Or is it a mulligan?
WAPOST: “Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is aiming to send a revised version of his health-care bill to the Congressional Budget Office as soon as Friday as he continues to push for a vote before Congress’s August recess. The effort reflects the tight timeline McConnell faces in his attempt to hold a vote in July — and the pressure he is under to change the bill to garner enough support to pass it.”
the hill: Top GOP lawmaker questions tax break for wealthy in healthcare plan
A top GOP lawmaker is pressing leadership to rethink a tax break for high-income earners in the Senate health bill.
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) on Wednesday bashed the bill’s repeal of a 3.8 percent tax on investment income for high earners.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that repealing that tax could cost the federal government $172 billion over ten years.
Meanwhile, under the same plan, low-income people could face plans that cover less with higher deductibles and copays.
“At the same time the 3.8 percent tax on the wealthy was being done away with. That’s not an equilibrium that to me is appropriate. That’s not a tradeoff that’s appropriate. That’s not an equation that is appropriate,” Corker told reporters Wednesday, following a meeting with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
Under the draft Senate bill, healthcare subsidies would be tied to the cheapest ObamaCare plans that cover about 58 percent of costs. Under current law, these subsidies are tied to plans that cover about 70 percent of costs.
That means that, under the draft, people using subsidies to get insurance would either have to pay more in premiums to keep the plan they have now or have a higher deductible to keep their premiums in line.
“If you look at the way the draft was created, they took a step backward,” Corker said.
“They get less subsidy” and bigger deductibles, according to Corker.
“That’s a situation that has got to be rectified. My sense is there is a way for that to be rectified,” Corker said.
“It’s something that’s important to me that lower income citizens have the ability to actually purchase plans that give them healthcare or insure them and I know there are other members that have expressed the same,” he added.
“It’s something that’s important to me that lower income citizens have the ability to actually purchase plans that give them healthcare or insure them and I know there are other members that have expressed the same,”
corker, duh. so why haven’t they done more than just express it?
have a feeling why: the gopers are milking the funding cow (calling for repeal of all things Obama) as hard and for as long as they see her giving milk.
Published on Jun 28, 2017
We finally got to see the text of the BCRA and unfortunately gross incompetence is the one thing not being defunded.
nytimes also reported on sam’s show last night in their story “Samantha Bee Says the Health Care Bill Is Worse Than ‘Suicide Squad’”
including this exchange with lizzie:
Ms. Bee took refuge from the health care news in a jovial interview with one of her heroes, Senator Elizabeth Warren. She asked Ms. Warren about the infamous “nevertheless, she persisted” moment in the Senate this year.
A bunch of turkeys are in my yard this morning. My first thought was to see them as a symbol of McConnell and friends. Then I realized how insulting that would be to those noble birds.
ps… those birds have more brains than what’s running around in D.C. right now…
‘Let’s Talk Together.’ Schumer Challenges Trump on Health Care Plan
http://time.com/4837522/donald-trump-chuck-schumer-health-care-bill-mitch-mcconnell/
One day after Senate Republicans delayed a vote on their controversial healthcare reform bill, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer challenged President Donald Trump to convene a meeting of the entire chamber to discuss the matter.
“We Democrats are genuinely interested in finding a place where our two parties can come together on healthcare,” said Schumer on the Senate floor Wednesday. ” We admit that the Affordable Care Act isn’t perfect. There are ways we can improve on that law and on our entire health care system. So let’s talk together about how we can achieve that in a bipartisan way.”
Schumer suggested the meeting take place at Blair House, where former President Barack Obama held a bipartisan summit before he signed the Affordable Care Act into law.
Trump quickly batted away the idea.
“I don’t think he’s serious. He hasn’t been serious. Obamacare is such a disaster,” said Trump, referring to the Affordable Care Act. “And [Schumer] wants to try and save something that’s hurting a lot of people. It’s hurting a lot of people.”
