Knowing Who To Blame When ACA Premiums Explode

 

If there was any doubt, that headline puts the blame squarely where it lies.  From NBC News:

It’s official: House Speaker Mike Johnson says he won’t call a vote to extend enhanced subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, effectively guaranteeing they will expire at the end of this month.

That means higher insurance premiums will go into effect for millions of Americans who get coverage through Obamacare next year.

The speaker made the announcement Tuesday after a closed-door Republican caucus meeting, saying that leadership failed to reach a deal with centrist members to bring up an ACA amendment on a health care bill set for a vote on Wednesday.

But, do we see a glimmer of hope, with Democrats and some Republicans coming to the rescue?

Some Republicans who want to extend the subsidies have not ruled out signing onto a “discharge petition” by Democrats to end-run Johnson and force a vote on a clean three-year extension of ACA subsidies.

The GOP divisions are likely to empower House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who is insisting on a clean three-year extension with the support of all Democrats. Some Democrats have backed a shorter-term extension with some reforms to win GOP votes, but Jeffries is holding firm.

“There are 214 Democrats who have signed a discharge petition that would force an up-or-down vote on extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits — to make sure that tens of millions of Americans don’t experience increased health insurance premiums that will prevent them from being able to go see a doctor when they need one,” Jeffries said Monday. “All we need are four House Republicans to join us."

But the MAGA Republicans are looking to run out the clock:

Even if a discharge petition secured the votes to pass, which is far from certain, it would take time to reach the House floor. That effectively guarantees it’ll be pushed into next year, with Republicans hoping to adjourn after this week.

Even if all the obstacles were cleared before adjournment, there's virtually no chance the MAGA Republican Senate would pass the ACA tax credit extensions, something they've already voted down.

As Rep. Lawler (R-NY) says in the linked article, "Three-quarters of people on Obamacare are in states Donald Trump won."  That should help make the 2026 mid-terms even more interesting.

BONUS:  They're on the wrong side of public opinion (except for their sociopathic base) and the wrong side of history --

QOTD -- "No Obamacare"

 

Squeaker of the House MAGA Mike "Moses" Johnson (MAGA-LA) wants to assure you that, in addition to killing Roe v. Wade, MAGA Republicans want to kill the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"), because who needs health care anyway?!

“Health care reform’s going to be a big part of the agenda," he said during a campaign event in Pennsylvania for House candidate Ryan Mackenzie, according to footage obtained by NBC News. "When I say we’re going to have a very aggressive first 100 days agenda, we got a lot of things still on the table.

“No Obamacare?” an attendee asked.

“No Obamacare,” Johnson said, reportedly with an eye-roll. “The ACA is so deeply ingrained, we need massive reform to make this work and we got a lot of ideas on how to do that.”...

Yes, and we know what those "concepts of a plan" are, and it would start with essentially repealing the ACA and fashioning a Big Insurance- backed program undermining Medicaid, raising premiums, and eliminating core protections including denying affordable health insurance for people with pre-existing conditions, while expanding programs that benefit primarily wealthy people. If that sounds like the typical Republican punching down to you, you're paying attention.

Behind Trump's Threat To Repeal "Obamacare"

The Malignant Loser has always been envious of and hateful toward former President Obama. From his days of promoting the odious birther claims against Obama, to his relentless campaign to terminate Obama's signature domestic policy achievement, the Affordable Care Act or "Obamacare", the Malignant Loser has a vengeful attitude toward his predecessor. Some have even suggested that Obama's ridicule of the Malignant Loser at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner prompted him to run for President in 2016. His innate racism has been on display going back decades when he was a self-promoting real estate hustler in New York City, as evidenced in the Central Park Five injustice, and his company's redlining of minority renters in New York City during the 1970s.  

Dean Obeidallah has an opinion piece on CNN.com that explores the reasons behind the Malignant Loser's insistent attempts to destroy his predecessor's achievement, which he tried and failed to do in his four miserable years in the Oval Office:

"First, he believes going after the signature achievement of President Obama plays well with his base. The ACA has the support of nearly 60% of Americans, so it might seem an unlikely target of political attack — except for the fact that Obama was extremely unpopular with the GOP base. [snip]

Second, Trump has long appeared obsessed with attacking — and if at all possible undoing — Obama’s legacy.

When Obama left office in January 2017, a CNN poll showed him with a 60% approval rating, landing him near the top of the list of presidential approval ratings upon leaving office. In contrast, Trump left office with a 34% approval rating — the lowest of his term. Those numbers must stick in the craw of a braggadocious man who has always seemed obsessed with being the biggest and the best. [snip]

But there’s another, deeply unsettling possible motive: A racial component may be at play in Trump’s attacks on the legacy of the first Black president.

Some pundits have long expressed the view that Trump often appears to be driven by racism and that a similar motivation may be part of the thinking of his MAGA followers. Trump understands his base better than any of us and — as a master of political divisiveness — he surely knows that attacking Obama will please his supporters."  (our emphasis)

Obeidallah's column is well worth reading, and looks at the Malignant Loser's history of racism and demagoguery in a fuller context. The fact that he doesn't have an alternative replacement for Obama's Affordable Care Act is the clearest sign that he never had anything, and, once again, this is all about his petty grievances and bigotry at the expense of millions of Americans needing affordable health care.

