Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

AHCA is a betrayal of all the GOP’s promises on health care

It does the opposite of what they say.

by Matthew Yglesias
May 4, 2017, 2:46pm EDT

The American Health Care Act, passed today by the US House of Representatives, is a law that fundamentally does the reverse of what its proponents are promising.

Having run a campaign during which he promised to cover everyone, protect Medicaid from cuts, and replace Affordable Care Act plans with “terrific” coverage, Donald Trump is now behind a bill that cuts Medicaid, covers fewer people, and allows states to replace ACA plans with stingier coverage. Having promised repeatedly to protect patients with preexisting health conditions from insurance market price discrimination, Paul Ryan is pushing a plan that removes existing protections and replaces them with hand-wavy and inadequately funded high-risk pools. Having leveraged public discontent with high deductibles and rising premiums, Republicans are pushing a bill that will leave most patients with higher out-of-pocket costs for equivalent plans and bring back skimpy plans with even higher deductibles.

That’s all happening because the GOP is committed to rolling back the taxes that pay for the Affordable Care Act, delivering a financial windfall to high-income families even though Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin swore at his confirmation hearings that the Trump administration would not pursue tax cuts for the rich.

The bill is currently being rushed through the House at breathtaking speed with no time for a Congressional Budget Office score or for members to hear from constituents back home. Republicans are acting like their plan cannot survive even cursory scrutiny by experts or the public for the good reason that their own rhetoric strongly suggests that they do not believe the public would find this legislation acceptable if they knew what it did.
The new AHCA breaks the GOP’s promises on preexisting conditions

When Ryan initially rolled out the American Health Care Act, he accompanied it with a Frequently Asked Questions page that offered a firm statement of moral purpose regarding the treatment of patients with preexisting conditions:


That statement is now gone from the House leadership’s website. In search of additional Freedom Caucus votes, Ryan abandoned that commitment and signed on to the MacArthur Amendment that will, in fact, allow insurers to charge higher premiums to sick people.

In its place is a new claim that the legislation is okay because it includes an amendment from Fred Upton that Ryan says “strengthens the AHCA by reaffirming our commitment to protect patients with preexisting conditions.”

It does not, in fact, do that. What it does is provide $8 billion in extra money that states could try to use over five years to partially defray the massive increases in costs that patients with preexisting conditions will face under MacArthur’s plans. But it’s not nearly enough money. As Larry Leavitt of the Kaiser Family Foundation tells Vox’s Dylan Scott, AHCA waivers could lead to “massive premium increases” and “there’s no way a reinsurance program or direct subsidies could ever fully offset that for everyone, and states aren't required to do so.”

o.k ... if interested go to this link and read the whole thing omg it's Matthew .. so you know how thorough it is! ..The THING is WE KNOW republicans (so does he.. ;) ) ... WE already knew what they would not do .. etc.. so there it is .. ... see you in the SENATE! ....hurry hurry .. hurrry............SEE YOU IN 2018!
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/4/15542342/ahca-promises-broken