The Oligarchy's Health Care Insurance Scam has got to END!

health care scam.jpg

I haven't had the time nor inclination to read much about the Trump/republican health insurance scam plan but I've read enough to know what I thought I'd know. It's even worse than Obamacare, will end up costing more with less benefits, Medicaid will be cut paving the way for Medicare cuts, and the rich FUCKERS THAT RULE OUR LIVES will make out like the sociopathic bandits they are.

That's all I need to know.

This sucks. This is unacceptable. It seems like this should be the red line, at least A red line. They've been fucking around with this forever, like since Hillary Clinton as First War Lady, then we had a chance for single payer (it was at least in the public consciousness) but got Obamacare which further institutionalized the ripoff insurance system over our HEALTH AND LIVES.

Now we have a REPUBLICAN CONTROLLED CONGRESS AND SENATE and a narcissistic idiot for president who are proposing this bullshit!

I said when we were debating Obamacare that we had better oppose what they were doing and demand single payer or we'd be stuck with it for at least ten to fifteen years. I was wrong, sort of, it's only been seven years. But if Trump and the republicans get their way, we'll be stuck with something worse.

As one who has followed this for years, thought about it rationally, and have no vested interest in the business side of health care, to me this is a travesty of immense proportions. It's also a central part of the ideological battle going on for humanity.

It's too important. It's crucial. I've held out for bigger things, like taking them down completely, the "deep state", the plutocracy, the political system. I still want that, but I'm 61 and have to go to the doctor more and now I'm getting PISSED! (Listen to me young folks because you too, will get old).

Ya, sometimes that's how reality hits you.

We have to find a way to end this scam and it has to be now.

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Big Al's picture

which is what it will have to be because the democratic party will not do what it takes, which is demand single payer. The majority of the country would be in favor of single payer if asked in a non biased manner. If we had a national referendum system, we could vote on this ourselves. The opposition to this can't be led by the democratic party and their politicians. Anyone know of any efforts going on now?

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karl pearson's picture

@Big Al There is an organization called Physicians for a National Health Program that advocates for Single Payer health care. I'm sure there are other organizations. I'm hoping that more docs and other health care professionals get fed up with Corporate Medicine and join this "club". In many areas, corporations have been buying up community hospitals, physicians clinics, labs, and physical/occupational therapy services, etc. Prices have increased dramatically after the corporate takeovers.

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Big Al's picture

@karl pearson @karl pearson

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@karl pearson

also supports Medicare for All.

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@HenryAWallace and here is a link to their petition:

We the undersigned residents of the United States of America demand guaranteed healthcare through the improved Medicare for All program. We want to choose our own healthcare providers and accept comprehensive health benefits including doctor visits, hospitalization, prescription drugs, dental and vision care, without interference from insurance companies or personal co-pays. Our lives depend on it.

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riverlover's picture

5 weeks of a broken foot, finally cleared for surgery to implant stainless steel in my foot. 5 weeks of pain. But at least that "labs" came back clean for this nearly-64 y/o. Good NYS insurance, so here is that. Anyway, good to do, although I need to take my MOLST form. OMG.

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Big Al's picture

@riverlover

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riverlover's picture

@Big Al And I have urges to nest-build, that I am trying to tamp down. Like tree-planting with a screwed-up foot. Call of the wild? Mildly wild with pain for over a month is tiresome. I have friggen opiates for post-surgical, if needed to go into that zone. Otherwise No. But I probably have enough pills now that I should get a gun to protect my stash. This is what pain does. I am a mild person, mindful. Wild in the jungle now.

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earthling1's picture

@riverlover all day Monday. Good luck riverlover.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

riverlover's picture

@earthling1 But they are asking me for my MOLST form (other states it's POLST). I am not DNR on my MOLST. Daughter who is an RN @ hospital and signed off on MOLST will be there. She is studying to be an NP. I am not worth that much that she would pull plugs.

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Alphalop's picture

@riverlover

after living with what basically feels like one of those viscous cramps one gets in ones foot or calf, but in your entire upper right torso, since 2007.

It suuuucks....

