5 Changes in the GOP's Revised Health Care Bill

[apples]

http://www.newser.com/story/245672/5-changes-in-the-gops-revised-health-care-bill.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=iHeartRadio&utm_campaign=rss_main

(Newser) ? President Trump said he'd be "very angry" if senators fail to repeal ObamaCare as promised, and GOP leaders have just taken a step in their quest to quell that anger. The second draft of the Better Care Reconciliation Act was released on Thursday with revisions aimed at getting 50 of the Senate's 52 GOP votes. The Congressional Budget Office should score the bill early next week, and next week should also see a vote. The Hill's take: "Overall, [Mitch] McConnell appears to have shifted the revised bill toward the conservatives, without giving the moderates much of what they want." The AP sees "only modest departures" from the original. Indeed, Medicaid cuts are mostly unchanged, to the likely displeasure of moderates. This means the funding that 31 states have used to expand Medicaid under ObamaCare ends in 2024, and further cuts follow the next year. Five things that were changed:

    Ted Cruz's amendment appears, sort of. He, along with Sen. Mike Lee, proposed allowing insurers to offer bare-bones plans as long as those insurers also sell at least one policy that conforms to ObamaCare requirements. What's included is based on their version, though the AP notes it appears in brackets, meaning the language hasn't been finalized.
    The "stability fund" grows from $112 billion to $182 billion. This is the money states could dole out to help tamp down premiums and other costs.
    Opioids get more funding, to the tune of $45 billion, up from the $2 billion in version one.
    Two ObamaCare taxes on the wealthy are back. Currently, families earning more than $250,000 a year see a 3.8% increase in their investment income tax and a 0.9% bump in their payroll tax. The taxes had been removed in version one.

[jafo2010]

It is an outright disgrace.  Seven years squandered with nothing.  For the GOP to remotely mirror the Obamacare Plan, it means they did nothing for seven years but whine and cry.  I hope this bill gets voted down.  The GOP is capable with the PROPER effort of designing a healthcare program that truly saves money while expanding services.

One example, organ transplants.  Now I do not know the budget dollars, but suffice to say, the average liver transplant cost over $1 million dollars 17 years ago.  Life expectancy is seven years.  Well, this is where we need to develop a LIMITED COVERAGE Medicare Program for all.  Things like transplants would not be included.  New designer drugs that cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars would not be included.  The insurance companies would provide Plans A through ZZ if necessary, and these plans would include basic coverage, including preventive coverage.  But the high cost procedures would be covered in the supplemental coverage obtained by the populace through the insurance companies.

And there should be a cap.  A lifetime cap of $2 million per patient from federal tax dollars.  There could be an insurance plan to cover once one exceeds the taxpayer cap.  And the limit can be indexed upward by the same COLA factor used for Social Security.

By limiting the taxpayer obligation, providing basic care, and allowing the insurance companies to compete on a national basis and not limit them by state, healthcare cost would dramatically fall, and particularly that part belonging to the government.  Individual cost would also drop dramatically with true competition.

[apples]

It is an outright disgrace.  Seven years squandered with nothing.  For the GOP to remotely mirror the Obamacare Plan, it means they did nothing for seven years but whine and cry.  I hope this bill gets voted down.  The GOP is capable with the PROPER effort of designing a healthcare program that truly saves money while expanding services.

One example, organ transplants.  Now I do not know the budget dollars, but suffice to say, the average liver transplant cost over $1 million dollars 17 years ago.  Life expectancy is seven years.  Well, this is where we need to develop a LIMITED COVERAGE Medicare Program for all.  Things like transplants would not be included.  New designer drugs that cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars would not be included.  The insurance companies would provide Plans A through ZZ if necessary, and these plans would include basic coverage, including preventive coverage.  But the high cost procedures would be covered in the supplemental coverage obtained by the populace through the insurance companies.

And there should be a cap.  A lifetime cap of $2 million per patient from federal tax dollars.  There could be an insurance plan to cover once one exceeds the taxpayer cap.  And the limit can be indexed upward by the same COLA factor used for Social Security.

By limiting the taxpayer obligation, providing basic care, and allowing the insurance companies to compete on a national basis and not limit them by state, healthcare cost would dramatically fall, and particularly that part belonging to the government.  Individual coast would also drop dramatically with true competition.

good ideas Jafo!