 

Trump Wants To Repeal Obamacare... Again

 

The orange menace, who continues to "ace" his cognitive tests, is proposing a real brilliant idea:  repealing the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"):

Unable to come up with new policy ideas, former president Donald Trump has returned to playing the greatest hits. A case in point: He is once again threatening to repeal Obamacare.

It’s hard to think of a more wrongheaded campaign promise than this, on both political and policy grounds.

To be sure, there was once a time when destroying Obamacare, a.k.a. the Affordable Care Act, was a winning issue for Republicans. For the first few years after the marquee health-care law passed in 2010, many voters despised it. The law’s favorability was underwater in almost every poll for the first six years of its existence.

Such disdain had relatively little to do with what the law actually did. Yes, there was a small slice of the population angered by the loss of cheap, threadbare health coverage that was being phased out. A few other critics had philosophical objections to the law’s objectives — i.e., whether the government should even try to guarantee universal access to insurance, or to specific kinds of health-care services.

But for the most part, it was the GOP’s fearmongering campaigns that gave the law a black eye. Obamacare was a technical and complicated suite of programs, and government complexity is generally an opportunity for demagogues. So demagogue Republicans did, convincing Americans that this scary new statute would kill not only jobs and federal budgets, but somehow even your beloved grandma, too. (Remember “death panels”?)

None of these things came to pass. And while the Obamacare brand might have been unpopular, most of Obamacare’s actual provisions were well-liked. Nearly every major plank of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — such as guaranteeing coverage to people with preexisting conditions, expanding Medicaid, and allowing children to stay on their parents’ insurance plans for longer — was and continues to be favored by the public.

But it's not favored by a Malignant Loser who has only a hateful, destructive, un-American legacy from his dark four years in office.  Being the sociopathic narcissist that he is, he can't stand to see President Obama's most significant achievement survive, regardless of the pain and difficulties it would cause tens of millions of Americans should it go away.  So, apparently, his ego can't be deterred:

Most Republican politicians have now figured out that talking about health care is a political liability, so they’ve shut up about it. In the 2022 midterms, for instance, health care was the second-most-frequently featured topic in Democrats’ campaign ads (behind abortion); in Republicans’ ads, health care did not even crack the top 20 issues, according to data from AdImpact.

Trump hasn’t gotten the message, though. Over the weekend, he declared on social media that the failure to terminate Obamacare during his presidency “was a low point for the Republican Party, but we should never give up!”

Given the popularity of Obamacare, Democrats are already seeing to it that the Malignant Loser's vow to "never give up" trying to end it is part of their 2024 strategy.  They can include it with Republican plans to cut Medicare/ Medicaid and Social Security.

Of course, the pathological liar Malignant Loser and his cult in Congress repeatedly promised a super- duper replacement for Obamacare, but somehow it never materialized during his time in office.  They don't need to be given any more chances.

(Photo illustration: Elizabeth Brockway / The Daily Beast)

Lowering Health Care Costs And Protecting Consumers

 

It's. What. Democrats. Do.  

Here's the key excerpt from yesterday's White House Press Release on new steps being taken by the Biden Administration to lower health care costs, prevent surprise medical billing and unfair medical debt:

• The Biden-Harris Administration is cracking down on junk insurance.  New proposed rules would close loopholes that the previous administration took advantage of that allow companies to offer misleading insurance products that can discriminate based on pre-existing conditions and trick consumers into buying products that provide little or no coverage when they need it most.  These plans leave families surprised by thousands of dollars in medical expenses when they actually  use health care services like a surgery.  If finalized, the rule would limit so-called “short-term” plans to truly short time periods, close loopholes made worse by the previous administration, and establish a clear disclosure for consumers of the limits of these plans.
   
• The Administration is releasing important guidance on rules against surprise medical billing. Biden-Harris Administration rules are already preventing as many as 1 million surprise medical bills every month.  New guidance will help stop providers from gaming the system by evading the surprise billing rules with creative contractual loopholes that still leave consumers with unexpected costs.
   
• The Administration is announcing new steps to protect consumers from unfair medical debt. For the first time in history, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, HHS, and Treasury are collaborating to explore whether health care provider and third-party efforts to encourage consumers to sign up for medical credit cards and loans are operating outside of existing consumer protections and breaking the law. Medical credit cards and loans often lead to higher costs without consumers fully understanding the risks.

More detail and background at the link.

It's revealing of their nihilistic, sociopathic political culture that when the Republican/ Seditionist/ Forced Birth party is in power, they try to take away health insurance entirely, or in the Malignant Loser's administration, allow loopholes for people to be sold junk insurance from GQP donors.  Once again, the contrast couldn't be clearer who has the best interests of the nation and its people at heart.