Schumer, a longtime Democratic Senator from New York, requested that Republicans abandon their bill’s Medicaid funding reductions and tax cuts for wealthier Americans. But Republicans are unlikely to undo those provisions, even as they work to revise the legislation to satisfy both moderate and conservative Republicans who remain on the fence over the bill.
Schumer’s office told TIME the Senator’s comments constituted a blanket request.
Given the partisan nature of the process so far, it remains unlikely the two parties will come together to move the healthcare reform process forward. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell drafted the legislation behind closed doors with a group of 13 Republican Senators, and even some of those lawmakers had not seen the legislation before it was unveiled on June 22. (Despite Obama’s bipartisan confab, the Affordable Care Act ultimately passed without a single Republican vote.)
Still, some Republicans, including Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, have expressed their desire to work with Democrats on the matter. But McConnell has indicated he views working with the Democrats as a last resort only if he cannot first unify his party.
“[The Democrats] aren’t interested in participating in this,” McConnell told reporters Wednesday. “Either Republicans will agree and change the status quo, or markets will continue to collapse and we’ll have to sit down with Sen. Schumer,” he said, in reference to the individual insurance markets created by the Affordable Care Act.
What’s the ratio of toms to jennies?
renee, so right you are. even turkeys band together for communal good.
so, all who are bashing dems, what’s wrong with this approach?
Published on Jun 28, 2017
Senator Chuck Schumer Challenges President Donald J. Trump to Full Senate meeting, of both the GOP and DEM’s at Blair House…
This problem is a simple one to solve. Get rid of the tax cut – fund the Medicaid expansion at ACA levels and lower subsidies to the insurance companies and direct the premium support to enrollees. Call it whatever you want and get on down the road.
Adopt Medicare for all with its cost structure. Make Part B mandatory. Strongly encourage participation in a wrap-around program modeled on TRICARE for Life that will make the program fully single-payer. Reimbursements to providers are based on DRGs, not numbers of pills and band-aids. Very simple, very fast payments to providers. Medicaid take care of Medicare/TfL costs as necessary.
A ‘bi-partisan’ approach may not be all it is cracked up to be. Mitchell only needs a handful of Democrats to support a bill. Think of the ten most conservative (or endangered) Democratic Senators. If Mitchell can figure out a way to bring them on board, without losing a comparable number of right-wing Republicans he has a bill. A bi-partisan bill still might be abhorrent to the majority of Democrats. Be careful what you wish for.
Patd – do you think anyone over at the White House actually showed Trump Schumer’s challenge?
the twit throws fresh red meat to the beast…. another squirrel to distract the pundit dogs dogging him
President Trump bashed the hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” in a tweetstorm early Thursday that referenced a “face-lift” for co-host Mika Brzezinski.
“I heard poorly rated Morning Joe speaks badly of me (don’t watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came …” Trump tweeted before adding “to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!”
[… the tweets….]
Trump’s latest tweets come after a slew of attacks on various media outlets this week.
The president has called out The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN on Twitter over in recent days over their coverage of his administration.
The White House and news outlets have sparred within the last few weeks over the treatment of the White House press corps and their access to on-camera briefings.
CJ
Why would anybody reach across and work with the Republicans. This healthcare is such a cluster that it taints anybody who puts their name on it. Also given the current climate I would expect the radical left to rally support for a primary opponent for any Democrat who would cross the line. After the Bernie bro revolution in states like MO the party is way to the left of where the voters are.
Jack
dv, they wouldn’t dare. too afraid he will take chuck up on it and invite the whole lot to the white house circus instead with him playing ring master cracking whips at dancing elephants and making snarling dems jump thru fiery hoops….. oh yea, make sure ivanka and mel prance in and out in glittery regalia.
WJ,
Agreed. But there are a handful of Democratic Senators, Manchin is one, who are close enough to the Republican ‘moderates,’ and fearful enough of their re-election prospects that they might provide some cross-over votes. A broad coalition of Ds and Rs, though, is highly unlikely. But McConnell only needs a handful of votes.
a handout to Manchin’s coal buddies is all he would need
craig, pogo would know better but I tho’t capito and manchin were both worried about the dire medicaid effect on wva.
wvametronews : Protest on US Senate health care bill held outside Capito’s Charleston office
….
