Republicans Make Some Big Changes To Their Health Care Bill

“The goal must be to expand existing coverage and consumer protections available under the Affordable Care Act, rather than taking them away as the [Republican proposal] would have done”, said ACP President Dr. Nitin Damle. “That will be next”.

Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-11, on Friday, March 24 called the current Republican health-care bill unacceptable. In fact, it makes it more urgent, even responsible.

Defining principles directly and challenging the opposition in a war of ideas is simply how politics should work. Republican leaders must carefully navigate changes – as they attempt to win over more conservative members, they risk losing moderates. It is such a luxury to be able see a doctor when I need to!

But the Palm City Republican said Friday he’s optimistic that health care reform is not dead.

Governors of both parties had warned Congress for weeks that the Republican health care bill threatened to saddle their states with big costs and potentially leave millions of people without coverage, especially because of the cutbacks planned to Medicaid.

“This bill sets up a framework to get the federal government out of the role of being at the center of it all”, MacArthur said. But it does benefit individuals making more than $200,000 per year and hurt individuals who rely on Medicare, and that seems to be enough. That’s why Trump has gotten involved in securing votes, from hosting meetings at the White House to visiting the Capitol this week, where he was thin on substantive arguments to repeal but big on threatening any member voting no, saying they would not be re-elected.

The failure of the proposed American Health Care Act to gain enough support in the GOP-controlled Congress “is a good thing”, said Pallone, executive director of the Lansing-based Michigan Association of Health Plans that represents 14 commercial and Medicaid health insurance companies across the state that collectively cover 2.5 million people. They wanted to get more younger people and to balance the cost – hasn’t really happened.

Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

She said the worst case scenario is for lawmakers to repeal Obamacare and fail to replace it. NPR’s Scott Horsley reports. As it stands, people essentially help pay for the needs of others when they pay their health insurance premiums and vice versa, so that if you become sick with a serious disease like cancer, you don’t suddenly have to pay more. While declining to elaborate on specifics, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, “We’re open to changes that help make the bill better”. We finally declared that in America, health care is not a privilege for a few, but a right for everybody. A President who campaigned as an insurgent and a new type of Republican is staking his Presidency on a piece of legislation that reflects the long-established priorities of conservative G.O.P. ideologues.

The requirements, known as essential health benefits (EHB), were implemented through regulation tied to the Affordable Care Act in 2013. It is nigh near impossible not to have some winners and some losers in any kind of major tax reform. But it also raised concerns about the Republicans’ tax credit proposal. Those that buy a lot from foreign countries don’t. “I do not think it’s time for a victory dance”, he said.

If Ryan’s bill goes down, it would be a grave embarrassment for Trump, but, in the long term, enacting the legislation could be much more damaging.

Others said the situation for early retirees isn’t any more precarious than it has been under the Affordable Care Act with premiums rising and insurers exiting the individual market because of financial losses. Repealing this tax does not improve the insurance market one bit. Democrats have had a hard time the past several election cycles giving voters a specific reason to put them in charge again. Congressman Mark Meadows of the House Freedom Caucus argued on ABC’s “This Week” lawmakers shouldn’t have to balance tax cuts with alternative revenues or spending cuts.