Tag: ahca

A Little-Noticed Target in the House Health Bill: Special Education

MAY 3, 2017

With all the sweeping changes the Republican bill would impose, little attention has been paid to its potential impact on education. School districts rely on Medicaid, the federal health care program for the poor, to provide costly services to millions of students with disabilities across the country. For nearly 30 years, Medicaid has helped school systems cover costs for special education services and equipment, from physical therapists to feeding tubes. The money is also used to provide preventive care, such as vision and hearing screenings, for other Medicaid-eligible children.

…

The new law would cut Medicaid by $880 billion, or 25 percent, over 10 years and impose a “per-capita cap” on funding for certain groups of people, such as children and the elderly — a dramatic change that would convert Medicaid from an entitlement designed to cover any costs incurred to a more limited program.

AASA, an advocacy association for school superintendents, estimates that school districts receive about $4 billion in Medicaid reimbursements annually. In a January survey of nearly 1,000 district officials in 42 states, nearly 70 percent of districts reported that they used the money to pay the salaries of health care professionals who serve special education students.

A Little-Noticed Target in the House Health Bill: Special Education

Trumpcare

anexplanationofunfortunateevents:

I am never going to tell you not to look into something for yourself.
I will, however, suggest that if you are going to dig into this bill,
maybe also set aside some time for a palate-cleanser, like Oliver
Twist, or The Hunger Games. What you need to know is that yes, it
is that bad. If you see a headline or snippet and think “pft,
that seems a little dramatic” then you should probably be
suspicious that the source is underselling it. 


This bill punishes people for things for which they are blameless:
receiving a cancer diagnosis, or having a baby through a c-section.
It punishes people for responsible behavior, like treating a chronic
health issue before it gets bad, and for really difficult and
admirable behavior, like reporting an abuser for the criminal he is.

If you are going to read more, some terms:

ACA = Affordable Care Act = Obamacare

AHCA = American Health Care Act = this travesty

CBO = Congressional Budget Office. When you hear about them “scoring”
a bill, it means they’re approximating what implementing it will
cost. The House passed this bill without waiting for the CBO to tell them what it would cost. (Its estimate of Trumpcare 1.0 was horrifying, and a new study shows even worse outcomes.)

What you can do:

Find out who your member of Congress is and how they voted. If they
didn’t support the bill, then you can donate to one of the groups who are working to flip the house in 2018, such as Swing Left,
Daily Kos, or the DCCC. This will help them fund Democratic
challengers, and it might help scare some Republicans into line. 

If you’re represented by someone who did vote for the bill, punish
them. Make an example out of them so that your senators don’t think there will even be a short-term reward for supporting repeal. 

If you’re not involved in a local activist group, look up the Town
Hall Project and Indivisible groups in your district. 

It’s also worth being ready to push your senator. Watch The Center
for American Progress (@amprog on Tumblr doesn’t seem to be
frequently updated, but they’re also on Facebook and Twitter), or Indivisible on Facebook or Twitter. They’ll tell you when it’s time to
move. 

And, as ever, when one of your dumber friends starts yelling about
WHY DIDN’T THE DEMOCRATS STOP THIS!! say “because Democrats are
in the minority, because people like you don’t bother to show up
for midterms.”

While House passes GOP health-care bill, Senate prepares to do its own thing

By Sean Sullivan, Paige Winfield Cunningham and Kelsey Snell

May 4 at 7:24 PM

Republican senators are signaling that their strategy will be rooted in crafting their own replacement for the Affordable Care Act. It remains unclear how closely that measure will resemble the one narrowly passed in the House on Thursday or whether Republican senators will resolve their stark differences.

A small group of GOP senators met Thursday morning in the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to begin outlining their health-care priorities, said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), McConnell’s top deputy.

…

The measure’s original version, introduced in March by Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), already contained elements at risk of being struck out in the Senate under budget reconciliation rules that allow tax and spending changes but not broader policy changes.

That proposal initially left many of the ACA’s insurance regulations alone — with the goal of ensuring it would pass muster with the Senate parliamentarian, a nonpartisan officer of the Senate who decides on what may go in a reconciliation bill — but not all of them.

The version of the bill the House passed Thursday undercuts the ACA’s insurance regulations even more by giving states a path to opt out of federal requirements for insurers to cover certain “essential” health benefits — and to allow them to charge sick people the same premiums as healthy people.

The GOP bill would allow insurers to charge older Americans five times what they charge younger people, as opposed to three times as much under current law.

And it would enable insurers to hike premiums by 30 percent for people who don’t remain continuously covered. Health-policy experts, including conservative ones, have noted that the parliamentarian may decide those provisions need to be stripped out.

While House passes GOP health-care bill, Senate prepares to do its own thing

House Republicans just passed Trumpcare. So what’s next?

reincepriebus:

Things this bill does:

  1. Only covers 5% of people with pre-existing conditions.
  2. Exempts Congress from the worst parts of this bill, though they say they’ll fix that.
  3. Lets insurers once again put annual and lifetime limits on coverage for people with employer plans, effectively ends Medicaid expansion, leaves gaps in benefits, threatens Medicaid home- and community-based services for people with disabilities, and more.

The bill goes on to the Senate, where many are saying it’s dead on arrival. Regardless, we need to send a message to House Republicans that they’ll pay for their “YES” votes by losing their seats. Here’s what you can do:

  1. Use Contacting Congress to find out who represents you in the House.
  2. If your representative voted “YES” [here’s the list]: Use Contacting Congress to call their office and tell them you disapprove of their vote.
  3. Whether your representative voted yes or not, do the following:
  4. Donate to SwingLeft’s campaign to raise funds for Democratic challengers to the 35 swing district Republicans who voted for TrumpCare.
  5. Use Town Hall Project to find out if your representative is holding a town hall during recess. So far, only 6 of the 217 are.
  6. Sign up to volunteer for SwingLeft and/or check out Indivisible Guide for more actions for you to take.

After you’ve done that, you can contact your Senators. Use the same website listed first above (Contacting Congress) to find your two Senators. Give them a call, show up at their town halls, and donate to their Democratic opponents if they indicate that they’ll vote for TrumpCare.

The only way we’re going to take down this bill is if we keep the pressure on the GOP and let them know that voting for it will result in them losing their seats.

  1. Find out if you’re registered to vote. If not, find out how to.
  2. Here are some answers to some questions you might have about registering.
  3. Student voters: This is for you.
  4. What to bring with you to the polls.
  5. Click here for more voting information, and to find out who’s going to be on your next ballot.

Special Elections coming up:

Most other midterms are November 6th, 2018. Get ready.