Keeping Abreast of Health Care

From CNN Money:

Republicans have wanted to repeal Obamacare for years — but they’ve wanted to overhaul Medicaid for far longer.

They are now getting their chance.

The health care legislation working its way through Congress would do much more than its stated purpose of repealing and replacing Obamacare. It would make the most far-reaching changes and deepest cuts to Medicaid in the program’s 52-year history.

“Medicaid: Sending it back to the states. Capping its growth rate. We’ve been dreaming of this since I’ve been around, since you and I were drinking at a keg,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said in March at an event hosted by the conservative National Review magazine.

(emphasis mine)

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I Feel Sick Already

From THE HILL:

House Republicans are taking fire from all sides as they seek to push through their plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare, known as the American Health Care Act (AHCA).

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has guaranteed the bill will pass Congress, but it won’t be a smooth ride to President Trump’s desk.

It’s all about the marketing, right? So I have taken the liberty of redesigning the GOP AHCA.

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Eric Cantor Sucks!

From THINKPROGRESS:

Having secured “draconian” cuts in a last-minute budget deal last week, House Republicans are hyping House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) new “Path to Prosperity” plan. The proposal professes to reform programs like Medicare and Medicaid to rein in spending by $6.2 trillion over the next decade. But as the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein notes, Ryan’s Medicare and Medicaid plans “rely on the same bait-and-switch: They use a reform to disguise a cut.” By making Medicare a voucher program and Medicaid a block grant program with $750 billion less in funding, Ryan’s plan forces seniors to pay more for the same benefits, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, and jeopardizes vital health care services for millions of low-income Americans.

Today on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace questioned House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) support for a plan in which Americans “pay more out of pocket.” Defending the proposal, Cantor argued that these programs sometimes provide a “safety net” for “people who frankly don’t need one” and that the shift of the burden from the government to the beneficiary will teach government “to do more with less”:

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It’s All About the Dough

From The Seattle Times:

Seniors and people with disabilities would pay much more for health care under a new Republican plan aimed at curbing the nation’s growing debt, a Congressional Budget Office analysis shows.

For example, by 2030, typical 65-year-olds would pay 68 percent of the cost of premiums, deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs, according to the CBO. They would pay 25 percent under the current Medicare system, the CBO said.

The GOP budget proposal, introduced Tuesday by House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, also would raise the eligibility age for subsidized health care and repeal big chunks of the health-care law that Congress approved last year.

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If He’s Ryan, He’s Lyin’

Paul Ryan unveiled a spending plan that would put the country on a “path to prosperity.”

To Eddie Munster Paul Ryan, a path to prosperity means screwing over kids, seniors, the disabled, and the poor.

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6 More Weeks of BS?

From The CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR:

In a retake recalling the film version of “Groundhog Day,” the Senate today redebated the 2010 health-care reform law – this time, in a bid to repeal it.

The measure to repeal was proposed as an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization bill. It failed a procedural challenge on a strict, party-line vote, 47 to 51. On. Jan. 19, House Republicans voted to repeal the health care law, 245 to 189. They were joined by three Democrats.

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Beat the Press!

From the LAS VEGAS SUN:

SPARKS — After more than a month dodging the press, Republican Senate nominee Sharron Angle on Wednesday invited reporters to an event intended to amplify her campaign message that lower taxes and less regulation are the only ways to spur economic recovery.

It was the first time since her primary victory that she had agreed to mingle with the media. Political observers speculated it might signal a shift in Angle’s post-primary strategy of using the media solely as fundraising mechanisms.

Alas, Angle’s more media-friendly moment was over almost as soon as it began.

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