It certainly changed me a lot, I am nowhere near the extroverted, hyper-active social butterfly that I once was, lol!

On the upside, it really brought home how badly we "Treat" those that live with chronic pain.

For example, I have never even gotten so much as a parking ticket in my entire life, yet every time I go to Pain Management or the pharmacy I am treated like a drug seeking junkie.

The fact that I seldom take the pills and stretch a one month prescription to 10/12 weeks because I hate taking the fucking things (and the hours sitting in the damn waiting room, pissing in a cup due to presumption of guilt without a cause for reasonable suspicion of abuse) has no relevance.

"You're taking opiates? Junkie..." seems to be the medical meme, facts be damned.

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"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

snoopydawg's picture

the elites have wanted to roll back the new deal since FDR created it.
The democrats and Obama had the chance to fix the health care of this country for good, but as usual we got screwed.
They did have the votes for single payer because they passed it without one republican voting for it, but they kept letting the republicans water it down and telling us that it was because they needed their votes.
Then they gave it to Baucus who had Liz Fowler from WellPoint on his staff and she helped write it.
We also learned that while the democrats were working on it, Obama was making deals with the insurance and pharmaceutical companies and giving them everything they wanted.
Many of us did try to fight against what the democrats was doing remember? We called, emailed and signed petitions trying to get their attention but they ignored us.
And after it came out and we saw how shitty it was, we were told to STFU because we didn't get our f 'cking pony.
And we were told that it was a step towards single payer. Before I left DK, I kept asking people if that was true, then who has been working on making the ACA better the last 6 years?

As you wrote, they are going after Medicaid first because it's going to affect 'those' people who don't work hard enough to get out of poverty.

You are right that this should be our red line, but too many people hate 'Obamacare' because their premiums and deductibles went way up.
Wait until they see what type of rates they are going to be paying after the republicans gut the best parts of it.

Off topic, but still important. They are going to cut $9 billion from the HUD budget. The program has so little money in it already and this is going to cause great harm to the people who depend on the program.
People who need help with housing are already waiting years to get either a housing voucher or a place that HUD runs.

The democrats aren't going to do shit for us as you stated. Look at how many voted for Carson to run it. Warren said that she voted for him because Trump might have put some else less qualified to run it. Who the hell could be worse than Carson?
Bohica big time!

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Lily O Lady's picture

@snoopydawg

ACA as it was being written. When it was reported in the news that the public option was off the table, people higher up in the party were telling us that it wasn't true. Ha!

Still I bought the "nowhere else to go" line until Bernie came along. Well that and John Lewis saying that Democrats don't want free stuff. It was then impossible for me to believe that Dems believed in anything.

I see the two parties as two tentacles of the Vampire Squid. Nothing they do will be for the benefit of the 99%. If Dems has passed Medicare for all I wouldn't feel this way. Instead they gave us Romneycare. I'm done cheerleading for those crooks.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

earthling1's picture

@snoopydawg endorsed Clinton I went on GOS and simply asked; "Who would continue to go to PP if we had single payer for all"?
I was promptly hide rated, and since banned.
Ya can't even ask those fuckers a question.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

thanatokephaloides's picture

@earthling1

When Richards with Planned Parenthood endorsed Clinton I went on GOS and simply asked; "Who would continue to go to PP if we had single payer for all"?
I was promptly hide rated, and since banned.
Ya can't even ask those fuckers a question.

A certain Russian folk proverb involving Pravda and Izvestia comes to mind.....

Wink

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

is one of the reasons we must find a way to stop funding a corrupt, treasonous government, to file a criminal complaint against government officials who have committed crimes against the people of the United States and the people of countries we've pulverized. National tax strike might be a good concept, but our taxes mean pretty much nothing as we have a 20 trillion dollar debt, and our government keeps printing money for war.

I keep asking myself why we can't have State health plans if Finand, Norway, and Sweden can have health plans. We're told they're such small countries. So what? We have many states with similar populations. Does it have to do with square mileage vs population? Several comparisons can be made. What's the problem?

