Senate Takes First Step Toward Repeal Of Obamacare

The Senate tradition is called "vote-a-rama" — hours and hours of voting on amendment after amendment to a non-binding budget resolution.

At about 1:30 a.m. Republicans achieved what they had set out to do. By a final vote of 51-48, the Senate approved a measure which calls for eliminating key elements of the Affordable Care Act in a manner not subject to a Democratic filibuster.

Best guess is the Senate is still several weeks away from repealing Obamacare — and Democrats went into Wednesday night with a messaging plan. Use vote-a-rama to get Republicans on the record about what may come next.

Source

I'm surprised this hasn't been posted yet. At 1:30 AM this morning the Senate voted on the first step towards repealing the ACA. The final vote ended up at 51-48 in favor. The lone voice of dissent on the GOP's side was Rand Paul while Diane Feinstein was absent for the Democrats.

Other notable events that transpired is that the Republicans voted down amendments that would protect such popular provisions as allowing a dependent to stay on their parents' insurance until they're 26 and the preexisting condition clause.

While Trump claims he has a plan to replace the ACA the GOP senators gave no indication that they have any plan other than to repeal. This was the reason behind Paul voting the way he did. Even then the plan Trump outlined during his campaign isn't going to fix anything. He argued moving towards HSAs. The problem with this is that it does nothing for the working class. His other big proposition was allowing insurance companies to compete across state lines. But the largest insurance companies are already doing this.

The GOP have had years to come up with a suitable replacement to the ACA and yet now that they have their shot it seems like they're flying blind. If things continue down this path it will destroy the GOP's chances in 2018 and 2020.

a reply to: Xcalibur254

Ripping the shoes off of Americans before sweeping up all the broken glass surrounding them.

Stupid.

My entire problem with the ACA is the lack of affordability and the "tax" that it is.
It's not "affordable" by any means, and to mandate it as a tax is abhorrent.
But we are here.

It doesn't surprise me that Paul voted the way he did. He seems to be the only level-headed CONgressmen out there. At least he knows that they need a replacement, but I wonder what he believes is a suitable one. Maybe he and a few others should rally together and create one?

As for the others...I think they are shooting themselves in the foot.
There needs to be a well made plan to replace the current ridiculous one, before it can be repealed.
I agree with Rand.

Making America great again, one plan-less vote at a time.
Its sad/good to see the reps grudge against nobama take center stage instead of the best interests of the people by having a sound replacement for health care for the plebeians who voted with eyes wide shut.

The best is yet to come.

Now we will go back to the days where they can put liens against your property. People with pre existing conditions put in the lepers pool. Good ole Christians.

a reply to: havok

The thing with the individual mandate is that it was required to cover the preexisting condition clause. As for the affordability, there are plenty of people saying that premiums went up less with the ACA than they would have without it.

Is the thing perfect? No. But it's definitely better than what we had.

So they repealed everything that was remotely decent about it, but left the fees and rediculous prices?

Poor people will suffer and it's ironic because a lot of poor people swear by Trump.

a reply to: Xcalibur254

I guess.

I am more in the camp that the American people pay enough in taxes every year to cover the majority of costs in healthcare alone, and if we broke down our taxes seriously and started spending them on our own population instead of foreign nations that oppose us, we would not be in this situation. Congress just doesn't have a healthy control over what gets spent and we all can see that our roads are failing, infrastructure is crumbling and overall health of the nation is dismal. Let's face facts here...we have the money to do it...the government just doesn't want to.

It doesn't make sense how the taxpayers can invest trillions each year into this nation, but we can't afford to make healthcare a right, not a tax.

But then again, I am not the only one who thinks this way.

a reply to: havok

Great.

Now its not only the fault of Big Government, but of other nations as well.

Maybe the problem, the REAL problem is not so far away from yourself?

why do I get the feeling that they are gonna strip obamacare to the point of putting the entire healthcare industry into crisis mode without even much of a mention as far as what the replacement will be and then suddenly out of the blue they are gonna come up with something twice the size of obamacare, that is twice as costly, saying we have to pass it now, no time to read this, just pass it, we can find out what's in it later.... save our healthcare industry!!
and we are gonna end up with something twice as profitable for the insurance and healthcare corps but twice as bad for the majority of people?

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Now read that AGAIN.

Maybe one more time for good measure.


First im not a fan of revoking ACA without at least some kind of REAL plan ready to be implemented.

However, the health care system in the US is a joke. Its a hodgepodge of private and federal money and there are too many opportunities to fleece the people, the government, and other institutions. We could rightly say the entire system, as with many such systems is rife with corruption. To say its better than nothing might be true, but you could say that about ANY medical care all over the world even the worst. I suppose you could say that if for every 10 people that go into the hospital with a deadly disease half go home and the other half dont, where without medical intervention they would all die.

But we can and should do better.

Trump is shaking things up. It will be painful and inconvenient. But this is America we are talking about....and we spend more on our military than almost all the other countries combined.....we have a prison system with more prisoners per capita than any other country....we have some serious issues and those issues are caused by bad management and too many opportunites for cronyism to fleece and take advantage.

We have a public school system that is funded by tax payer dollars. Why cant we have hospitals that are based on the same model?

I think if the money was managed properly and solid, redundant oversight was implemented to insure the proper use of all funds that we could TOTALLY have FREE healthcare at perhaps a slightly lower standard than might be available for privately insured people. This is how they do it in Germany where i live. I'm american....and i have german insurance (as many others do who live here). The costs are negligible and the care is of a very high quality....much higher than i experienced in the US my entire life before coming here. What ACA is is NOTHING like the socialized healthcare they have here. If Trump wants to do the right thing he needs to model the US healthcare system after Germanys.