Affordable Care Act Open Enrollment Starts Tomorrow

 

David Anderson has some helpful advice for the Affordable Care Act Open Enrollment Period:

The ACA Open Enrollment Period (OEP) starts tomorrow for Healthcare.gov and most of the state based marketplaces.  Idaho allowed shopping earlier in October.  During OEP you can switch plans for any reason.  You can buy a plan for any reason.

Here are a few things to remember:

• • Health insurance is complicated and complex so go get help
  • Navigators are government funded helpers who can’t make a specific recommendation but can help reduce complexity
  • Agents and brokers can make specific recommendations but they work on commission/premium while they are only required to give good advice not optimal advice.
  • Take your time
  • Open Enrollment goes through at least December 15th for all markets and through January 15 for Healthcare.gov
  • Be ready to accept good enough instead of perfect.
  • Look around and actively choose

healthcare.gov is the secure portal to begin with should you want to switch plans or buy a new plan, or just want  to compare plans or need more information.

Breakthrough On Climate / Prescription Drug / ACA Bill

Late yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer and conservative Dem Sen. Joe Manchin announced that they had reached a deal on legislation that would fund climate change initiatives, allow Medicare to negotiate on drug prices, and bolster the Affordable Care Act. Calling the legislation (snicker) "The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022" (obviously a sop to inflation-obsessed Manchin), the funding would come from closing loopholes for major corporations and wealthy individuals, without raising taxes on people making $400,000 or less. According to Schumer, the bill would reduce the deficit by $300 billion and cut Federal spending on prescription drugs by $288 billion. Significantly, the $369 billion committed for climate and energy projects could reduce carbon emissions by 40% by 2030. President Biden voiced his support for the legislation, after months of setbacks and Manchin's opposition to Biden's original, broader "Build Back Better" proposal.

Assuming all Senate Democrats support the legislation, the bill would be passed under budget reconciliation rules, which requires a simple majority vote only, and would go back to the House for consideration. The NY Times article reports that Manchin apparently agreed to the deal after getting a concession on a pet project of his:

"One possible clue to Mr. Manchin’s change of heart came in a line of his joint announcement with Mr. Schumer that they had secured a commitment from both Mr. Biden and Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California that Congress would approve a separate measure to address the permitting of energy infrastructure, potentially including natural gas pipelines, before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

That could ease the way for a project in which Mr. Manchin has taken a personal interest, the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which would transport Appalachian shale gas from West Virginia to Virginia."  (our emphasis)

"Inflation Reduction" indeed. But we won't be churlish;  if this legislation is enacted, it will represent a landmark achievement for Biden and Dems. Now, if they can just run on that major accomplishment and not blow it.

BONUS:  the deal has the added schadenfreude of foiling "Grim Reaper" Moscow Mitch McConnell's pledge to obstruct it in conjunction with the superconductor bill, which passed the Senate yesterday.

(photo: Manchin and Schumer dealing. Patrick Semansky / AP)

 

Republican Supreme Court Won't Decide Obamacare Case Until After Election

The Republican Supreme Court:  helping Republicans win elections since 2000:

The Supreme Court quietly denied a motion on Tuesday that sought to hustle along a case asking the courts to repeal the Affordable Care Act in its entirety.

The denial keeps the case alive while almost certainly delaying any reckoning on it until after the 2020 election. Though the Court may still hear the case, it’s unlikely to decide the case until 2021 at the earliest.

In practical terms, that’s a double victory for Republicans: It leaves open the possibility that Obamacare will be killed by a judicial decree, but spares Republican candidates from the media spotlight that would come from a high-profile Supreme Court fight involving a challenge to the Affordable Care Act.  (our emphasis)

This must not stop Democrats from making health care, and specifically the Republican aim to kill the Affordable Care Act and take health insurance away from millions of Americans, a major issue in the 2020 election.  It's simply another example of Republican power politics treachery and that party's adherence to the principle of "afflicting the afflicted and comforting the comfortable."  Don't spare them "the media spotlight;"  focus it on them relentlessly.

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

Ryan Cooper writes about how the rotted- out Republican Party is determined to take health insurance away from millions of Americans:

... If Trump wins reelection, he will very likely be able to replace Ruth Bader Ginsberg on the Supreme Court, and that will almost certainly spell doom for the law (with this lawsuit or another one). If that happens, something like 20 million people will lose their insurance immediately — as Medicaid is drastically rolled back, the exchanges are shut down, and anybody between 18 and 25 who is still on their parents' coverage is kicked off. Protections for people with preexisting conditions would be removed, and private insurers could once again place annual and lifetime coverage limits on their policies.

The slow-motion collapse of the private health insurance system would accelerate as well, as cost-control policies designed to slow the cancerous cost bloat that is eating the American economy from the inside would be deleted. More broadly, there would be spectacular chaos within the health care system, which was totally overhauled to accommodate ObamaCare changes — and this time there will be no guiding hand from Congress.

So while there is a never-ending parade of war crimes, corruption, and general insanity from the Trump regime to distract us, let's not forget that Republicans are also gunning for your health insurance. If they can't take it away, by God they'll make it as crummy and expensive as possible.