Finland
Population 5.439 million (2013)
130,127 square miles

Sweden
Population 9.593 million (2013)
173,731 square miles

Norway
Population 5.084 million (2013)
125,182 square miles

Populations
Michigan 9,883,640
Georgia 9,687,653
North Carolina 9,535,483

Missouri 5,988,927
Maryland 5,773,552
Wisconsin 5,686,986
Minnesota 5,303,925
Colorado 5,029,196

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MarilynW's picture

@Linda Wood
There are examples in the world to show the USA how it is done. From my point of view, the US governments have worked tirelessly to avoid giving their population full comprehensive health care. Everything the US attempts on health care is built around profits for the insurance companies and a light tax burden on the very rich. One day the US government might see that a healthy population is good for the economy, just as climate change mitigation is good for the economy in the long run. Their short-sighted thinking is based on protecting the rich today but their legislation is guaranteed to hurt the entire population including the rich in the future.

I felt sick reading about Trump-care last night, there's no compassion there.

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To thine own self be true.

Big Al's picture

"J. Mario Molina, the chief executive of Molina Healthcare … said insurers are likely to increase their premiums significantly because they will worry about enrolling more high-cost patients as healthier people opt to go without coverage. “Insurance companies are going to jack up the rates,” predicted Dr. Molina, who said premiums might increase even more than they did last year when some companies raised the rates by 25 percent or more.

This is because the replacement for the mandate (a surcharge for non-continuous coverage) will be insufficient. So: Millions lose coverage; subsidies are smaller; and premiums soar. Great plan!"

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/msn/opinion-trumpism-is-now-getting-expose...

Really, the only answer is to remove the insurance companies from the system. They're so large and powerful that's much easier said than done.

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RantingRooster's picture

on the Mafia business model pay or die. I wrote about it last year, both at the Great Orange Echo Chamber, as well as here, but since I'm using an android tablet, and don't how to copy links, see my Essay link on my c99 profile.

I've lived in chronic back pain for, come April, 21 years. I was rear ended by a felony, hit and run drunk driver. The impact moved a vertabre, L-5, forward and it rubs up against my siatic nerve sending electrocution like shocks down my legs, up my spine and making my legs and feet feel like they are on fire at times. It a big reason I'm having a difficult time finding work. The job interview I went on last week that was promising, didn't work out because I couldn't deal with the pain of being on my feet. I could only last 4 hours during my "observation trial". (Not to mention the team leader was a huge hillary bot infected, russia phobic asshole!)

Heck last night I was washing dishes, which I have to do by hand and generate hot water using my coffee pot, my legs and feet felt like they were on fire after only twenty minutes. My feet still burn right now. I'm debating with myself on whether to spend my last couple of bucks on either parking or a bus pass to go to the emergency room. But thnking it through, what good will it do since I can't afford any medications they might prescribe.

My wife died from Cancer becuase our platinum insurance plan would only cover chemo or radiation, and no other potentially life saving treatments. Some choice huh? Hell the radiation treatments caused even more damage to her body, which required additionaly surgeries unrelated to her Cancer and while recovering from her surgeries she developed blood clots in both her legs, which required additional emergency surgery to install stents to catch any of the blood clots. Oh, and the blood thinner they perscrib, caused internal bleeding, gee go figure.

I do have a couple of boxes of high dose fentanyl from when my wife was under hospice care, that they missed, but more than lilely, it would just kill me. Since I can't pay for healthcare, what other choice do I have? Wait for death in agonizing pain, or use the fentanyl and die somewhat "happy". I'm kicking myself for not stashing all the extra moriphine that was left over.

Maybe I could sell the fentanyl on the darkweb for hospital parking fees?

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C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

@RantingRooster to you in this time.

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dfarrah

riverlover's picture

@RantingRooster My big mistake may have been not going to the ER, but the satellite medical campus. I have good NYS retiree insurance (Medicare next year if it exists)but 5 weeks of a broken foot sounds like Canada as we are told.

Do not do Fentatnyl. I am a widow, such drugs exist to test our mettle. Sciatica is bad, had that for part of a pregnancy. I have the burning feet. I cannot stand more than enough to load the dishwasher. Two trees to plant, and a broken foot.

Hang with us, we are caring and kind.