It would be stupid simple. Trump tells all hospitals that receive more than a certain percentage of federal funding are required by law to provide FREE health care for anyone under a certain income. DONE! Done deal. Stupid simple. There can be caveats to that of course, as there would need to be. Free yearly or bi annual checkups with the whole works included. For emergencies the Fed picks up the tab. If there are those who appear to be abusing the system you have local inspectors who handle it on a case by case basis. Most people dont enjoy going to the doctor so i think those cases would be rather few. There can be incentive programs, in additional to federal funding that provides ample reimbursement or other benefits to participating hospitals and medical staff. I'm talking about discounts on goods and services for the medical staff, discounts on equipment for the participating hospitals. I mean really guys....the list is endless of the ways in which a person could make this work.

Can someone explain to me why its so difficult to provide free or nearly free basic, life saving healthcare to people in the lower income tax brackets?

there are many ways to skin a cat.....its time to come up with problem solving ideas.

a reply to: dawnstar

The entire healthcare industry is in free fall. The ACA is abysmal and the notion that you are forced to purchase a privately owned product is unconstitutional.

Government is too big...all that needs to be done is let health insurance be sold across state lines require pre existing conditions to be covered and stay out of citizens business.

More people lost their healthcare than gained it under this horrible law, but people who contribute nothing are now valued more than those who do...not that I dontvwant to care for my fellow man...but this law is rife with problems and needs to go away. I went from paying 300 to 715 bucks a month for a family of 3 and my deductible doubled, how is that good?

a reply to: tribal

You have a very good point and I believe we could do the German model also. But none of us got elected to congress and the replacement that I could find by republicans is FAR from any of your ideas. The poor and working poor will be screwed, bigly.

www.theatlantic.com...

a reply to: tribal

Can someone explain to me why its so difficult to provide free or nearly free basic, life saving healthcare to people in the lower income tax brackets?

I believe it's called medicaid. too bad they are so selective about who should get it that a widow with absolutely no income ends up laughing at the doctor who's doing the physical for social security when he tell her that that she needs to see a doctor as soon as possible because of the results of the tests he has run...

trump is too sensitive to businesses, he's not gonna tell the healthcare industry that they can't have their great profits and high salaries for upper management, it's just so not what he believes in. he's gonna tank our healthcare system is my bet. and in the end there will probably be a law saying that even that widow with no income should be paying out insane premiums for policies that would serve her no purpose really or pay a the tax.

Great news!! At least for the millions of us that had our insurance plans that we liked cancelled, or the price jacked up 2000%.

Typical Democrat doom and gloom stories to follow.

nvm

a reply to: angeldoll

Hey..how about folks go get a job and pay for their own #?

The aca didnt exist 8 years ago what a lame stat...tax cut my arse...

a reply to: BlueJacket

The individual mandate is there to cover the preexisting condition clause. Without it the insurance companies would either be taking a major loss to cover patients with preexisting conditions or the cost of insurance for those people would be so astronomically high as to make it impossible for them to afford.

I also don't understand this whole "Let them compete across state lines," thing. Companies like BCBS, Aetna, Cigna, and Caremark are already doing this.

originally posted by: BlueJacket
a reply to: angeldoll

Hey..how about folks go get a job and pay for their own #?

The aca didnt exist 8 years ago what a lame stat...tax cut my arse...

Thank you for watching out for the billionaires of America. They obviously need your support.

a reply to: dawnstar

yeah, and see im one of those weirdos that actually likes a "free market" and capitalism who ALSO believes we can easily provide a free minimum income and health insurance to certain demographics. America is rich in resources...we are the 2nd or 3rd largest oil producer in the world, have tons of natural resources.....it would be stupid easy to make america not just great again, but usher in a new Renaissance setting loose all the ideas and creativity locked up in people who are too busy trying to eek out a miserable existence under the current oppressive system.

For example....why arent all cities that can grow things planting eatable plants and food everywhere instead of ornamental plants that are good for nothing? I remember Seattle was going to TRY it.....i dont think it ever happened.

The point is that selfish people who enjoy WITHHOLDING from those they think dont deserve are often the psychopaths that find their ways into power structures of control. Those people have GOT TO GO.

I have a family member who works for a local governmental office that helps people in crisis and gets people set up on food stamps, WIC and other state assistance programs. This family member has told me so many times how some people they work with are stingy, conceited, nasty, hateful people who appear to actually ENJOY turning people away because they were late for their appointment, and thus receive no food stamps or critically important items for their baby like formula. This family member told me that one of the co workers would purposely HIDE the big cans of formula in a storage closet so they would expire and she could take them home and give them to her animals.

If you want to know why America is in such sad shape, its because of psychos like that lady who use government programs to enrich themselves while withholding from those who need the help the most. I have the inside scoop on how this crap works. Believe me, it goes all the way to the county commissioner. These people are in it for themselves...they DO NOT care about other people, especially the poor and needy so if you were inclined to be a whistleblower who are you going to report things to? The crooked commissioner who goes to "business lunches" every day with the upper management of the various cities so they can talk about their expensive vacations and golf?


UGH...i would be a dangerous man with the levers of power because i would get rid of every one of those jerks i could find and i would open the flood gates to the poor and needy. Unfortunately.....GOOD people dont WANT to be in positions of power and control....they just want to go about their lives and not stir the pot. Unfortunately that is exactly the mindset that got us into this mess. Good people not speaking truth to power.....not willing to stand up and fight for the poor and afflicted...and i hate to say it, but the churches have been instrumental in programming this "do nothing and wait for Jesus" mentality that has only given much freer reign to evil than it might otherwise have.

Rant over. (breath breath)