Republicans release Obamacare replacement bill

House Republicans have released the American Health Care Act, legislation to replace Obamacare.

The legislation keeps President Barack Obama's signature health care reform's protections of pre-existing conditions, but strips away mandates on individuals and employers, as well as some taxes and subsidies.

House Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee also released plans to repeal and replace Obamacare in a document titled, "Budget Reconciliation Legislative Recommendations Relating to Repeal and Replace of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act."

Source

Excellent news here. I'll be excited to see how this shapes up. I'm one of the many people who haven't been able to have health insurance since Obamacare, so hopefully there will be some major changes.

a reply to: trollz

energycommerce.house.gov...

The above is a link to the bill.

no tax credits for a plan that covers abortion

that makes trump a liar

a reply to: syrinx high priest

that is not true
read the bill
there are provisions for abortions just not elective

a reply to: syrinx high priest

No, he didnt write the bill, Republican congress did

a reply to: syrinx high priest

Pregnancy isn't a disease.

No mandate!


yay!!!

trump said the new plan would have everything and cover everybody

this bill makes him a liar

it also makes congress liars, they promised a repeal of the ACA

originally posted by: syrinx high priest
trump said the new plan would have everything and cover everybody

this bill makes him a liar

it also makes congress liars, they promised a repeal of the ACA

This is a bill, not yet a law. So, no, not yet. But if it does get passed into law, does that also mean Obama lied when he, with a stern face, stated to the country that "if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor"?

See, the president has nothing to do with the writing of law. That is the job of Congress. I suggest you study up on the mechanics of the American judicial system.

a reply to: syrinx high priest

Lets see if he signs it...he didnt write...heck the last guy said i could keep my doctor and id pay 2500 less. Instead I lost my doctor paid 2500 more AND got taxed a Cadillac tax amounting to a 10k increase in my gross income...who lied?

Reading through it at the following link
www.dropbox.com...

Sec 115 is pretty hypocritical, basically it's a huge pile of money for states that didn't go along with medicaid expansion, in order to bring them into the fold, but also repealing medicaid expansion for those who did go along with it.

It looks like there's going to be quite a few issues with funding this thing. Sec 2204 looks to limit federal health care spending (subsidies for things like high risk pools and medicaid) to 15 billion for 2018, down to 10 billion by 2021.

Sec 133 is the one everyone needs to look at though. It's the continuous health insurance coverage incentive. This is the house plan (and this looks to be the freedom caucus bill, not the leadership bill) that's designed to replace the individual mandate. Basically, you're going to be allowed to drop health coverage, but if you drop it for any reason in order to pick coverage back up you'll have to pay a massive fine to the insurance companies.

There is no grace period on this, if you don't currently have insurance you will owe 30% of the total premiums you would have owed (without any subsidies, and at the highest rate available) as a penalty. That's for every month you don't have insurance. So to put some numbers on this, lets say you haven't had insurance for the past 3 years and to have insurance it would have cost you, 10,000, 12,000, and 15,000 for each of those years. That's $37,000. Meaning you owe 30% of that, or $11,100 in an upfront fine in order to be able to purchase coverage.

Nothing mandates you have to pay that, but if you get sick, need insurance, and can't pay it... you won't be getting medical treatment.

So overall, this is about equal to the Obamacare mandate. Previously it was 2.5% of income, with premiums designed to be 7.5% of income when all is said and done. Meaning you paid approximately 33% of premium costs whether or not you used the service. Now if you don't pay full costs, you'll be fined 30% of what you didn't use.

originally posted by: syrinx high priest
trump said the new plan would have everything and cover everybody

this bill makes him a liar

it also makes congress liars, they promised a repeal of the ACA

This is about as close to a repeal as you can get. This bill is pretty much the freedom caucus bill. Looks like Paul Ryans bill that they had been keeping secret, didn't get to see the light of day. This has everything they promised. No mandate, block grants, removing medicaid expansion, and all the rest. The legislation also repeals basically everything and replaces it with a much more conservative plan.