Preserving affordable health insurance will be a key defining issue in 2020, as it was in the 2018 mid- term blue wave elections. 

Frida Ghitis thinks 2019 was a turning point in the battle for democracy in Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America.  But:

The pivotal contest is taking place in the United States, the country whose deep democratic roots make it well-equipped to defy the authoritarian trend. The United States remains a vigorous democracy, but it, too, is one of the nations where democracy, according to Freedom House, “has weakened significantly,” thanks in part to a president who launches incessant attacks “on the rule of law, fact-based journalism, and other principles and norms of democracy." This year, that president, Donald Trump, was impeached in a historic vote. Although the chance that legislators will remove him from office remains almost nonexistent, impeachment signaled that many Americans strongly reject his assault on democratic norms. The 2020 election will determine whether the nation that has been an icon of global freedom will shift to a democratic path or continue on the rutted road to authoritarianism, which would have ominous implications for freedom around the world.

The 2016 election was the most important election in American history in at least 80 years;  2020 will be even more important.  If affordable health insurance is a key issue, Trump's and Republicans' assault on American democracy will be the key theme.

American agriculture is experiencing a one- two punch from nitwit Donald "Rump" Trump's trade wars and climate change:

US farmers have taken a particularly harsh beating this year from a one-two punch of nasty flooding exacerbated by climate change and a trade war with China.

Severe floods spurred by record rainfall soaked the southeast and the Midwest this summer, delaying plantings of corn and soy crops. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that the 12-month period ending in May of this year was the wettest 12 months on record in the United States. (NOAA’s full climate and weather assessment for 2019 will be available in January.) Flooding on the Mississippi River this year also set records for how long it lasted in several locations.

In August, the US Department of Agriculture reported that farmers weren’t able to plant more than 19.4 million acres of cropland in 2019, the most since reporting began in 2007. Most of this area was spread across 12 states in the Midwest and Great Plains.

The late planting pushed back harvests, leaving the crops still standing vulnerable to freezing. Historic autumn rainfall then further drenched the region, leading farmers in states like Minnesota and North Dakota to abandon tens of thousands of acres of crops, including potatoes and sugar beets.

The ongoing trade war with China has also hammered crop sales. Chinese imports of US agriculture products fell by nearly 20 percent, and the Trump administration has responded with close to $28 billion in aid for farmers hurt by foreign tariffs. (The Environmental Working Group found that big, industrial-scale farms, rather than family farms, are getting the majority of those funds.)

A lot of the farmers who voted for Trump will still vote for him because he hates the same people they do;  but don't be surprised if the added chaos Trump brings to the table doesn't peel off a not- insignificant number of them.

For a more comprehensive reading list, we recommend Infidel 753's link round- up (which is where we found the story on struggles in American agriculture, above).  Always worth the visit, both for the round- up and for his other posts.

Trump's Assault On The Constitution And Laws Intensifies

Two stories today to point to that demonstrate the willingness of would- be autocrat Donald "Rump" Trump and his party of hyenas to trample on the Constitution and on a law of the land (our emphasis throughout).

Congress "Has No Standing" To Investigate Trump

The White House’s top lawyer told the House Judiciary Committee chairman Wednesday that Congress has no right to a “do-over” of the special counsel’s investigation of President Trump and refused a broad demand for records and testimony from dozens of current and former White House staff.

White House Counsel Pat Cipollone’s letter to committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) constitutes a sweeping rejection — not just of Nadler’s request for White House records, but of Congress’s standing to investigate Trump for possible obstruction of justice. In his letter, Cipollone repeated a claim the White House and Trump’s business have begun making: that Congress is not a law enforcement body and does not have a legitimate purpose to investigate the questions it is pursuing. 

The Sabotage of the Affordable Care Act Continues

The Sunlight Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to keeping government transparent and accountable, and this report is part of its Web Integrity Project, which tracks government websites. This study has "documented 26 instances of ACA censorship—including excised words, removed links, altered paragraphs, and removed pages—on HHS websites." Furthermore, it reports, this "may represent only a small sample of the censorship that has occurred since President Trump took office." The censorship is widespread, with information that was intended for the general public, for prospective customers, for beneficiaries, and for providers and insurers all removed. That includes HHS having "surgically removed the term ‘Affordable Care Act’ from many webpages; taken down information on rights guaranteed under the ACA; eliminated statistics and data on the ACA's impact; and removed links to the federal government's main platform for enrolling in ACA coverage, HealthCare.gov."

The deletions, tracked with the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine on pages monitored by Sunlight, seem intended to make it much harder for people to find out about eligibility for ACA coverage, how to sign up, and what benefits are available. More troubling, Sunlight says, the information that has been systematically removed is particularly relevant to women and to people of color, as well as to LGBTQ people and people with mental illness—in other words, the most underserved communities, and those who've gained the most through Obamacare.

 As we and others are saying, the lights aren't flashing yellow any more; they're on red.