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RantingRooster's picture

@riverlover I would take some gluttonous MF's with me. But I don't have the gas to track them down (lol). C99 is the only place I've been able to vent some of my darker thoughs and not get banned or run off, and I value the people hear greatly and truly greatful for this community. Not to mention there are some greater writers and smart people. And the snark, I love the snark!

I'm in a dark place and appreciate y'all putting up with me. Truly y'all have saved ass and I'm greatful.

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C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

detroitmechworks's picture

What we need is an NHS.

We have it for the Disabled Veterans, at least the closest we're going to get to it. The VA isn't incredible, but it's a strong step in the right direction.

If we're going to fix healthcare, we have to start somewhere. I say we start with the VA hospitals, use their model to START, and begin converting civilian hospitals one by one. Fuck trying to get the private doctors or the insurance companies on board, we never will, as long as they can make profits. Cut them out of it COMPLETELY.

Yes, I know completely impossible in this political climate. However, we need to start thinking of going to hospital as the first resort when sick, not going to a "Primary Care Provider". Nope, far as I'm concerned, you're sick, you go to hospital.

There will be many many people who tell me that this can't be done. They claim that there are HUGE problems with it in England. All of which, I'd like to point out, were initiated by Thatcher's conservatives who were desperate to fuck it over in the name of "Personal Responsibility." Even with these "Huge Problems" the quality of care in Great Britain is far better for the average person than it is here.

I do not believe in Single payer. I believe in Fully Socialized Medicine. That's MY starting offer, and I'm not budging from it.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

RantingRooster's picture

@detroitmechworks I'm down with that!

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C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

@detroitmechworks I wouldn't send my dog to the VA hospital.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

detroitmechworks's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness For a severe ear infection that could have destroyed my hearing, got seen by a doctor fairly quickly, got medication prescribed that actually helped, and got home in a decent time, I strongly disagree with that characterization of the VA.

Yes, the MSM has found horrid, horrid conditions at Walter Reed, and spread them around far and wide, right about the time the Rethugs were talking about how we needed to privatize the VA. You never hear about the thousands treated daily.

When the VA fucks up, people notice, complain, criticize and the perpetrators get fired. I will never claim it's perfect, but there are very good people working for the VA, and the one here in Portland has been good to me, even for my PTSD. (They admitted they could not properly treat me because of federal regulations, and suggested I go to a dispensary, which worked.)

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

SnappleBC's picture

@detroitmechworks I was lucky enough to get my wife and I to Canada a few years back. We don't exactly have single-payer not is exactly full coverage medical care. My wife and I lost our primary care physician more than a year ago and still haven't gotten a new one (so we're experiencing the worst possible face of the system). Even so, our experience is so vastly different than the American experience. I may not have the continuity of care that a PCP provides but I can walk into any hospital or clinic at any time and say, "I have a problem" and someone will deal with it.... no money changing hands.

The notable gaps are in places like optical, dental, hearing, and home care... all of which aren't covered and I think I can make some good arguments why they shouldn't be. But when I asked a natural Canadian what was covered under my health plan they answered, "If it happens to you in a hospital, it's covered." There are no limits, and no deductibles. There's some minor copay on prescriptions. In my mind, that's pretty damned good for the $135/mo (family plan) we pay.

Canada can pull it off pretty damned nicely even without a full, national, single-payer system. I experience that daily. So every time someone tells me why the US can't I just have to laugh. Insurance programs get MORE EFFICIENT with scaling, not less.

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A lot of wanderers in the U.S. political desert recognize that all the duopoly has to offer is a choice of mirages. Come, let us trudge towards empty expanse of sand #1, littered with the bleached bones of Deaniacs and Hope and Changers.
-- lotlizard

People won't notice, I'm afraid. I'm in my 40s and starting to deal with the effects of chronic arthritis and a bad back. Health care costs have been my number one expense for the last few years by a good amount. I know a lot of people are in much worse situations, but I'm really struggling to keep the bills paid at this point and I'm if I was to get laid off again or have something catastrophic happen, well, I don't want to think about it.