Capito’s spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment following the CBO report. She said last week she is reviewing the draft legislation, but that version was changed and then considered by the CBO.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who opposed the legislation prior to the analysis, said in a statement he still won’t support the Republican bill.
“I have said from the beginning that I want to be a partner in making healthcare more affordable and accessible for our state,” he said. “I stand ready to work with anyone to do that, but this bill makes things worse not better.”
Manchin also posted on Twitter he had received more than 4,200 letters and 900 asking him to vote against the plan.
Watch for the “great West Virginia giveaway.”
meanwhile, dirty deeds suspected re Russia investigation (remember that little thing that gopers rather we not remember)
according to raw story “‘Heads up’: Maddow explains exactly why the Senate GOP wants to halt the Russia probe ‘in its tracks’”
Senate Republicans are desperately trying to stop the investigations into President Donald Trump and his campaign’s possible collusion with Russia, according to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
The Wednesday opener to her show outlined the Judiciary Committee’s task of investigating Trump’s alleged obstruction of justice.
“We’re now seeing Republicans on that committee kind of go after the investigation itself in a way that hasn’t really been picked up on, in a way that hasn’t been widely reported today,” Maddow said. “It’s happening in plain sight.”
Republicans are requesting the exact same documents the FBI got warrants for as it pertains to Trump, the campaign and the White House.
“These Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are now asking about why you started that investigation, what you have, what you submitted to the court, how you got your warrants,” Maddow explained. “What they appear to be up to is trying to discredit the FBI for having started this investigation at all. What they are implying is that the whole FBI investigation all stemmed from that dossier of allegations against Trump and his campaign that was published in Buzzfeed in January, the Christopher Steele dossier. They’re saying implicitly that the dossier of materials is unproven and suspect and that that’s what the FBI’s whole investigation is based on, and therefore, it’s nonsense.”
She went on to conclude that the Senate Republicans are “trying to stop this thing in its tracks before it comes to its conclusion.”
Pogo, Flatus — good ideas there. The trouble with “fixing” Obamacare is that it’s still an insurance industry system, which I’m not sure is ever fixable. Looking over the reasons companies are pulling out of the exchanges they’re just not making the money they want. Their main objections are capping administrative expenses, requiring federal approval for rate increases, requiring more benefits than some customers want, forcing insurers to take customers at premiums that don’t cover the costs. Getting rid of those things might bring more companies back into the exchanges resulting in more competition that lowers premiums, but maybe not.
25th amendment time, gopers?
Republican Sens. Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina pushed back on a pair of tweets from President Trump Thursday morning in which he insulted an MSNBC host’s intelligence and appearance, and said the president’s messages were “beneath the dignity of your office” and represented what is “wrong with American politics.”
“Please just stop. This isn’t normal and it’s beneath the dignity of your office,” Sasse wrote on his Twitter account.
“Mr. President, your tweet was beneath the office and represents what is wrong with American politics, not the greatness of America,” Graham wrote on Twitter.
ben, you are sooo right. This isn’t normal.
Trump proving again this morning how totally unfit he is for the office.
Craig
One insurance company exec in Belgium said that if he couldn’t provide non profit health insurance and still make a profit from other area, he didn’t deserve to be in business.
They have one of the best combination public/private healthcare coverage in the world and certainly a model that insurance companies in this country could follow without going broke and still servicing everyone.
http://www.expatica.com/be/healthcare/Healthcare-in-Belgium_100097.html
There are links at the bottom of this page to several other healthcare systems in the world.
Oy I find this very scary 28 states have approved a constitutional convention only six more needed
I don’t think it’s about passing the ERA
What’s the ratio of toms to jennies?
Flatus… There’s always only one big dominate male per flock at breeding time. They will tolerate young males alongside their mothers. Right now… they are separate…. only females this morning. Toms are alone.