Tweets Of The Day

We are now learning Trump embraced the lawsuit that could destroy the health system in part *to please his base.*

The emerging accounts of these talks are extraordinary. Yet we've all grown numb to the depravity and unfitness on display.

My new piece:https://t.co/LZhjfVdZaT

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) March 28, 2019

A base that really, really gets off on the suffering of others. https://t.co/gnRGoCpZfb

— Schooley (@Rschooley) March 29, 2019

We'll see how long his base is pleased, when "others" turns out to be them:

Somehow I think at least one of these people is enrolled in the ACA and many have pre-existing conditions👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/4oLCPIKiqz

— Winston Smith (@gaslightingus2) March 28, 2019

I'm watching MSNBC at the moment and anchor Bryan Williams just said according to his stats 3 out of 5 voters who voted for #Trump in 2016 are on A.C.A.   Now if those voters lose their healthcare coverage will they be upset or will they still be loyal to #Trump ?

— Stevoreno (@BigStevo29) March 29, 2019

Sorry, we don't feel one damn ounce of sympathy for any of them.

Republicans In Disarray After Trump Supports Killing Affordable Care Act

The current "thought" rattling around inside the empty head of Putin's useful idiot (and all- around idiot) Donald "Not Exonerated" Trump is that he now has "political capital" to spend after "Coverup General" Barr wrote his whitewash letter on the Mueller report.  As we noted yesterday, he immediately took his presumed "political capital" and handed it right back to Democrats by supporting the striking down of the Affordable Care Act, which would kill affordable health insurance for nearly 30 million Americans.

His rotted out Republican Party thought they had a powerful message going into the 2020 election: "Those socialist Democrats want pie- in- the- sky single- payer health insurance and we reasonable Republicans will just tinker around the edges to make the system better!  Freedumb!"  Now, thanks to their Very Stable Genius' decision to support striking down the ACA in toto, their party has been lashed to the gunwales of the S.S. Titanic Trump.  Gone would be coverage for pre- existing conditions;  gone would be Medicaid expansion;  gone would be subsidies for premiums and deductibles;  gone would be the safety net for nearly 30 million Americans who've come to enjoy such life- saving benefits over time.  Also gone?  Future health care savings from a system that delivered $2.3 trillion in reduced health care spending from 2010 to 2017.

The panic level for Republicans who already know what Dimbulb Donnie apparently doesn't -- that Democrats ran on protecting health care in 2018 and won big -- is sure to increase as polling continues to show that Americans don't want Republicans messing around with their health insurance.  Here's yesterday's Quinnipiac poll:

American voters say 55 - 32 percent they would prefer to improve rather than replace the health care system in the U.S. No listed group prefers replacing the health care system. 

(Single- payer has strong support (43%), but still isn't the majority opinion.)

So, the Very Stable Genius has, once again, wrong- footed the message his bad faith party wanted to ride into 2020, and (schadenfreude alert) it's causing alarm in the ranks of the sociopaths:

Over the past 24 hours, Republican officials have watched in horror as the Trump administration once again fully embraced the repeal of Obamacare, just over a year after the issue proved toxic for the party at the ballot box. [snip]

GOP officials couldn’t help but marvel at Trump’s inability to enjoy a rare grace period. “They are completely tone deaf,” texted one of the party’s top strategists. “How bout a few more victory laps on Mueller while you can get away with it? WTF is wrong with them?”

But seasoned Trump hands were hardly surprised at the rake Trump had placed his foot on. “And there’s something unusual about him stepping on a good message?” one former administration official said, laughing when asked about the timing of the announcement. [snip]

As such, the department’s new position set off alarm bells among Republicans who had spent much of the 2018 election cycle trying to alleviate voter concerns that their attempts at health care overhaul would—contrary to the likely outcomes—leave those with preexisting conditions vulnerable to the whims of private insurers. Fergus Cullen, the former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee and a critic of the party’s approach to Obamacare repeal, compared the rejoining of the debate to the famous battle-of-wits scene in The Princess Bride.

“The one,” Cullen stressed, “where he talks about the rules that you should never get into a land war in Asia.”

Meanwhile, rational people (a.k.a., the Democratic Party) will be working to strengthen the ACA, providing a sharp contrast to the sabotaging efforts of Republicans over the past few years.  Until we get a new Senate and a Democratic President, though, the ACA remains in peril and improvements such as single- payer remain a goal to be fought for.

BONUS:  An "anonymous Republican Senator" (stay spineless!) wants nothing to do with Trump's latest genius move.  Too late, jackass!  You own this.

BONUS II:  Oops.  Now it's the top Republican in the House telling Trump to back off.  You can almost smell the panic.

Trump Regime Wants Affordable Care Act Struck Down (UPDATED)

The bastards are feeling emboldened:

The Trump administration on Monday said the entire Affordable Care Act should be struck down, in a dramatic reversal.

In a filing with a federal appeals court, the Justice Department said it agreed with the ruling of a federal judge in Texas that invalidated the Obama-era health care law.

