Tag: trump

How Republicans quietly sabotaged Obamacare long before Trump came into office

3/22/17

Risk corridors = the first ten years after ACA was implemented, insurance companies were expected to lose money because of the influx of sick people who had not had insurance previously.

The ACA promised to reimburse those loses for the first 10 years in order to get insurance companies on board.

Rubio and other Republicans refused to fully fund risk corridor reimbursement in 2015, so by 2016:

So the insurance companies did the only things they could.  In (mostly red) states with low incomes and thus poorer health, they simply pulled out of the marketplace altogether.  This has left some states with only one single insurer left.  In others, they jacked up their prices to make up their losses.

It all hit the fan in the fall of 2016, right before the election.

Rubio’s October Surprise was extraordinarily effective.  October 2016 saw an explosion of stories in the news about how health insurance companies were either pulling out of ACA exchanges, or jacking their prices up wildly.

It’s still in litigation now, but some of the effects can’t be mitigated.

Meanwhile, federal judge Thomas Wheeler of the US Court of Federal Claims, ruled recently (as reported last month by Forbes) that the feds actually have to pay back – to the tune of about $8 billion – the moneys lost by health insurance companies operationg in good faith.

But it’s way too late; dozens of nonprofits started to provide health insurance through the exchanges have already gone bankrupt, and the health insurance giants are both subsuming their smaller competitors and merging like there’s no tomorrow. Additionally, Wheeler’s ruling is certain to be appealed – meaning it’s in limbo for the moment.

Consolidation among health insurance giants means that there is little to no competition – regardless of whether or not you introduce competition across state lines.  Which sets the stage for the giants increasing premiums.

So, yet again, the GOP is quite happy to throw their constituency under the bus in order to achieve their aims.

How Republicans quietly sabotaged Obamacare long before Trump came into office

Trump’s Executive Order on Obamacare Leads to a Big Tax Change — The Motley Fool

So, now that it appears that the ACA will remain in place, Trump’s executive order from January 20th relaxing the individual mandate becomes relevant again.

Sean Williams Feb 27, 2017 at 8:27AM

In 2014 and 2015, … the IRS had made it clear that any Form 1040s (the standard tax form) filed for the 2016 calendar tax year without line 61 filled in – the line that would demonstrate to the IRS if you had health coverage or paid the SRP – would be rejected.

But Trump’s executive order changed everything.

According to Yahoo Finance, the IRS will once again be accepting electronic and paper tax returns for calendar year 2016 without line 61 filled in.

Now here’s where things get tricky. On one hand, the ACA is still the health law of the land, even if it seems to be living on borrowed time. This means the individual mandate is still law, and those who choose not to purchase health insurance should be paying the SRP, unless they’re exempt. On the other hand, without line 61 filled in, the IRS has no guarantee that the taxpayer paid the SRP or was even insured in 2016.

The IRS has suggested that if it has a question about a particular tax return it’ll follow up with those taxpayers after the filing process is over. However, the IRS has also previously said that it wouldn’t garnish wages or go after a person’s property for not paying the SRP. In effect, Trump’s executive order has made it nearly impossible for the IRS to collect the SRP or to concretely verify an individuals’ health insurance status.

The individual mandate broadens the health characteristics of the people in the insurance pool, and so keeps premiums down.  

If the administration does nothing, chaos ensues over the next several weeks as taxes come due.  Which sounds about right for this administration.  You know that enough someones somewhere will test whether or not the IRS is going to enforce the individual mandate.  

The individual mandate will be law, but I’m betting that the administration is not going to enforce it.  Both this administration and the GOP are invested in the ACA imploding, and I’m sure they will do so by undermining the individual mandate under the cover of claiming to give the people back “choice.”  But choosing between insurance you can’t afford because the premiums have risen too high because of market forces, and insurance you can’t afford because the government’s insurance tax breaks overwhelmingly go to people who make over $200,000, is no real choice.

