GOP's Health Care Solution: Destroy Medicaid

Obamacare has a lot of problems. That's the good news.

The bad news is that Republicans have a solution: Eliminate health care for the poor.

The American Health Care Act would drastically reshape Medicaid -- ending the federal government's long-running, open-ended commitment to help states pay for care for the poor. Instead, in 2020, Washington would make limited per capita contributions that would shrink as a share of costs with every passing year.

True, expanded eligibility for Medicaid is an important part of Obamacare. And the AHCA would reverse this expansion. But its much bigger change is to the Medicaid program as it existed long before Obamacare. Medicaid is a popular and relatively efficient insurance program that has provided health care and peace of mind for millions of Americans for more than half a century.

The GOP want to slowly phase out Medicaid, which means (as you might have guessed) greater productivity!
How's that you ask? Think welfare reform.

President Trump and conservative lawmakers in the House agreed Friday to significant changes to Medicaid that could impose work requirements on able-bodied Medicaid beneficiaries in some states and limit federal funds for the program, as Republican leaders tried to rally balking lawmakers behind legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
...
Democrats contend that work requirements could increase the number of uninsured, limiting access to health care without significantly increasing employment.

So the same reform solution that Republicans always give, except now if you are poor you better not lose your job.
Not if you want to live anyway.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has already estimated that, under the House bill, the number of people without health insurance would be 14 million higher than expected next year and would be 24 million higher by 2026. The Medicaid adjustments could nudge that number even higher, a problem for many senators.

Destroying Medicaid will hurt Medicare recipients disproportionately.

Most people associate Medicaid with the poor and working class, but historically the program has spent as much or more money on elderly and disabled people who qualify. They use it to pay for things like nursing-home care that Medicare doesn’t cover.
The new version of the program would upend this arrangement.

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Needless to say, this is GREAT NEWS for Republicans.

“We’ve never had an opportunity to do anything like this,” Mr. Palmer said later. “This will be the most significant entitlement reform that we’ve seen.”
...
When he’s speaking with conservative audiences, Ryan is upfront about the goal. “We’ve been dreaming of this since I’ve been around ― since you and I were drinking at a keg,” he recently told keg-party buddy Rich Lowry, editor of the National Review.
Speaking earlier with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, the two of them were practically giddy about the opportunity. “The Medicaid devolution, in capping, is the most significant entitlement reform of my 60 years on this planet,” Hewitt said, adding that he had just been talking with conservative economist Avik Roy. “Avik says it is 10 times more important than the welfare reform of 1996.”

Next up: "Reforming" child labor laws.
However, real conservatives still oppose this communistic program.

But the changes were not enough to sway the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, which reiterated its opposition on Friday.
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Big Al's picture

and I'm afraid once I start I won't be able to stop.

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@Big Al would get all of us on this site in potential trouble. One must not advocate violence but sometimes it is almost impossible not to.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

Big Al's picture

@lizzyh7 Conservatives have no spines, zero. Of course, then there's liberals. Can't win for losing.

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just what Medicaid is used for and how I think like 40% of it is used for Skilled Nursing for the elderly. And when they cut that, I wonder how many Repugnants who voted FOR this over the years are going to deal with a parent who requires Skilled Nursing from them, at home. And hey, maybe they'll get lucky and that parent will be in full blown Alzheimers and then they will have to be home 24/7 to make sure nothing goes wrong. The idiocy of people in their ugly selfishness fully on display.

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

snoopydawg's picture

@lizzyh7
all over congress to not push for this bill to pass. They make a lot of money from them and as you stated, Medicaid pays a lot for them.
When they wanted to cut $40 billion from the food stamps program, the lobbyists from the Walmarts and other big grocery chains were all over them.
Fortunately the democrats talked them down to only cutting $8 billion from it and of course Obama signed the bill instead of doing a line item veto like Bush used to do when there was something in the bills he didn't like.
The rest of the farm bill went to big tax breaks and subsidies for the big agricultural farms.

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

@snoopydawg And Obama never learned how to play Chicken.

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

detroitmechworks's picture

Where they discuss how you can get it done with a minimum of fuss, and decent considerations for those who clean up and auction off your stuff. (Don't do anything that involves SPLATTER, because lord knows those stains never come out.)

Of course, the service will simply charge your estate, so there's no upfront cost! You get the benefit of a quick and painless demise, while they take care of all those material possessions that you didn't deserve anyway.

/snark

Of course, once they get rid of Medicaid, the next thing they'll do is tell all the poor people that they should be hating VETERANS, because they get medical care that the poor don't! And all for what? They went off and killed people, clearly they don't deserve anything from the good people who stayed home and created opportunities for others!

And if you think this is cynical, to quote Lily Tomlin,
"No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up."

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

@detroitmechworks
The problem as it is, is uninsured people with chronic problems winding up in the expensive emergency ward.
The costs are then passed along to the insured.

So the free-market solution is: turn poor people away from the emergency ward at gunpoint!

No costs to be passed along, and dramatically less need for personnel at the hospital.

Well, yes, there will be the problem of all those dead bodies in the hospital parking lot, but I'm sure we can find a free-market solution for that.

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@gjohnsit You act like you don't know er nurse aren't given directives and perks for herding pregnant Mexicans, bleeding, paying for their taxis to go home.
Well, god help me, they are.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

travelerxxx's picture

@on the cusp

A few details, please. I mean, I'm in Harris County, Texas, so I have heard a few things .... but not this. Until now.

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@travelerxxx @travelerxxx I watched personally at Conroe Regional Hospital, Montgomery County, contiguous north of Harris. Maybe 3 or 4 times, when I was with my late husband.
I have represented 2 nurses in divorce/family law cases, asked them about it.
Some nurse actually I did not represent or do not know told me 'they don't have insurance, we all grab dollars out of out pickets to send them home. Management wants that. It's our job."

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

travelerxxx's picture

@on the cusp

... but, sadly, I do believe you. I live just a few miles south of Conroe and I don't think things change in just those few miles. While I haven't seen or heard of what you've mentioned, I have seen exactly the type of behavior you describe - or at least the mindset that allows it to happen.

I don't know how you even begin to turn something this vile around. Perhaps when people see this happening to their own children they will start to open their eyes - and hopefully their minds.

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@on the cusp
that taxpayers are subsidizing the taxi rides of illegals?
Has Trump heard about this?!?

/snark

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@gjohnsit The nurses pay the taxis. The employer (job creator) gives them a bonus. The employer is a corporation paying virtually no taxes.
Nurses get bonus, which is taxed. The taxis are Yellow Cab, pay taxes. Wait until they dig into Uber.
Mexican mom and/or baby die, all good. So far.
Mexican illegals are paid slave wages to clean up the bloody parking lot. ALL GOOD.
TexASS...we do not seem to remember the fucking Alamo.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

CS in AZ's picture

@detroitmechworks

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snoopydawg's picture

@detroitmechworks
to let anyone who has a mental disorder be able to purchase guns? They know that there are a lot of veterans who have been diagnosed with severe enough PTSD who have been placed on the list for not being able to purchase guns.
The suicide rate for veterans is close to 27 a day now, up from the 20 per day a few years ago.
There were many veteran's groups who wrote to congress and asked them not to pass the legislation, but the NRA also pushed for it to pass.
That's a way to get out of having to pay for their benefits.

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

Arrow's picture

is all about long term nursing care for the old.
The homes do get all but $350 of a patients monthly social security. The rest is Medicaid.
As far as cutting or eliminating Medicaid...you may as well plop the elderly out on an ice flow.
( The Inuit rarely if ever did that by the way.)

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I want a Pony!

@Arrow Before I let a nursing home suck my daughter's meager inheritance. I will sit in a Chicago alley in January.

When I was a kid, I fell into a pond and tried to walk home in winter. After a few blocks, I collapsed in the snow. It only feels cold for a short time. I'm here because my buddy dragged me a block to another friend's father's house.

Can't be any worse than lying in a bed stoned on morphine until they decide to quit feeding you (called "hospice") and you starve. That's how my Mom died. Why couldn't they lie to her and say they had a new cancer drug then give her a massive OD of morphine? That's what the vet did with our old 17 year old dog who was failing. except it was Quaalude, not morphine.

They're not robbing me. I remember the snow. It only feels cold for a short while. Maybe a quart of Jack Daniels would help too.

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

has personally experienced wiping their old mamma's ass, rolling her over in the bed to prevent bed sores. They haven't had their utilities cut off. They haven't walked to the food bank, they haven't asked for help to bury their still born baby.
They do not care that jobs for decades went to the right (preferably white) men, that people born poor stayed poor, that upward mobility is a fluke.
They have no idea what hopelessness and helplessness is.
They see a physically upright body. A unit. Capable of sacking groceries. And fault, laziness, lack of will and work ethic. They see no impediments to individual success other than laziness.
And I want anyone here to say the fucking democrats are better.
It will be the dems that kill Medicaid.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

The Aspie Corner's picture

@ on the cusp: I wouldn't know what it's like to have to bury a still born because I'm a dude. But having to rely on charity for help? Being on the verge of homelessness? Born with the disabilities that make employment a pipe dream? Even with degrees that are 'useful'? Yup.

I'm lucky to have a partner and good in-laws who give a damn. I'd probably be homeless or dead otherwise.

And you're right. The Dems will be the ones to kill Medicaid and Social Security because they aren't scrutinized as heavily as Repigs. Hell, Orange State will cheer when that happens.

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Modern education is little more than toeing the line for the capitalist pigs.

Guerrilla Liberalism won't liberate the US or the world from the iron fist of capital.

@The Aspie Corner Love you, man, can't say enough about your support group.
And I am in the 3rd poorest county in Texas. Not border. We are inches above "them".
I deal with clients and their witnesses every day that have never have been to a dentist, never had an eye examination, work for cash precluding SS benefits that might be above $700 per month. Their kids are dyslexic, or some attention deficit disorder, and they have nowhere to go for help, and their kids wind up in state detention centers for years. Foster parents, over and over, prove to be perverts.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

@The Aspie Corner

Divide the US population against each other. Get them to demonize each other. Get them to act as though their own political party is their hometown ball team, to be cheered no matter what.

Republicans, being Republicans, want cuts to "entitlements." Democrats supposedly do not, but will defend their blue team politicians to the death, no matter what. So, no one yells when Democrats cut. However, if Republicans were to cut, Democrats would scream. Hence, most of the cuts are left to Democratic politicians. That is another way Republicans and Democrats both have been playing us.

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orlbucfan's picture

The Frightwingnutted horror show may succeed with destroying Medicaid, but Medicare and SS/SSDI will be a whole different deal. More and more Americans are focusing on it now. The Fake Democrats are also being watched. 2018 will be a very interesting off-year election cycle. Rec'd!!

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Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

snoopydawg's picture

@orlbucfan @orlbucfan
if I am reading this article correctly.

Mulvaney replied by pivoting to the specific issue of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), a program administered by the Social Security Administration that aids disabled Americans. He complained about the program’s cost and indicated that the administration wants to alter it.

“Let me ask you a question, do you really think that Social Security disability insurance is part of what people think of when they think of Social Security? I don’t think so,” he said, with a slight grin on his face. “It’s the fastest growing program. It was — it grew tremendously under President Obama. It’s a very wasteful program and we want to try and fix that.”

https://theintercept.com/2017/03/20/trump-budget-director-takes-aim-at-w....
The article states that the program costs 4% of the budget.
How much of the budget did those tax breaks take out of it?
And then there's the myth that it's easy to qualify for it. It can take years to get on it and meanwhile there is no income coming in so people who don't have a nest egg to live off of can lose their homes and other items.

The bastards who want to cut the programs that help the elderly, the poor and disabled people are
(I too cannot write what I want to) but as on the cusp wrote, they have never had to do what she wrote and have no idea what it's like to experience those things.
Too many of them have been in congress for decades sucking off our taxes and probably don't even remember what life outside their bubble is like. When was the last time they went to the store and wondered if they had enough money to purchase a few items or watched as the price of gas and everything else rises?

Too many people think that living off these programs is a life of luxury because we get our medical care and food stamps from the government. That we spend our days doing anything we want and not having a care in the world.
I would like anyone who thinks this way to live in my body for just one day because I qualify for these programs.
I would give anything to be able to go back to the job I loved doing instead of fearing that I am going to have an unexpected expense and wonder how the Hell I'm going to pay for it. And experiencing pain almost 24/7/365 and knowing that it's not going to go away.

I bet those in congress who believe that we get too much money for food stamps spend as much as I get a month on just one of their meals that we probably pay for and if we don't, they find a way to write it off on their taxes.
And that little shit Ryan got SS after his dad died and he saved the money for college.

Gawd damn those people who give no thought to how people are going to survive if they cut the programs.
Unless that is what their goals are. That people who are on these programs to die. Because that is what is going to happen if they succeed and gut them.

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

@snoopydawg Think that's it in a nutshell. End health care, cut consumer protections, increase poisoning the environment and decrease the population. It's what our rulers want. More for them.

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@QMS

accountable. Since we don't hold our politicians accountable, someone has to be held to account. Having it be the most vulnerable and least powerful among us, rather than rich and powerful politicians makes the most sense.

Wacko

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TheOtherMaven's picture

Because that's. exactly. what. this. is.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

@TheOtherMaven

Perhaps we could have said the same about enacting a mandatory health insurance program patently destined to become unaffordable and unsustainable very soon after going into effect--and then delaying the effective date so collapse would not occur until Obama was safely done with his two terms.

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Hillary. The Corporate Demorat betrayal of the American people. The destruction and lies of the big money outrage victimhood feminism industry.
These are the drivers behind the rise of the right. In my list the last should be first.
Until we face the truth and adjust properly, we will continue the left's demise.
Hillary must go. The Corporate Demorats must all go. Feminism must face up to reality, stop the demonization of men and work for an equitable and respectful society for men and women alike.
Until these 3 things happen, there is no hope for the left.
Feminism is cancer.
I won't be staying around to reply.
When you're looking to see why the bed is a mess, you should look to who made the bed.

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With their hearts they turned to each others heart for refuge
In troubled years that came before the deluge
*Jackson Browne, 1974, Before the Deluge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SX-HFcSIoU

TheOtherMaven's picture

@dennis1958
Unfortunately, because of the Crass Media, the lunatic fringe gets all the attention and has very nearly co-opted the movement.

Those of us (women) who give a shit about a humane society need to take it back.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

@TheOtherMaven
I see truth in your words here and am in agreement about the fringe.
I've been trying to push a Gender Peace movement online for awhile now. I actually seem to be having some small success with the MGTOW gang on YouTube.
Gender Peace says we don't need anti-men or anti-women groups. We need to both respect and help each other in able to make a more just world for all.
I'm anti-feminism but I am also pro-women AND pro-men. Both sexes have wonderful things about them and they both have their failings. Both sexes are humans. It would help men a lot right now if women could show us a bit more compassion. Our lives aren't so great either.
Thanks for your considerate reply Maven. It is appreciated. Smile

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With their hearts they turned to each others heart for refuge
In troubled years that came before the deluge
*Jackson Browne, 1974, Before the Deluge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SX-HFcSIoU

so that this monstrous bill will be killed.

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