Too many people my age and younger that are in my circle just won't accept that the Democrats have screwed us on on healthcare (I'd recount the details, but you all know the story, I'm sure.) It's infuriating to me to have to hear the lie regurgitated over and over that we would have gotten something better if it wasn't for those mean old Republicans. They wonder why I can't really muster any enthusiasm for saving Obamacare but don't care to hear why either. Someday, they'll find out why.

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

MarilynW's picture

a much smaller country but it never seemed that complicated to get economists and health care professionals to advise the government in the beginning. Seems like Trump-care is a Frankenstein monster created by lawmakers without any compassion. Making health care for those over 64 so expensive it would absorb their entire pension. If they pay the exorbitant premiums, they will have nothing left for food, if they don't pay, they will be able to eat but cannot afford health insurance. Either way, they suffer and die early in the richest country in the world. It will lower life-expectancy in the USA. So much for MAGA. It's MASA, Make America Sick Again.

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To thine own self be true.

riverlover's picture

@MarilynW as an American with good insurance coverage. Husband is hospital, daily harassment for bills. Eventually things worked out. But time and heartache.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

@MarilynW

former Speaker Boehner predicted (and I posted) a couple weeks ago. The change which affects seniors is those age 64 and younger, who are not yet eligible to enroll in Medicare.

IOW, instead of a 3:1 ratio, there will be a 5:1 ratio regarding the premium amount that insurers can charge older beneficiaries (age 64 and younger). By current and proposed law, folks eligible for Medicare at age 65, cannot participate in the Exchange (under most circumstances). Obviously, that is awful for seniors. The truth of the matter is that this move might lower premiums for other cohorts, as well as for the 'Young Invincibles." Still, I don't condone the move for the obvious reason that some, if not many of the folks who are aging, and in the most need of medicare care, will likely be priced out of the market.

There are other ways that these problems could have been addressed, other than the way that the ACA, and Ryan's ACA-Lite, are employing. Health care experts know this, but chose instead to concentrate on setting up a system that lowered destroyed the benefits of folks who participate in employer-sponsored health plans--which they've achieved in spades. More on this later.

Please, if anyone has a link regarding cuts to Medicare (in Ryan's plan), please share them. If I get a chance, I'll post an excerpt from Secretary Price speaking at the White House Press Briefing. He explicitly stated that Medicare will not be affected (by this round of 'reforms')--which also matches MSM reporting.

I'm still trying to look into a claim that AARP apparently made, but can't find anything on it. (I've seen it posted, with no links or substantiation.) Beware--the current CEO, also the first woman and AA CEO of the organization, IIRC, served in the Reagan Administration. I've got a boatload to say about her (later), including a photo of her with Reagan.

Don't get me wrong, I don't trust that Medicare cuts won't come down the pike, eventually. But, for now, from everything that I've read and heard, Ryan has acquiesced to DT in not proposing cuts to Medicare.

Instead, it seems that they are going to eviscerate Medicaid. IMO, a program that steals what are, in many cases, amounts to the only asset (a home) of lower income Americans, is not a program that should stay in place. My solution would be to enroll those folks in Traditional Medicare, Part D, and a Medigap policy, until we manage to implement a single-payer system.

Mollie


“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit and therefore– to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)

The SOSD Fantastic Four

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

@Unabashed Liberal The policys there are crap with huge deductibles and out of pocket limits. You want Medicare and a Plan F and a Part D. If you are mostly healthy, Medicare and Medicare Advantage.

Medicaid expansion was the only good thing about the ACA. Medicaid financial limits should have been programmed to grow until they covered 90% of the population under 50. Simultaneously, Medicare age limits should have been allowed to shrink until they got to age 50. And the drop to 62 should have been immediate.

Private Insurance? Let them provide the highly regulated supplement market.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

Unabashed Liberal's picture

@The Voice In the Wilderness

when I said,

IOW, instead of a 3:1 ratio, there will be a 5:1 ratio regarding the premium amount that insurers can charge older beneficiaries (age 64 and younger). By current and proposed law, folks eligible for Medicare at age 65, cannot participate in the Exchange (under most circumstances). Obviously, that is awful for seniors.