Trump’s Executive Order on Obamacare Leads to a Big Tax Change — The Motley Fool

Analysis | Why Republicans were in such a hurry on health care

By Matt O’Brien  March 25 at 8:45 AM

But there’s a reason the GOP was pushing a bill that would have taken
everything people don’t like about the healthcare system and made it
worse. That’s the fact that it would have allowed them to pass two
permanent tax cuts for the rich. Anyone, you see, can pass a tax cut
that expires after ten years. But if you want to make it last—and you
don’t have 60 votes in the Senate—then you need to find a way to pay for
it (or at least look like you did). Taking health insurance away from
poor and sick people would have done that just for the Obamacare taxes,
which primarily hit people in the top 1 or 2 percent. Indeed, as you can
see below in the chart from the Urban Institute,
the combination of tax cuts for the rich and benefit cuts for the poor
that was the GOP healthcare plan would have been a reverse Robin Hood
that redistributed income from people making $50,000 or less to
mostly those making $200,000 or more.

Now, the crazy thing is that this first tax cut for the rich (in the
form of Obamacare “repeal and replace”) would have made a second one
(this one coming in the form of “tax reform”) look more affordable.

That’s
because, due to parliamentary rules, tax reform can’t lose any revenue
outside the 10-year budget window if it’s going to be permanent. The
question, though, is lose any revenue compared to what. If
Republicans had repealed Obamacare’s $1 trillion worth of taxes before
they did tax reform, that’s $1 trillion less they’d have to come up with
to make it look like tax reform wasn’t losing any money. Now, without
those phantom savings, tax reform, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan admitted, will be “more difficult.”

Analysis | Why Republicans were in such a hurry on health care

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH: March 24

pocochina:

HEALTH CARE:

ACA REPEAL FAILS!
Speaker Paul Ryan pulled the bill, which means that the Republican
majority didn’t even bother to vote on it. This is huge. If you
showed up for this – if you called, protested, went to a town hall
– you helped save tens of thousands of lives.

While nothing is
stopping Republicans from trying to repeal Obamacare in a different
way, a defeat this humiliating
is likely to discourage them from trying in the foreseeable future.
Ryan and Trump can’t throw each other under the bus fast enough,
the various factions in congress have turned on each other, and
they’re still on the hot seat for being filthy traitors. (I guess
they did get tired of winning!) Meanwhile, Schumer is breaking some kind of record for smug
concern-trolling, and the once and future Speaker literally kicked off her shoes for
a celebratory little dance on the Capitol lawn.
And rightly so, because this was only possible because of Democratic
discipline and solidarity. Anyone who tells you the two parties are
the same but Democrats are flops is trying to screw with you.

To be clear:
human dumpster fire
and possible criminal
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price still has a lot of
power to undermine the bill. Congressional Republicans can and will
pull every shady trick in the book to sabotage it just out of spite.
They are also in a position to wreck American public health by
destroying access to reproductive health care, poisoning us by
gutting environmental regulations, and trashing workplace safety
laws. People have to stay engaged. And also, if a few more folks had
bothered to be engaged six months ago we could be celebrating
progress instead of avoiding disaster.

All that’s
important! But what’s most important is that the millions of people
who would have suffered or died if the Republicans had gotten their
way are not going to lose access to their health care.

RUSSIA:

Remember on
Monday (WE WERE SO MUCH YOUNGER THEN) when the House Intelligence
Committee had that public hearing into Russian interference? That was
supposed to be the first public hearing on the issue, with a second
one scheduled for early next week. The committee’s credibility came
into question on Wednesday, when committee chair Devin Nunes found
out…..something, which he shared immediately with the Speaker of
the House before running over to the White House, but has still not
disclosed to the rest of the committee.
Today he decided – abruptly, and again without any input from the
rest of the committee – to cancel Tuesday’s hearing.

Nunes was
actually somewhat involved in this story before he decided to make a
scene yesterday. He was on the Trump transition team – that is, the
group of people who help to staff an administration between Election
Day and Inauguration Day. Just that he is in such a powerful and
sensitive position during these investigations is pretty sketchy.
When asked about people now under suspicion of collaboration, Roger
Stone and Carter Page, he pretended not to know who they were. Like,
you probably recognize their names, even if you’re not paying close
attention, but he was on the transition team and somehow didn’t
know ‘nuthin.