Jamie, the Belgian private/public model reminds me why it was so terrible Obama had to cave on a public option. The explanation was the insurance industry wouldn’t have gotten on board. Why isn’t that back on the table? If a public option would serve customers the industry doesn’t want anyway, why do they care? I guess it’s nose-under-the-tent syndrome, they fear it would lead to universal. Alan Grayson’s bill during the Obamacare debate was the simplest, it would have given everyone the right to buy into Medicare. But the WH and Dem leaders wouldn’t even allow a vote on it, not even by the subcommittee where it was sent to die.
Regression-du-jour continues while the commander-in-thief does his media shtick to provide cover for repugs. The police state grows along with our involvement in Syria, Afghanistan, the Korean peninsula via weapons and/or boots on the ground. trump is making America the world’s top cop, bigger than ever. Today the feds made it clear that they are coming after state’s rights via the sanctuary city…cannabis will be next. If only we can stop the corrupt POTUS in time before he undoes the bra strap of the statue of liberty. We are so very screwed as the repugs are holding this guy together while they wipe-out any traces of Obama.
Enjoyed your post, RR and Jack’s comment about the dem’s is spot on. If we do not stop trump now? We may be stuck with him for eight years…we will all need therapy. The dems do need to dump all of the old farts like the Clinton, Sanders, Biden and get some young, moderate blood into the party. There is no purity in politics — look at Obama….young, married, no crime, smart, decent and he is being destroyed. But, turning left? Won’t work and the dems will lose again…including all of this lost ground under the trumpence junta. dems can’t win over trump supporters…they just need to get the base to vote and start pushing for the popular vote on the POTUS. The middle, the moderate way-of-life is starved.
The public option gets insurance out of the picture…eventually. obamacare was about reining-in the insurance companies and the battle ensued. This is all about insurance and how we have elevated insurance in healthcare in America…claiming private is better than public. The repugs throw us the line ‘they care about our health’ while trumpence is undoing restrictions, regulations and safety laws so we can have our coal dust delivered faster…pollution rules the day and foul drinking water…who needs those job stopping, stinking regulations? Public health headed for the dumper and graveyard much faster under repug rule.
It should be Medicaid for all and those who have more $, should pay more as it was under obamacare. The repugs have taken the right, privilege and responsibility argument to everything…it is privilege only to trump supporters…fellow Americans be damned, all 65% of you!
Amen BW.
I’ve never seen any math on this but I wonder if you allowed everyone to buy Medicare would you get enough younger healthier people paying more premiums than the cost of their services to keep Medicare on a solid financial path?
Oh the heck with it let’s just build a few thousand more VA clinics and hospitals, open those up to everyone.
If the GOP wants to discuss the Cristopher Steele dossier more, I would love to hear more about it.
Bink, wee-weeleaks needs to be on every news rolling writer found at the bottom of every newscast. Just like wiki-leaks was run 24/7.
Btw, “resist” doesn’t imply debating legislation in good faith. Our illegitimate government is being run by criminals- focus on that.
U da Woman, B-Dub.
Oh my!! A Massachusetts citizen seems to have had it up to where and unleashed this hilarious rant. Sorry that’s the title folks. Has anyone seen Old Sea Hag writing?
Fuck The South
As I see it – here’s the deal: The administrative costs of health care in the U.S. average about 25% of total cost (27% for hospital spending). The administrative costs of Medicare is about 2% of total cost. If we doubled administrative spending in Medicare to 4% (to iron out some of the wrinkles and complaints), that would still leave an administrative savings of about 21%.
In 2015 the U.S. spent $3.2 trillion dollars on health care. At 21% – that’s about $675 billion dollars in administrative costs that would go away with Medicare for all / single payer.
The YUGE for profit business of health care is never going to go for that unless the American people revolt. It’s only possible when we start voting these bastards out of office. And right now they’re spending a lot of time trying to make their base afraid; afraid of the Muslims, the brown people, criminals, drug addicts, satanists, LBGTQ folks, etc.
