This week
The new Healthcare Bill (as of 4/26/17)
Full details are not out yet, but it appears to allow Representatives to choose to allow healthcare plans to not have to cover essential health benefits or pre-existing conditions.
Essential health benefits include:
Outpatient care—the kind you get without being admitted to a hospital
Trips to the emergency room
Treatment in the hospital for inpatient care
Care before and after your baby is born
Mental health and substance use disorder services: This includes behavioral health treatment, counseling, and psychotherapy
Your prescription drugs
Services and devices to help you recover if you are injured, or have a disability or chronic condition. This includes physical and occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, psychiatric rehabilitation, and more.
Your lab tests
Preventive services including counseling, screenings, and vaccines to keep you healthy and care for managing a chronic disease.
Pediatric services: This includes dental care and vision care for kids
This would be necessary to keep costs down, presumably, because the wealthy will no longer be subsidizing the poor.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/26/new-obamacare-repeal-plan-republicans-trump-237625
Fun fact:
“A provision in the proposal appeared to exempt members of Congress and their aides from weakened regulations that states would be allowed to adopt.”
“The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee even planned a rapid-fire digital ad campaign highlighting the provision as Republicans were grappling with the details.”
This is an article about that: http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/dccc-ties-vulnerable-republicans-to-health-care
Constantly updated list of Representatives’ stances on the new bill: http://thehill.com/homenews/news/330717-the-hills-whip-list-who-to-watch-on-gops-new-obamacare-bill?amp
Last week
The GOP are blocking many new states expanding Medicaid: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2017/04/09/in-states-gop-blocks-more-medicaid-expansion/#4a2352d5d167
The administration is allowing ACA to continue.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/04/11/in-the-battle-over-obamacares-future-trump-just-blinked-bigly/:
“The Drumpf administration has now quietly announced that it will refrain from taking an important step that could have pushed the ACA’s individual markets toward collapse. Specifically, The Post and the New York Times report that the administration will keep on paying so-called “cost-sharing reductions” to insurance companies to cover their reimbursement of out-of-pocket costs for about 7 million lower-income customers.
If Drumpf stopped the payments on his own, it could cause insurers to flee the exchanges, which would melt them down, potentially leaving at least 10 million people without coverage. Drumpf could do this right now. Here’s how: House Republicans had sued the Obama administration to block the payments, and last year a federal judge ruled that they are invalid but kept them going, pending the former administration’s appeal. Drumpf could drop that appeal, which would cause the payments to stop. But the Drumpf administration has decided not to do this — at least for now — and to keep the payments going.”
They may stop the payments in future. They are deciding their position on that:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/04/11/this-is-how-obamacare-might-actually-explode/
Here are the states seeking to expand or block the expansion of Medicaid: https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/resources/primers/medicaidmap
How are marketplaces doing in your state? https://www.healthinsurance.org/blog/2017/04/18/the-aca-isnt-imploding-is-your-marketplace/
How many people have pre-existing conditions in your district? http://acasignups.net/17/04/15/cap-does-it-again-how-many-folks-wpre-existing-conditions-are-risk-your-district
Previously
Drumpf may take more healthcare options away to appease the Freedom Caucus:
WaPo Whatever happens, it is clear that voters will not appreciate their healthcare options being taken away. As to Medicaid, according to Quinnipiac poll:
“Voters also oppose 74 – 22 percent, including 54 – 39 percent among Republicans, cutting federal funding for Medicaid.”
Kansas applied for the Medicaid expansion: WaPo. Georgia and Virginia are also looking into it: and maybe Idaho, Nebraska and South Dakota: WaPo.
To make things more interesting, there is a bill to have Medicaid availbale to all: https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/676/all-actions-without-amendments
Movie about the crisis: http://fixithealthcare.com/watch-the-movie/
The previous week
The administration gave up on having the House vote on repealing ACA and bringing in AHCA because the Freedom Caucus, a group of almost 30 Republicans did not think that it was minimal enough. They wanted to eliminate the necessity for all policies to cover these ‘essential health benefits’ (from https://www.healthcare.gov:
Outpatient care—the kind you get without being admitted to a hospital
Trips to the emergency room
Treatment in the hospital for inpatient care
Care before and after your baby is born
Mental health and substance use disorder services: This includes behavioral health treatment, counseling, and psychotherapy
Your prescription drugs
Services and devices to help you recover if you are injured, or have a disability or chronic condition. This includes physical and occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, psychiatric rehabilitation, and more.
Your lab tests
Preventive services including counseling, screenings, and vaccines to keep you healthy and care for managing a chronic disease.
Pediatric services: This includes dental care and vision care for kids
The AHCA:
They were giving more tax credits to the old and looking at mandating work for Medicaid:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-obamacare-idUSKBN16Q0OR
Paul Ryan is pivotal in the healthcare overhaul. Please tell him your personal story in any form.
His DC phone: (202) 225-3031
Tweet Ryan here: https://twitter.com/SpeakerRyan
Comment on his FB posts here: https://www.facebook.com/paulryanwi/
Email him here: http://www.speaker.gov/contact
He is no longer accepting paper petitions, so send them to his house:
PAUL RYAN, 700 ST. LAWRENCE AVE. Janesville, WI 53545
This tool was used to contact 27 House Republicans how this would affect their constituents:https://t.co/FocvN1NiC2
Want to see how every district would have been affected? Look here: https://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/healthcare/news/2017/03/17/166615/trumpcare-by-the-numbers/
“On Monday, the Congressional Budget Office released its report analyzing the GOP’s plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, and it offers a bleak picture for the future for of access to health insurance for the country. The CBO predicts that, if the GOP’s plan becomes law, 14 million fewer people would have health insurance next year than would under Obamacare.
The projection gets even gloomier over the next decade. According to the CBO, the GOP plan would leave 24 million additional people without health insurance by 2026, compared to current law. That would leave 52 million people without insurance by 2026.
…The bill shifts a ton of money into the hands of the rich by cutting taxes on the wealthy. All of the budget savings come by reducing benefits to the poor, including a projected $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid. By 2026, Medicaid—the main government insurance program for the poor—would see 14 million fewer people enrolled than under current law, and spending on the program would be reduced by 25 percent.”
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/03/24-million-people-will-lose-insurance-thanks-trumpcare
Our top call to action:
House Republicans moved their “ACA repeal and replace” bill through committees without a score from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The CBO score is necessary to show how much their bill will cost and how many people will lose coverage. They know the score will be terrible for them and that’s exactly why they’re trying to push the bill through without a score and they’re already trying to undermine the value of the CBO input. Call Rep. Derek Kilmer and tell him that we need a CBO score before voting on the House bill. I called last week and the person who answered the phone was taking a tally of whether callers wanted a CBO score or not, so Rep. Kilmer is clearly aware that his constituents know about this important issue. Make sure to call and ensure that the count shows that we want a CBO score on costs and the impact of the House bill.
The CBO score:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/13/politics/cbo-report-health-care/index.html