In a letter Monday night, the administration said "it is not urging that any portion of the district court's judgment be reversed." [snip]

It's a major shift for the Justice Department from when Jeff Sessions was attorney general. At the time, the administration argued that the community rating rule and the guaranteed issue requirement -- protections for people with pre-existing conditions -- could not be defended but the rest of the law could stand.

After the Justice Department took that position, federal District Judge Reed O'Connor struck down the entire law and the case is currently before a federal appeals court.

Trump and the administration repeatedly promised -- particularly leading up to the midterm election -- to protect people with less-than-perfect medical histories.

But this shift in the Justice Department's stance doubles down on stripping away all the protections that were a hallmark of the landmark heath reform law.

Overturning the law would have far-reaching consequences -- way beyond disrupting coverage for the millions of people who get their health insurance on the exchanges or through Medicaid expansion.

Obamacare saves senior citizens money on their Medicare coverage and prescription drugs. It lets many Americans obtain free birth control, mammograms and cholesterol tests. And it allows children to stay on their parents' health insurance plans until they turn 26.  (our emphasis)

The case is in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which covers judicial districts in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi and is considered one of the most conservative of the 13 U.S. courts of appeals.  It's unclear, though, that the "unmoored" legal judgement by crackpot Texas Judge O'Connor, now supported by the unmoored Trump regime, will pass the smell test even with this court top- heavy with Republican appointees.  Either way, it will be appealed to the Supreme Court, especially if the law is struck down.  This is an issue that touches so many peoples' lives that it's almost inconceivable that the courts would be so mindless of the impact of scuttling health insurance for so many million Americans.  But, there's already been one jackass judge who thought nothing of it, and we all know the Republican ethos: "Afflict the afflicted, comfort the comfortable."

Health care was a major issue for voters in the 2018 mid- terms, and Democrats running for President are making health care a major issue for 2020.  If in the unlikely but possible event the ACA ("Obamacare") is struck down -- without a replacement! -- the Republicans will be handing Democrats a huge cudgel to beat them with, and rightly so. 

UPDATE:  Not standing for it --

Days before the election, Republicans aired ads pretending to defend health care.

Today, they have a new message: people don't deserve quality health care and insurance companies should discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions.

We *will* fight tooth and nail. https://t.co/wD2crNucfa

— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) March 26, 2019

Trump Adviser Surprised When CEOs Don't Follow The Trickle Down Script

As Senate Republicans prepare to introduce their "wealthfare" tax bill, which proposes to end the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate just to shovel $300 billion more in tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy, it appears not all corporate CEOs are on board with the Republican trickle- down script that tax cuts will magically boost the economy and job growth.

Here's how one smarmy Trumper got the message:

President Trump's top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, looked out from the stage at a sea of CEOs and top executives in the audience Tuesday for the Wall Street Journal's CEO Council meeting. As Cohn sat comfortably onstage, a Journal editor asked the crowd to raise their hands if their company plans to invest more if the tax reform bill passes. 

Very few hands went up. 

Cohn looked surprised. “Why aren't the other hands up?” he said.

This is the former Goldman Sachs head who weaseled around when his boss said Charlottesville neo- Nazis are "good people" and both sides were responsible for violence, but who stuck with the regime in order to get tax breaks for himself and his billionaire donor class. Yet, as the "top economic adviser," he doesn't have a clue what the reality is, even in his own insulated world. Somehow that fits the pattern.

Make no mistake. Both the Senate and House Republican tax packages are the opening wedge to gut the social safety net while benefitting the Kochs and Mercers of the world, and their agenda.  It's a fight we can't afford to let them win.

Tweet Of The Day - Another Republican Stab At Health Care

🚨 BREAKING: Tax bill will repeal the individual mandate:
- 13 million more uninsured
- $1,990 premium tax
- Insurer exodus from markets
ALL TO PAY FOR TAX CUTS FOR CORPORATIONS AND MILLIONAIRES

— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) November 14, 2017

This is the proposed Senate Republican tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy bill (the "Republicans' Afflict the Afflicted and Comfort the Comfortable Act of 2017 and Every Year").

Get ready to man the phones again, folks!

Trump's Health Care Sabotage Ramps Up

Sociopathic "f*cking moron" Donald "Rump" Trump thinks he's the smartest guy in any room. Why, he's so clever he'll not only provide incentives for young, healthier people to abandon Affordable Care Act policies, he's going to end the subsidies that allow low income people to afford health insurance!

President Donald Trump plans to halt payments to health insurance companies serving the poorest customers on the Obamacare exchanges, the White House announced Thursday. 

Trump has threatened to withhold these funds, valued at $7 billion this year, since shortly after his election victory last November. The threats alone have roiled the health insurance market, and if he follows through, it promises to be significantly disruptive. Trump will make an announcement Friday, according to Politico, which first reported the news.

By taking this step, the moron thinks he's getting "leverage" with Democrats:

The Democrats ObamaCare is imploding. Massive subsidy payments to their pet insurance companies has stopped. Dems should call me to fix!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 13, 2017

To us, that looks like he's taking the health insurance of millions of Americans hostage while he's slowly strangling it. And only he, the "f*cking moron," can fix it!

