First, do no harm: The GOP’s feckless Obamacare ploy

A hospital emergency room entrance.

“All the pieces need to work” is the reminder a Marion County cancer survivor and certified application counselor for those seeking health insurance on the exchange created in the Affordable Care Act is offering with a possible law repeal pending.

Republicans are lined up to repeal the act, more popularly known as “Obamacare”, and sometime later – maybe as long as four years from now – replace it.

Opinion LogoThe first part of Obamacare likely to go is the key part – the individual mandate.

He predicts that Republicans could face the wrath of voters upset about problems sure to arise – including, he says, the loss of health care jobs in rural communities. An estimated 21,000 young adults in Arkansas have benefited from the ACA provision that allows kids to stay on their parents’ health insurance up to age 26. Repeal would mean the cost of covering the 61,000 new Medicaid enrollees would fall to Montana, which the state can’t afford, but Villa said he doesn’t see that happening any time soon.

For 2017 at least, the penalty for not having health insurance is the larger figure of either 2.5 percent of household income or $695 per adult, $347.50 per child in a household.

Overall, the report looks grim – however, there is one person looking to the future of Obamacare with a new sense of optimism.

Democratic fears that repeal of the Affordable Care Act will damage health care are not shared by most Americans.

To start, replacing Obamacare is a process that could potentially take years. And the warnings are growing.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) told reporters Friday that repealing the law without a ready replacement could lead Republicans into a “box canyon” forcing them “to vote for a tax increase” to pay for keeping temporary subsidies in place in the interim. “Losses of this magnitude can not be sustained and will adversely impact patients’ access to care”, the trade group warned.

If Congressional leaders follow through on their plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act, millions of New Yorkers could lose their coverage and local taxpayers may feel the pain. Noting the Pennsylvania electorate is almost evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, he said his party needs to go to “places where people aren’t necessarily going to vote for you” and “be responsive the best that we can, even if there is disagreement”. If you get sick before your savings account builds up, too bad.

Pascrell said he’d be willing to work with Republicans, though they don’t seem interested in discussing the issue. It’s not that Trump was lying to Paul, because he probably believed, sincerely, that what the senator was saying made sense. The same portion changed sides after being told the country can not afford the expense of helping people buy health insurance.