Perhaps it is time to stop being afraid! The first good signal will be when the WH Press corps tells Trump, Spicer and Huckabee to F-Off, and walks out of the building. Until then – gutless and deserving of the screwing that’s taking place.
the latest on McConnell 2.0
from Axios:
On the table: More funding to fight the opioid epidemic, revised health savings account policies, potentially getting rid of the repeal of the net investment tax on the wealthy.
Off the table: Undermining pre-existing conditions protections, which could happen indirectly under a plan Sen. Ted Cruz is pushing,
Health insurance sucks…and we are trying to adapt our bodies to deductibles and premiums and vouchers and percentages. Every year we allow the insurance companies to raise our rates, increase the deductibles to levels beyond most American’s incomes all done on the insurance corporations’ own timetable…miss a deadline? Wait a year as if our bodies can wait a year. Insurance companies can hire contract labor to handle the inbound business and do not add much to the labor market…they are a depository for premiums and profit for the top. Insurance can cap the limit of care we receive…reject care and punish pre-existing conditions. The stress is a killer. Why do we have to start over every year??? That is the key…a lifetime of insurance, doled-out punitively each year. Why? To increase profit, not health.
What gets me about all the insurance companies fleeing states is that I think they just don’t want to do business there and it has nothing to do with profits.
In Washington it is a minimum standard that must be offered to even do business in the state. All companies have a bronze, silver, and gold plans. You can then purchase supplemental plans that offer all sort of luxury benefits, but really doesn’t add all that much to your care.
United Healthcare allied with the Multicare clinic/hospital system offers three Medicare plans (Other insurance companies are allied with Kaiser or St Joseph or Franciscan). About $100 a month is deducted from my Social Security benefit that goes to them and Medicare pays an agreed upon percentage from my credit accrued through a few decades of contributions. Poverty level people also get supplemental payments from Medicaid and prescription support.
Office visits on my plan are $10. Specialists $45. Various hospital services are 20% of costs until I’ve reached an out of pocket level, then nothing. Absolutely free every year is a head to toe physical, a mammogram, and a set of standard diagnostic blood tests.
Trust me United Healthcare is not going broke since they pay their CEO over 100 million a year. If it can be done in WA, there is absolutely no reason for the same coverage can’t be done in virtually every other state.
As long as sick and aging Americans fight metabolic inevitabilities and terminal diseases, the Healthcare industry will have us over a barrel. The way i see it, the quickest route to the morgue runs through the hospital.
Don’t forget, Manchin’s spawn is the CEO of the company that jacked up the price of EpiPens.
Oh, Jamie, that’s a great link!
pogo – It sounds like you’ve got the fix, but that impacts profits, so…
There once was a critter called Mitch, with a deadly health cut bill to pitch
So that turd he did shine, with his weak chin and spine
But the public’s not having it, bitch
Jamie… I don’t know who that pissed off Massachusetts Liberal Elite is…. but… oh my… I LOVE HIM/HER!!!
I can understand limiting treatment to basic comfort and care once someone passes the standard three score and ten. When the discomfort causes by trying to prolong life without any real gain in quality of life, it is time to say enough.
Of course this is why I keep pushing for everyone to have a POLST or some legal equivalent. Spare the kids and/or partners the guilt trip strain on their emotions and bank accounts. Make the decisions for them.
Is that coal coming out of s. huckabee sanders’ eyes?
Funny WH press briefing moments today, Sarah can’t hear skype questions, then reads obviously pre-submitted questions.
the vulgar anonymous Massachusets writer needs to get back on meds, maybe consider racisim in his/her backyard
http://gawker.com/5946312/the-most-racist-city-in-america-boston
And thanks for sending us those losers Dukakis and Kerry
Jamie, that tirade from mass. was hilarious. particularly loved the “Those Founding Fathers you keep going on and on about?… Who do you think those wig-wearing, lacy-shirt-sporting revolutionaries were?”
and couldn’t stop laughing at
“And the next time Florida gets hit by a hurricane, you can come crying to us if you want to, but you’re the ones who built on a fucking swamp. “Let the Spanish keep it; it’s a shithole,” we said, but you had to have your fucking orange juice.”