With this action, and the action taken yesterday to allow cheap, shorter term "no-surance," Rump is going against the wishes of the vast majority of Americans who want the Affordable Care Act continued and improved, not gutted.  From the Kaiser Health Tracking Poll:

A large share of Americans (78 percent) think President Trump and his administration should do what they can to make the current health care law work while few (17 percent) say they should do what they can to make the law fail so they can replace it later. 

He still apparently thinks he can force Democrats to go along with a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, while shifting the blame for any disruptions or pain to Democrats. Here's Jonathan Chait's take on that:

The trouble is that every plan Trump has supported would throw even more people off their insurance than his sabotage would. There is no political or policy incentive for them [Democrats] to give him political cover for policies to deny Americans health insurance. Their incentive is to highlight the sabotage that he is boasting about, and fight. 

The Medicaid expansion, which accounts for a majority of the law’s coverage gains, remains in place and is not vulnerable to administrative sabotage. Individual consumers are going to experience a lot of financial pain as a result of Trump’s action. As premiums rise in response to the sabotage, the main public recourse will be to replace the Republican-led government with one capable of passing a workable and humane health-care law. (our emphasis)

While we eagerly await Democrats' highlighting the Rump- and- Republican sabotage and the opportunity to vote this collection of nihilist, vicious goons out of office, some States are already setting up a firewall to protect the subsidies, New York and California for starters.  The same groups that opposed Republican efforts to repeal the Act can be counted on to push back on this latest piece of cruelty. Not only is this is a war we can win, it's a war we must win.

Once again into the breach:  Especially, if you have a Republican Senator or Congresscritter, first of all our condolences, but please call their office and tell them you want the cost- sharing reduction payments made under the Affordable Care Act. Look them up here and here. Thank you!

BONUS: "Chuck and Nancy," hopefully chastened by the latest act of Rumpian double- dealing and  sabotage, issued a joint statement:

“Sadly, instead of working to lower health costs for Americans, it seems President Trump will singlehandedly hike Americans’ health premiums. It is a spiteful act of vast, pointless sabotage leveled at working families and the middle class in every corner of America. Make no mistake about it, Trump will try to blame the Affordable Care Act, but this will fall on his back and he will pay the price for it. 

“President Trump has apparently decided to punish the American people for his inability to improve our health care system. Trumpcare collapsed because Americans overwhelmingly recognized the cruelty and higher costs it meant for them and their loved ones.  Now, millions of hard-working American families will suffer just because President Trump wants them to. 

“If these reports are true, the President is walking away from the good faith, bipartisan Alexander-Murray negotiations and risking the health care of millions of Americans.”

"If these reports are true..."  Really, now.

BONUS: Charles Pierce on the vile people going along with this --

This is a philosophical revulsion against the very idea of a social safety net. The president* may be acting out of id-based contempt and bone-deep ignorance. But the support he's getting for his actions from all the people who otherwise are laughing at him behind his back and hoping that he doesn't start World War III in such a way that it can be hung on them in the next election is deliberate and calculated. It is a premeditated catastrophe visited on people whom Paul Ryan believes in the darkness of his soul and in the shadows of his mind do not deserve the help of the government of which they are a part. They just found a useful hatchetman to serve an agenda of ruthless sadism.

(Image:  The damage a "f*cking moron" with a pen can do.)

Time To Start Calling It Trumpcare Now?

The campaign of sabotage that moron sociopath Donald "Rump" Trump and his gaggle of despicable goons are carrying out against the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a., Obamacare) has taken another step today -- back toward the bad old days:

President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday intended to allow small businesses and potentially individuals to buy a long-disputed type of health insurance that skirts state regulations and Affordable Care Act protections. [snip]

... The order represents Trump’s biggest step to carry out a broad but ill-defined directive he issued his first night in office for agencies to lessen ACA regulations from the Obama administration. 

Critics, who include state insurance commissioners, most of the health-insurance industry and mainstream policy specialists, predict that a proliferation of such health plans will have damaging ripple effects: driving up costs for consumers with serious medical conditions and prompting more insurers to flee the law’s marketplaces. 

The executive order would have to be implemented by Federal regulations and then face challenges in court. Elements, however, could be in place for the 2019 coverage open period.

Vox has detailed the efforts being made by Rump and his fellow degenerates to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, via shortening the open enrollment period and cutting spending on advertising and assistance efforts, all with the goal of reducing participation in ACA plans and triggering a "death spiral" of higher premiums and ever- lower young and healthy enrollees.  So shrinking enrollment is an enormous threat to the viability of the market, and that's why it's the best target of opportunity for these shits.

Meanwhile, the Affordable Care Act is supported more strongly than ever, with 52% of Americans viewing it favorably (versus 39% -- i.e., Republicans and possibly some single payer cultists). In another poll from this summer:

... But voters don’t want Trump and the GOP to let the existing insurance market falter if Obamacare remains law. Fifty-nine percent of voters want Congress to make any changes necessary to the Affordable Care Act to ensure it does not fail...

