What happens if the House GOP health bill actually passes? Then it gets really ugly.

[PA Democrat]

Just to catch us up, after the first version of the AHCA failed because it was opposed by both moderate Republicans and the ultra-right Freedom Caucus, lawmakers tried to make the bill more cruel, in the hopes that the extreme conservatives would find it pleasing enough to vote for. One of the changes they came up with was to allow states to essentially gut the ACA’s provision requiring insurance companies to cover people with preexisting conditions. Depending on what you include, that’s somewhere between one quarter and one half of all non-elderly Americans.

The preexisting conditions question is quickly becoming the axis around which this debate is revolving, which is understandable, given the large portion of the population whose fates are at stake. Republicans insist that their bill actually protects all those tens of millions of Americans, but make no mistake: if you’re one of them and this bill passes, your life will become hugely more complicated, potentially more costly and possibly in danger if you’re unlucky.

What this all comes down to is a political calculation every Republican member of the Senate and House is going to make. On one side is keeping the promise they made to their base to repeal the ACA. On the other side is the political danger any version of the AHCA will present to them.


And that danger is almost incalculably high. While the details of the bill may change, we know for certain that it will be spectacularly unpopular. There’s just no way around that. It will boot tens of millions off their insurance. It will endanger coverage for tens of millions more. And while there will be some winners — mostly young, healthy, well-off people who will wind up paying less for their insurance — their numbers will be dwarfed by the losers. When people have to once again go through the onerous process of documenting every pill they’ve taken and ache they’ve had checked out when they apply for coverage — which you don’t have to do now, but you will if Republicans get their way — they’re going to be seriously ticked off.

[link:https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/05/03/what-happens-if-the-house-gop-health-bill-actually-passes-then-it-gets-really-ugly/?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-f%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.9e0e39412d6b|

[PA Democrat]

1. Interesting point worth noting. In order to protect the bill from a filibuster in the Senate

the bill cannot include allowing insurance companies to sell policies across state lines. In order to draft a bill that qualifies as "reconciliation" it cannot contain any non-budgetary provisions, otherwise it is open to a filibuster.

The Republicans crow about how their plan will make insurance more affordable through competition across state lines. So are they willing to scrap every BIT of cover for their claim that they give a damn about "improving" health care?

[NCjack]

2. Repugs will tell all lies necessary to secure a big tax break for the rich. nt

[PA Democrat]

3. But if they think this is not going to bite then in the a$$

they are in for a shock. People notice things like losing their health insurance or seeing an astronomical rate hike.