Pop corn time!!!
Oh to have been a fly on the wall,
Seems Tillerson has had enough with stupidity of the Whitehouse staff.
As he is a Texan, I wonder if he used any of LBJ’s favorite terms. Like “dickless pissant”.
It does seem to have gotten under the skin of soninlaw in chief as he told Tillerson’s aid that the outburst was “totally unprofessional” along with some whines and threats. lol
Ya know I think Kushners response says a lot about the Trumpistas. I mean really threatening a man who ran the biggest company in the world when all you ever did was get born into the right family.
I think Tillerson is safe after all what are they going to do? fire him?
Jack
jack, when rex told them
…the president had promised him autonomy to make his own decisions and hires…
bet there were smirks, eye-rolls and stifled guffaws through out the room.
prez promises? ask preet about those.
Massachusetts, next time you want a big dig that America’s taxpayers funded so your corrupt construction companies could build leaky tunnels pay for it with your own stinky clams.
also wonder if the cross-the-board firing of all those well-experienced pros at state was more an edict from the white house cabal than from rex who would know to value expertise over politics.
That guy hit a nerve, Craig…. good!
what’s that you say… clam strips????…. Free Whole Belly Clams or Die!!!
The South fucks itself- no encouragement needed.
ha RR, clams are just glorified snot.
As i’m sure most of you read, the Republican-controlled EPA, despite available scientific data and the consensus of the Pediatric community, denied a petition to ban Chlorpyrifos, a pesticide that retards the mental development of children, along with causing host of immediate reactions to exposure in humans of all ages. It is suspected that the denial of petition was a favor to the CEO of Dow chemical (which manufactures Chlorpyrifos), a vocal and monetary supporter of Trump (vomits in brain).
So, please, dismiss any claims and ignore any arguments that the Republicans give a fuck about your health, your chldren’s health, your grandchildren’s health, your neighbors health, etc. Water is life, and Republicans want to poison it, for profit and power. “Healthcare reform”- ppffft.
Fuck Boston
sorry, that’s the title
Craig… that guy was good… but he ain’t no Lenny Clark or Denis Leary.
Stuffed Quahogs Foreva!!!
and btw Massachusets your bottom-feeding ridiculously expensive lobster scum are full of nothing but mercury poison. Our Southern bottom feeder, the catfish, knows better, tastes better and cheaper. No need for melted butter to pretend it tastes good.
So Craig, you get mugged sometime in the past in Boston? Try spending a week in St. Louis! ;o)
CC loves the South so much, he moved to D.C.
Mass. also was the first state in our union to recognize same-sex marriages.
What ya whining about… eat some lobsta… then when you get up in the middle of the night to take a piss ya don’t need a nightlight…. you can BE the nightlight. Saves on electricity… saves on oil. Ya, ya… I know… Floridians think it’s sunscreen.
Ya know as a person who has caught a few catfish, and knowing their feeding habits, when it comes to “are these fish safe to eat?” I always thought it was better not to ask and just roll them in corn meal and fry them.
Jack
Ya know, speaking just from a tourist pov, The best fish and sea food I’ve had was down in the florida keys, they just seemed to take pride in serving fresh quality sea food.
I found New England hit and miss, the rest of Florida too, also the west coast. South Carolina gave me food poisoning.
But in the Keys good sea food was everywhere.
Jack
Hey guys… I hope you realize that Craig and I are just joking around. After all, he is married to a Massachusetts native. If he meant any of it I’m sure David would slap his head off… right, Craig…
right RR I’m hoping David and family not reading this. Yes we’re just having some regional rivalry fun.
bink, don’t forget JFKs immortal words (like everything else, probably written by Ted Sorenson): “Washington is a town of Northern charm and Southern efficiency”
Clam chowder is potato soup ruined
and for the record my birth state Kentucky didn’t join the Confederacy. In fact my ancestors fought for the Union, none owned slaves.
Hey Craig…. that’s clam chowda!!!!!!
sounding like McConnell’s second effort on a health couldnt-care-less bill also failing
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