Of course, the compulsion to obliterate anything with the name "Obama" on it, no matter the cost, is what's going on here in the moron's seriously damaged brain, since he's ignorant of policy on any level and can't be bothered to care about the impacts (he's a sociopath after all).

It's been suggested, with the signing of today's egregious executive order, that Rump has taken personal responsibility for the fate of the ACA.  We think that's a reasonable assessment, too. If Rump and Republicans break it now, they own it. Therefore, let us resolve to call the ACA what it is, in "honor" of the moron who has its fate in his tiny hands:  Trumpcare.

Poll: Republicans Will Own Any Future Problems With Health Care Reform

From a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll conducted from 5/16 - 5/22 (click on image to enlarge):



The cynical, sociopathic game Republicans have been playing with their Obamacare "repeal and replace" rhetoric, now enshrined in their abominable TrumpCare bill ("American Health Care Act"), is catching up to them. Whatever further damage they do, with the selfish aim of providing tax cuts for the wealthy while killing a key Democratic reform, will be brought down on their heads at the polls; it's a case even the most inept Democrat shouldn't be able to screw up, because it's already been made for them in the minds of most voters.

Tweet Of The Day - "The Fight Isn't Over Yet"

We're Hackwhackers and we approve this message (click on image to enlarge):

Today was a victory for all Americans. pic.twitter.com/LX6lzQXtBR

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 24, 2017

To all who showed up -- whether in marches, town hall meetings, letters, emails or phone calls -- we thank you too.

What's On The Agenda Today In Trump's America?

What are the evil bastards up to now?

Rolling back protections for transgender students:

President Donald Trump’s administration announced on Wednesday that it will no longer bar schools from discriminating against transgender students, rescinding a policy put in place by the previous administration. [snip]

[Trump Press Secretary "Spicy" Sean] Spicer said Tuesday that the president considered transgender rights to be “a states’ rights issue and not one for the federal government.”  

“I find it obscene that Mr. Spicer would characterize the well-being, the health and the very safety of transgender young people as an issue of states’ rights,” responded Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. “The fact is that no child in America should have their rights subject to their zip code.”  

Providing the "freedom" of living without affordable health insurance:

As with their "socialized medicine" scary blabber when Medicare/ Medicaid was introduced 50 years ago, the far right has the same talking point:

Freedom is the ability to buy what you want to fit what you need. Obamacare is Washington telling you what to buy regardless of your needs.

— Paul Ryan (@PRyan) February 21, 2017

Fortunately, we have things called "facts" and "history":

More than half a century later, Medicare hasn’t created a totalitarian dystopia. Instead, it has allowed generations of seniors to access the medical care they need, while sparing them the hardship and indignity of financial ruin. That’s arguably a huge increase in freedom, much like the Affordable Care Act seeks to deliver now.

Or, what she said:

Don't pretend ACA is like making everyone buy a car with a sunroof. It makes sure dealers can't sell you a car without brakes. https://t.co/K6rNwKJsUZ

— Deborah Roseman (@roseperson) February 22, 2017

Sending out the Trump Deportation Squad to terrorize immigrants:

The Department of Homeland Security Tuesday laid out the Trump administration's plans for aggressive enforcement of immigration laws, including a potentially massive expansion of the number of people detained and deported. [snip] 

The fundamental shift in US policy will likely continue to provoke fear in immigrant communities of a vast expansion of the government's use of its enforcement powers to potentially deport undocumented immigrants who have lived in their communities for years, and may have family members who are legal US residents or citizens.

Some of these "aggressive enforcement" actions sound more like the actions of sadists with axes to grind.

Remember, these are the same hypocrites who believe in "family values" and the "sanctity of life," at least before birth and only if you're of the Christian Caucasian persuasion.

Letting the fox "guard" the environmental chicken coop:

As Oklahoma’s attorney general, Scott Pruitt, now the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, closely coordinated with major oil and gas producers, electric utilities and political groups with ties to the libertarian billionaire brothers Charles G. and David H. Koch to roll back environmental regulations, according to over 6,000 pages of emails made public on Wednesday. 

The publication of the correspondence comes just days after Mr. Pruitt was sworn in to run the E.P.A., which is charged with reining in pollution and regulating public health. Senate Democrats tried last week to postpone a final vote until the emails could be made public, but Republicans beat back the delay and approved his confirmation on Friday largely along party lines.

Nice touch that the party- before- country Senate Republicans rushed ahead to confirm Pruitt before the emails could be introduced at his confirmation hearing, not that it would've changed the outcome.

All of this is churning while we wait for the truth to come out on the Rump- Putin connection (stay tuned for our next post). No wonder they're moving so fast.

BONUS:  Seth Meyers on Rump's wall and immigration policies --

A CLOSER LOOK at Trump's wall and immigration policies https://t.co/u2x7wp4gpW

— Seth Meyers (@sethmeyers) February 23, 2017