The bolded comment was intended to reference my comment about the higher ratio that seniors under age 64 could be required to pay, if they participate in the ACA Exchange.

IOW, I didn't mean to infer that one might get a better deal in the so-called Marketplace Exchange, over Medicare. Sorry for the sloppy syntax!

Of course, by law, most folks age 65 and older can't participate in the ACA Exchanges if they qualify for Medicare subsidies--meaning, they've met the 40-quarter eligibility criteria.

Mollie


“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit and therefore– to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

smiley7's picture

@Unabashed Liberal @Unabashed Liberal Mollie,
I've read different but mostly similar numbers over the past week or so.
The repug plan does cut Medicare, according to Mark Shields on PBS last night, a cut to Medicare of $300 billion over ten years. All sources I've read have stated that the cuts to Medicare moves the insolvency date of the program up more than ten years to around 2024.

When ACA passed, Medicare was predicted to be insolvent by 2016, that's why the dedicated tax in the ACA was added to the original bill; now, with these tax cuts, repugs are making it easy to argue in future that medicare is running out of money and voucher it into oblivion.

It's a great disappointment that no leaders of the dem party are screaming that Ryan and Trump are cutting Medicare against Trump's promise not to do so!

From Wapo:

The Joint Committee on Taxation has released a series of estimates showing what some of the tax-related provisions of Trumpcare would do.

Among the biggest are repeals of two ACA surtaxes on the highest-earning Americans: a 0.9 percent payroll tax add-on and a 3.8 percent tax on net investment income for couples whose incomes exceed $250,000 ($200,000 for individuals).

Repealing these would cost $275 billion over the next decade.

The law also axes other taxes, such as the tanning tax (once nicknamed the Snooki Tax, but now apparently a symbol of patriarchal oppression), and excise taxes on insurers; drug manufacturers and importers; and medical-device manufacturers and importers.

Based on what the Joint Committee has scored so far — and it has not analyzed every revenue loser in the bill — these tax cuts come to about $600 billion.

The total tax cuts in the repug plan is apparently $600 billion over ten years which I have read many places, though I was confused at first that all of the tax cuts were dedicated to Medicare.

Since the repug tax credits are unfunded, this simple change is a swing of tremendous proportion to the government's bottom line and is sure to destroy the lives of countless millions.

This could be one of the largest single re-distributions of wealth in modern times from
one Congressional stroke of the pen.

While I'm at this; another huge peeve of mind is: where is the competing bill from the dems that would improve Obamacare? They, too, have had years to work on one.

Hope B is doing okay.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

@smiley7

for the wealthy are totally uncalled for. Unfortunately, I think that these ACA-related tax cuts are just the tip of the iceberg. From what I've read, Ryan et al. intend to ax many of the so-called tax loopholes for lower and middle class folks, in order to fund gigantic tax cuts for Bill Gates' crowd. BTW, I did watch the Shields video, and my impression was that he was referring to the repeal of the two major taxes on the wealthy that funded ACA subsidies, when he said that 267 billion dollars would be cut over 10 years.

I could be wrong, but I figure that due to the makeup of DT's voter base (age-wise), Republicans will likely wait until after the midterm elections, before they propose cutting so-called 'entitlements.' Unfortunately, I suspect that much of his base will mostly applaud the block-granting of Medicaid to the states, and/or the elimination of the Medicaid Expansion.

It's a bit late to look right now, but soon I'll find and post (at EB) the piece with the Kaiser Foundation estimate regarding the effect of the repeal of the Medicaid Expansion on various cohorts. While the cuts would be the deepest on the cohort of voters 'by age,' who heavily voted for DT, the actual numbers [by percentage] of these voters who are enrolled in Medicaid or Expanded Medicaid, is quite low. That is due to the average income of those voters, and the fact that he carried mostly red states, and the fact that fewer red states set up an Expanded Medicaid program. Probably explains 'why' Repubs are slashing this program--it mostly won't affect their voters. (This is counter to the MSM and Dem Party meme, I know, but it's in keeping with Nate Silver's statistics from the 2016 election, and consistent with a piece that Big Al posted earlier this week.)