Whether these changes are for the better or not is a different argument, but if this bill actually passes I would say they came through on their promise to repeal and replace.

originally posted by: BlueJacket
a reply to: syrinx high priest

Lets see if he signs it...he didnt write...heck the last guy said i could keep my doctor and id pay 2500 less. Instead I lost my doctor paid 2500 more AND got taxed a Cadillac tax amounting to a 10k increase in my gross income...who lied?

The Cadilac tax remains in place. Assuming I actually understood what I was reading, it will apply to everything from the second least expensive silver tier plan and above.

a reply to: Aazadan

If you don't have insurance, or even want insurance, that should be your choice.

But if you find yourself suddenly ill with a disease and expect to pay close to nothing, then you'll be upset.

Healthcare is a choice, not a right.

So no mandate and allow pre existing conditions..

Wouldn't most people just go with no insurance then?

This would drive insurance companies out of business.

Socialized medicine in other countries sucks, will it be better here?

originally posted by: DBCowboy
No mandate!


yay!!!

It was replaced with something that costs you the exact same amount.

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: Aazadan

If you don't have insurance, or even want insurance, that should be your choice.

But if you find yourself suddenly ill with a disease and expect to pay close to nothing, then you'll be upset.

Healthcare is a choice, not a right.

That's one option, you can skip health care, keep all your money, get ill and die. Of course, if you get ill and suddenly realize you would prefer life to death, you now have no way to cover health care bills and are pretty much forced to die instead.

It doesn't sound like much of a choice to me.

Furthermore, what do you do about the people who can't afford insurance? The states just lost their Medicaid expansion, and all the funding that came with it. If you're too poor to afford even a bronze plan, you can avoid paying for insurance but there's going to be an ever increasing buy in that will prevent you from ever having insurance in the future.

originally posted by: AutonomousMeatPuppet
So no mandate and allow pre existing conditions..

Wouldn't most people just go with no insurance then?

This would drive insurance companies out of business.

Socialized medicine in other countries sucks, will it be better here?

No. Read Sec 133 in the bill, one of my above posts links to the proposed bill in a pdf you can search. I also gave a summary of it. Basically, every month you don't have insurance you'll incur a fine equal to 30% of a high tier plans cost. In order to buy insurance in the future, you must first pay off your fine in full.

So for example, lets use this websites costs:
www.valuepenguin.com...
Lets say you can only afford a bronze plan, but because bronze plans are worthless you choose to go without coverage. And you go without coverage for 2 years. The insurance company can fine you 30% of the platinum costs of $4360 per year which over 2 years is $2616. Now if you decide you do want insurance, you need to pay the company $2616 in order to be eligible to pay them $1999 for a bronze plan.

Of course, if you have a preexisting condition you may find yourself paying even more, because the fine is calculated at the time you buy, and if you have something that places you into a high risk pool, you now pay the backdated amount for 2 years of high risk pool costs.

Basically, they can't deny you coverage if you shove enough money in their faces, but if you're sick and uninsured they can once again deny you coverage.

originally posted by: Aazadan

originally posted by: DBCowboy
a reply to: Aazadan

If you don't have insurance, or even want insurance, that should be your choice.

But if you find yourself suddenly ill with a disease and expect to pay close to nothing, then you'll be upset.

Healthcare is a choice, not a right.

That's one option, you can skip health care, keep all your money, get ill and die. Of course, if you get ill and suddenly realize you would prefer life to death, you now have no way to cover health care bills and are pretty much forced to die instead.

It doesn't sound like much of a choice to me.

Basically what life is. Full of choices.

Furthermore, what do you do about the people who can't afford insurance? The states just lost their Medicaid expansion, and all the funding that came with it. If you're too poor to afford even a bronze plan, you can avoid paying for insurance but there's going to be an ever increasing buy in that will prevent you from ever having insurance in the future.

First off, to be perfectly blunt, the people that can't afford it are none of my business. I'm currently paying 15K a year just for my family. You going to cough up the cash so I can pay less? If not, then why bring it up?

When they eliminate the ban on interstate competition, it should lower the costs so everyone gets to pay less.