inevitable, a national health care plan is its outcome.

      This country can’t privatize profits and socialize the cost of health care and technological advancements in medicine has to move forward.

      Medicare accounts for 20%
      Medicaid accounts for 17%
      Out of pocket accounts for 11%
      and they are growing.

      Private accounts for 33%

      Yet the private accounts for 33% of health care cost and the government accounts for 37% health care cost and the majority of Americans get health care through their job. That is way they are able to make hundreds maybe thousands of billion in profits. We spend $3.2 trillion on health care.

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      1. Robert, you are right when you said, “The most embarrassing thing that could have happened to Obamacare is the repeal and replacement and its collapse to Republicans.” President Trump and the Republican House and Senate OWN health care in America now and the ball is in their court now to either improve on faults in the ACA or doing nothing as President said he was doing. The failure of the ACA is because Trump and Secretary Price will let ACA explode and even millions more Americans to have NO health care. Let’s not forget, the Republicans had seven years to come up with a health plan to replace ACA but they came up with NOTHING. They have a President who has never been involve in running a city, state or nation and Speaker Paul Ryan who NEVER wanted to be the Speaker and he couldn’t get his Republicans to support Trump and Ryan’s health plan.

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  15. The Republicans don’t own it. The game was set when that 4000-page bill came into law. Maria and Lennie were right, if they wanted to do something they could have, it’s a bunch of bull. If the ACA collapse then it was a shit bill, and now Democrats are going to blame Republicans if it does because they didn’t fix it or prevent it falling under its own weight.

    I don’t know why everyone’s on Trump’s case for calling out medias as FAKE NEWS. The last seven years and countless repeal votes in Congress was FAKE NEWS. It’s going to take its course. Other than expanding coverage and a few talking points on the bill. What else in the 4000-page health care bill?

    Ron, I showed you the 911 clip to show you how party lines were flipped on their heads when it comes to party line issues.

    My prediction, insurance companies are going to get squeezed out as it implodes (or takes its course). Democrats will gain seats, maybe, as Republicans do what they are going to do with a rogue president Trump. What you have to understand is health care is a drain on business, as well as taxpayer, states, city and this country. We spend $3.2 trillion on health care in this country and it should be half of that, those $1.6 trillion needs to be spent on building up this country, into the 21st century. The way I see it, for-profit health care companies are the way of Pluto. You’re done, mate.

    Ron once you leave your black afro-centric perspective urbanites, there’s a large swathe of poor whites living in trailers with tornadoes who need jobs and health care, things their white privilege is not providing. So it doesn’t matter where or whom you point the figure at. The government is going to have to collect what the private insurances are making, billions, to cover the health care cost in actually treating sick persons, and reign in the doctor and hospital’s behavior to move the system and country into the 21st century.

    They don’t do anything in providing any remedies for sick people, or anything to reduce the cost of health care. In fact they drive up the cost. Health care insurance companies reducing the cost in health care is like saying your bank helps reduce your grocery bills. Republicans needs to think of health care on the lines of national defense.

    They really don’t mind growing the government, take homeland security. It’s an entitlement program for our safety and well-being for the people of this country. Health care as also for our safety and well-being. They don’t want us to die or get maimed by a terrorist in any form. So why would they let us die or get maimed from lack of proper health care?

    So point that finger.
    www .youtube.com/watch?v=dW37AGZ0Pj0

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  19. You talk about fake news, the Republican Party claims they are against most government spending with taxpayers’ money but during President George W. Bush(43)’s eight years as President he NEVER vetoed any spending bills. As for health care, it should be a right for all Americans. Why should elderly Americans go in debt or go broke paying for their prescriptions? Why should the rich receive Social Security benefits and still get huge tax cuts?

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      1. Robert, surely you understand what I wrote. I’ll try again. Republicans always claim the Democrats are tax and spend but when you look at the Republicans under Bush that’s what they did, tax and spend because President Bush NEVER vetoed any spending bills the Republicans gave him.

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        1. Bush increased the national debt by $5 trillion, Obama by $10 trillion. He he funded two wars. I still don’t see your point. You’re agreeing with me the Republicans generated FAKE NEWS for nine years and 50 repeal votes on Obamacare to their base with no intention of repealing it.
          www .youtube.com/watch?v=qVvxfTgmPhs

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