Personally, I think that the Medicaid program is beyond cruel in its treatment of folks age 55+; so, I'd like to see health care benefits for this cohort reformed so that the Feds cannot subject their estates to MERP (Medicaid Estate Recovery Program), perhaps transferring them to fully subsidized Medicare coverage, and enrolling them in a Part D drug plan and a Medigap plan--paid for by the federal government.

Anyhoo, as best as I'm able to do right now, I'm watching to see if Ryan slips in any proposals to cut Medicare benefits, or, if he attempts to flat-out voucherize Medicare. I wouldn't trust the man farther than I could throw him, I assure you. (No violent intent meant by that statement--strictly a figure of speech.)

Wink

Thanks for asking about 'the B.' Since I'm on the Eastern Shore for a while, we've gotten a referral to a vet school in the region (Auburn University). Turns out that the excellent surgeon who performed the cholecystectomy would not take on a surgery that involves Mister B's spine, and pinched or damaged nerves; so, he's been referred to Auburn's Neurology/Neurosurgery Dept.

Mollie


“I believe in the redemptive powers of a dog’s love. It is in recognition of each dog’s potential to lift the human spirit and therefore– to change society for the better, that I fight to make sure every street dog has its day.”
--Stasha Wong, Secretary, Save Our Street Dogs (SOSD)

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

earthling1's picture

healthcare insurance companies as "Death Panels".
Perhaps, but not likely, we can shame them nationwide. Something like;
"Death Panelist member Blue Cross/Blue Shield ordered cuts today...."

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

riverlover's picture

@earthling1 That is a new one for me. At least I have one.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

ZimInSeattle's picture

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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020

ZimInSeattle's picture

for profit healthcare. I can't think of anything more immoral than profiting off of someones sickness and old age issues. I recently had to spend 24 hours in the hospital and the bill was $13,600. I work for Boeing and my insurance covered most of it. But the insurance isn't like it used to be. We now pay about $100 per month on premiums and there is a $2000 per year max out of pocket. I think about someone making $30K per year and that cost to them would be prohibitive. Let's hope California is successful in implementing single payer. Employer based healthcare is bullshit. It just gives the corporations even more leverage over our lives. Good article here: http://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/03/09/american-health-care-act-wealth-grab-not-health-plan

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"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - JFK | "The more I see of the moneyed peoples, the more I understand the guillotine." - G. B. Shaw Bernie/Tulsi 2020

MarilynW's picture

@ZimInSeattle
When locating a new plant, the owners prefer to operate in a country that has comprehensive healthcare so that they don't have to bear the full costs.

#45's short-sighted vision would not encompass the fact that health care benefits improve employment opportunities.

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To thine own self be true.

@ZimInSeattle and there is NO out of pocket limit. The sky is the limit if you don't have a supplement. And you need another $100 a month for drug coverage. Good employer insurance such as the Fortune 500 companies used to provide is better. I last had that kind of insurance (private employer) in 2003. From 2005 to 2010 I had Federal employee Health Benefits, just as good as any private employer's and from 2010 on I have had both FEHB and Medicare. FEHB primary while I worked, secondary after retirement.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

@ZimInSeattle all the Exchange BS and just let everyone buy into FEHB.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

RantingRooster's picture

@ZimInSeattle we paid over 400 a month with 6500 deductible, each, on her employer "sponsored" plan. After she got sick, they fired her and dropped her coverage, which I had to go the cobra route at 1200 a month to continue her shitty ass plan. When we finally qualified for the ACA, I selected a platinum plan with 1500 deductible each, but still had to pay 400 a month, while the ACA covered 700. Then after she died, United health continued to bill me on the family plan for another 7 months. I finally got them to reimburse me, but then they signed me up to a individual plan, without me knowing about it. It took another couple of months to get that shit straighten out and get my money back.

I completely agree with you, charging people for healthcare, especially when "rich"people have something like 20 to 30 Trillion stashed in tax havens around the planet.

I truly wish someone would "takeout" the insurance company CEO's, maybe then they might get the point, it's fucking evil what they do, especially considering the millions they make in compensation compared to the suffering they actually cause by their greed and gluttony.

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C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote