Corporate Democrats determined to self-destruct on health care

The most important issue to voters is health care and Democrats own this issue.

More than 1 in 5 voters, 22 percent, said in a new NBC News–Wall Street Journal poll that health care is their top issue in the November midterm elections.
...The poll is good news for Democrats, who plan to hit Republicans on their health-care record ahead of the midterms.

Why do the Dems own health care? Because Republicans have been trying to destroy the best parts of Obamacare for years.

The Trump administration told a federal court on Thursday that it would no longer defend crucial provisions of the Affordable Care Act that protect consumers with pre-existing medical conditions.

Under those provisions of the law, insurance companies cannot deny coverage or charge higher rates to people with pre-existing medical conditions.

The Justice Department said the provisions were part of an unconstitutional scheme that required most Americans to carry health insurance.

The Trump Administration has been actively undermining Obamacare since Day 1, and the effort is showing up in the premiums.

Insurers in several states have requested large rate hikes for 2019, with many pointing to steps taken by President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress as the main reasons why.
New York insurers want to hike rates by 24%, on average, while carriers in Washington are looking for a 19% average premium increase. In Maryland, CareFirst is asking for an average 18.5% rate bump for its HMO plans and a 91% spike for its PPO policies (which have far fewer enrollees), while Kaiser Permanente wants to boost premiums by more than 37%, on average.

Premiums are bad enough. In many cases, families are forced to pay more than $11,000 each year.
Rapidly rising premiums, being undermined by the Administration and Congress, Obamacare is already controversial and has limited support.
So what do Dems do? Do they embrace Medicare For All, like a majority of the population want?
Or do they double-down on an unpopular, expensive, imploding Obamacare?

Unfortunately, Democrats have yet to accept the ObamaCare scheme’s demise. On May 30, New Jersey lawmakers passed legislation creating a state-based individual health care mandate. The move is part of Democrats’ last-ditch effort to preserve New Jersey’s struggling ObamaCare exchange. Under the law, those who fail to buy health insurance will be forced to pay a penalty amounting to 2.5 percent of their household income or $695 per adult (plus $347 per child), whichever is greater.

New Jersey is the first state to reinstate ObamaCare’s individual mandate since congressional Republicans gutted that provision in December as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. (Only one other state, Massachusetts, has an individual mandate.)

New Jersey Democrats aren’t alone, either. Democrats in nine other states and the District of Columbia proposed legislation earlier this year that would usher in the return of the individual mandate, despite that provision’s low popularity and ObamaCare’s failure to provide Americans with reasonably priced health care.

Oh goody. The Democrats are working hard to save the worst and most unpopular part of Obamacare while the best parts die.
AND THIS IS HOW THE DEMS PLAN ON RUNNING FOR OFFICE. By taking a critical, slam dunk issue, and turning it into an albatross.
I really do get the feeling that we are being played with Good Cop/Bad Cop.

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are people too, with the freedom to make campaign donations to democrats just like you and me. Just in far larger amounts. Besides, Obamacare is the bestest thing that ever happened. Wait! where'd all the orange go?

God, I feel sorry for the people of New Jersey. It seems like elections are a choice of which way do you want to be screwed this time.

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They are also bringing back paygo if they win the House. I'm sure it apply to everything except tax cuts.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

your refusal to do anything on health care will soom be off the news - when the stories about the Awan spy ring and the rigged primaries (you know you did) come down.

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On to Biden since 1973

That snippet for their "reason" is bullshit.

Insurers in several states have requested large rate hikes for 2019, with many pointing to steps taken by President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress as the main reasons why.

It's not because of anything Trump, or his administration is doing. I'm not saying they are helping, but the insurance companies just want him to be the "bad guy," scapegoat for their actions; they've been hiking premiums since forever, and especially since ACA inception.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170123005296/en/

Average Individual Health Insurance Premiums Increased 99% Since 2013, the Year Before Obamacare, & Family Premiums Increased 140%


Yr Indiv. Ded. Family Ded.
2017 $393 $4,328 $1,021 $8,352
2016 $321 $4,385 $833 $7,983
2015 $286 $4,120 $727 $7,760
2014 $271 $4,164 $667 $7,771
ACA in 2014
2013 $197 $3,319 $426 $4,230
2012 $190 $3,079 $412 $4,079
2011 $183 $2,935 $414 $3,879
2010 $167 $2,632 $392 $3,531
2009 $161 $2,326 $383 $3,128
2008 $159 $2,084 $369 $2,760

ETA: And why wouldn't they? They have a captive customer base; a law mandating coverage, penalties for not "buying," and regardless that the penalty is less than the cost in many cases, there are many people that will faithfully follow all laws, in order to "be a good citizen."

