But there are some unfortunate realities here. Unlike Democrats, Republicans do not march in lock step. There are more than enough Republicans willing to jump ship to kill any Obamacare repeal only bill in the Senate. The only way to reverse this is to hope enough voters will rise up in these states to get these Senators to change their minds. Perhaps that is possible.
But Don Surber makes the case that there is more here to like than dislike. Actually he is really into it. Hmmm.
I'm still pretty skeptical, but let's see how this shakes out.
Instapundit: Why is Cory Gardner trying to save Obamacare?, Do you want to lose your majority, because this is how you lose your majority (you think Trump has it bad now, wait till that happens), Washington Examiner: The GOPe is negotiating its own surrender, Repeal and Replace Obamacare
Instapundit: Why is Cory Gardner trying to save Obamacare?, Do you want to lose your majority, because this is how you lose your majority (you think Trump has it bad now, wait till that happens), Washington Examiner: The GOPe is negotiating its own surrender, Repeal and Replace Obamacare
The sinking feeling that the whole #ObamaGate kerfuffle is a vast head fake so that the @GOP can run #ObamaCare #Lite through & pass it.— IGotOverMachoGrande (@smitty_one_each) March 7, 2017
'Midterms come fast, GOP': Dana Loesch slams House Republican rollout of Obamacare 2.0 https://t.co/tGB4debPta— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) March 7, 2017
AoSHQ: Repeal and Replace?
The Week: Wants Failure?
Doug Ross: Replace worse?
HotAir: GOP Healthcare DOA?
Regular Right Guy: Ryan and Obamacarelite
Powerline: The good part: reforming Medicare
AoSHQ: Healthcare for Dummies and What a POS
Heat Street: Paul Ryan's self inflicted Health Care Disaster
Rush Limbaugh: Does anyone know what insurance is anymore?
Victory Girls: The Good and the Bad (unfortunately too much bad)
Fox News: Let's first repeal Obamacare and then discuss how to replace it
Breitbart: Pence pushes Paul Ryan's Healthcare Reform Bill and Conservatives push back
Wombat: Power Line: Are Republicans Blowing It On Health Care? , American Thinker: Obama’s Rasputin Moves Into The Bunker, and Weasel Zippers: Secret Service Agent Says Obamagate Will Blow Open This Week, also, Trump Busts Planned Parenthood Narrative With Funding Offer
— Ali (@ali) March 8, 2017Rush Limbaugh: Swords drawn on Obamacare Repeal
Wombat: Megan McArdle: The Republican Plan – Even Worse Than Obamacare and American Power: Tough Resistance To GOP’s #Obamacare Overhaul
Agree on the repeal and just repeal idea, but this will be a fusion.
ReplyDeleteThere's a Senate bill and Trump will have his say.
I agree as well. I think a difficult part is how to handle the completely uninsured and uninsurable. The fact is, even before Obamacare, anyone can walk into a hospital, present symptoms, and demand care; whether they planned to pay or not. And the hospital will treat them, like every other patient because they are required to by law, and release them knowing the patient will never pay the bill.
ReplyDeletePart of what made Obamacare palatable is that it suggested that hospitals would at least get more compensation in this area. The fact is, it never materialized, and in fact was made worse. Worse in that all compensation is based on a overall customer satisfaction survey, and the thing is, the freeloaders typically give the worse satisfaction score, because that's their only currency and power they hold over the hospital.
If there is one area of health care that Congress should address in a replace, that's the area in my mind. However, this can mostly be accomplished through an increase in Medicaid that goes directly to hospitals. I don't like it, but its a reality unless you intend to repeal the laws making healthcare mandatory, which would be a tougher fight.
Of course, the other issue that must be address by a GOP Congress, or else they are f'ing useless as Democrats; is medical tort reform. It's bad enough doctors, nurses, hospitals have to provide services for free. It is absolutely criminal that they can then be turned around and sued; often by those same freeloaders, for multiples of the cost of the healthcare for simple mistakes to misunderstandings of the start of the art of healthcare. Even if they introduced loser pays in these scenarios, it would make a vast improvement.
That is true and not true about treatment at hospitals. If you can't pay you will always get emergency room care. They will give you top notch trauma and drug od care if you are brought in, you will get minor health care treatment for other lesser ailments to get you out of the ER (and a whopping bill that will never be paid), but it is not like you can go into the ER and get chemo or a heart bypass. If you are sick enough to be in the ER for a serious on going disease the hospital administrators will treat you for that day and will not admit you... And if you are going to the ER for treatement for those sort of conditions, you are probably not long for this world.
DeleteIt depends on the disease, but treatment can and does last several days. You can't put a person with emergent symptoms on the street, even if there is little you can do for them. Sure, a cancer patient that's terminal, but not in their final days will be shown the same door as the non-compliant diabetic. But heart disease aren't given just a day's treatment. They may not get that bypass, but if they have a heart attack in the parking lot after being medically released; the hospital is sued. So they have to be stable enough to make it all the way home. This is more true of stroke victims.
DeleteI'm simply pointing out that the road to Obamacare started out much earlier; and the GOP actually supported many of the laws that put us in a position in which socialism sounded like a reasonable solution. My view; if single payer meant every single person paid out of pocket for their own care, medical care would be cheaper and more ubiquitous.