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@ChezJfrey

the insurance companies just want him to be the "bad guy," scapegoat for their actions; they've been hiking premiums since forever, and especially since ACA inception

Premiums went up about 25% the last year of Obama, and then they went up about 25% the first year of Trump.

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jobu's picture

You wrote:

AND THIS IS HOW THE DEMS PLAN ON RUNNING FOR OFFICE. By taking a critical, slam dunk issue, and turning it into an albatross.

Ah, yes, how fashionable it is on the Dem cocktail circuit to wear Albatross:

At length did cross an Albatross:
Thorough the fog it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God's name.

It ate the food it ne'er had eat,
And round and round it flew.
The ice did split with a thunder-fit;
The helmsman steered us through!

And a good south wind sprung up behind;
The Albatross did follow,
And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariners' hollo!

In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
It perched for vespers nine;
Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,
Glimmered the white Moon-shine.

"God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus!—
Why look'st thou so?"—With my cross-bow
I shot the ALBATROSS.
...

Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

The very deep did rot: O Christ!
That ever this should be!
Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Like the intentional failure on Wall Street Reform and Justice for the vast, biblical financial crimes committed 10+ years ago under President Obama, Medicare for All stands ready to become the next Albatross to be shot.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSMGrKSUgj4]

Why do our Brand Name Dems continually shoot our Albatrosses? We know the answer. It pays handsomely. Slimy things upon a slimy sea, indeed.

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@jobu @jobu That video showed who in fact Hillary is. Hell no we can't have some theoretical debate about health care when emergencies are happening. This was one of thee most impassioned speeches I have seen by Clinton and it was AGAINST universal health care.

So months later Hilary goes on her paid book tour and shows up in Wales, where she proceeds to break her toe. Guess what happens?

Hillary Clinton praises NHS after broken toe prevents interviews
Former US presidential candidate says she received ‘excellent care’ from health service after having to rearrange three bookings

Clinton uses the publicly funded health care system and is just so happy with the results. Lawd have mercy on her toe. And this after she vicious attacked Bernie's plans for health care for all--the very type she now praises to high heaven.

I looked up what it would cost form a broken toe. Of course varies by how bad the break. But easily looking at north of a $1000 dollars.

Cost of broken toe

And let's remember, Over 30 million uninsured, and half the population don't have enough to cover emergencies of several hundred dollars.

In all likelihood, millions of Americans could not have afforded the care that Clinton got for a simple broken toe. Oh, the toes can heal by themselves over time, but with pain and eventual issues with walking.

The irony is not funny.

Edit: forgot to put in link to finding cost of a broken toe.

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Mark from Queens's picture

is your run of the mill Neoliberal, Wall St-funded clown.

In the mail just got the second of his out-of-touch flyers. How comical and predictable - get this: one side a big black and white/sepia-toned, oh-so-scary picture of the Orange Doofus looming over Capitol Hill. Then, both sides of it feature as his top thing, defending Obamacare.

Typical, safe, tired old politics and presentation of hoping to scare voters about the opposition, without being bold and standing for anything people really want.

He's getting a challenge from someone (Ocasio, a young Hispanic woman from the Bronx) who has now gotten the backing of most of the progressive groups and even, as a radical friend of mine who is interested in the prospect of jettisoning this idiot, TPP-defending (also) Neoliberal, an interview with Jeremy Scahill.

I'm still on the fence about it and voting. Part of me wants to vote against the system and the entrenched. Another part of me knows, after watching the Clintons steal, cheat and suppress the vote here in both 2008 and 2016, that the whole thing is a farcical charade. I know lots of folks are working hard on beating this guy. I just can't get my heart into it. Which ironically I think is just what the Neoliberal owners of the party hoped to accomplish when they defrauded Bernie - the absolute crushing of the real Left's belief in elections, the system and democracy.

The nagging question persists: how best to overturn a rotten, corrupt system?

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"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

example of the pathology behind all this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHpN7X9iK3o

Starbucks Billionaire: You Can’t Have Healthcare Or College
The Jimmy Dore Show
Published on 8 Jun 2018

Howard Schultz may be running for President as a Democrat in 2020. He parrots right-wing corporate talking points.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.