Amnesia seems to
have been contagious on the Trump transition team: Mike Pence was the
head of the transition team and yet claimed to be unaware of former
National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had been talking to the
Russian ambassador before Inauguration Day.
When Flynn was exposed in mid-February, Pence lied about not knowing
what Flynn had done. He had been briefed on January 26th
that Flynn had been recorded in those conversations with the Russian
ambassador by former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates. Yates was
fired four days later.
At the time, it appeared as if this was due to her refusal to defend
the unconstitutional Muslim ban.

And that’s
where we come back around to Tuesday’s hearing, for which Sally
Yates was one of three people scheduled to testify publicly. Again, nobody – not even the rest of the Intelligence Committee – knows why Nunes canceled the hearing.

So! A good news/baffling news end to the week. Keep your eyes peeled.

theonion:

WASHINGTON—Explaining that the legislation would create major gaps in treatment for tens of millions of people, a new report released Thursday by the American Public Health Association found that anxiety disorders induced by Donald Trump’s presidency will not be covered under the new GOP healthcare bill. “Under the proposed American Health Care Act, those experiencing anxiety over the impact of the Trump administration on the economy, civil rights, or the environment, or just suffering from generalized distress over the future of the nation, will have to pay exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses for any therapies required to cope,” said policy analyst Jason Coates, adding that not even the groups who will need treatment most, such as immigrants, women, and the poor, would be covered. “Even as President Trump continues to enact more of his controversial agenda and make antagonizing public statements, millions will remain vulnerable to the resulting mental health issues. And if left untreated over an entire four-year term, they could develop into more serious conditions that will end up costing taxpayers much more in the long run.” The report also acknowledged, however, that Trump-related anxiety would result in billions of dollars in savings for elder care due to the shortened lifespan of many seniors. 

a few things to be aware of tomorrow

pocochina:

Alright, my babies. Shit is going to get real in the next….10 hours, and that’s just based on what we can project. News coming off of Capitol Hill tomorrow:

SCOTUS

The Senate Judiciary Committee will begin its hearing of Supreme Court Nominee Neil Gorsuch.

Gorsuch is a first-order right wing ideologue. Now, nobody who wasn’t a craven partisan hack would be in front of the Judiciary Committee tomorrow, because this is not a legitimately open seat. Even if Orange Julius were a legitimate president – he’s not – this seat was President Obama’s to fill when Justice Scalia died last spring. There was absolutely no constitutional justification for Senate Republicans’ refusal to consider Obama nominee Merrick Garland, and no judge with a good faith commitment to the constitution would agree to take it.

Even among craven partisan hacks, though, Gorsuch stands out. He is rapaciously hostile to the constitutional protection of LGBTQ equality and reproductive rights. He has supported proponents of unconstitutional voter disenfranchisement. He’s a Mike Pence pick: a stone-cold sadist with table manners.

A preemptive note of caution on what you’re probably going to hear from the purity trolls who would rather kneecap the opposition than oppose the regime themselves: Senate Democrats are in a really tricky position here because the courts generally are the only formal civic institution besides the Democratic party who have actually been doing what they’re supposed to do in the face of the Trump threat. Democrats can’t stop Gorsuch from being confirmed, but whatever grandstanding they do runs the risk of damaging the potency and independence of the judicial branch. Likely, the best thing they can do is participate in the formalities, while using every minute to drag Trump. Expect to hear a lot about emoluments, religious freedom, and perjury.

RUSSIA

The House Intelligence Committee will begin its first public hearing on Russian interference in the 2016 election tomorrow.

There are about a half dozen people who will be testifying tomorrow, though the headliner is FBI Director James Comey. Yes, that would be the same James Comey who threw the election to Trump,, who now has to be dragged out in front of cameras to admit that he did so while investigating the Trump inner circle and possibly Trump himself – for, you know, actual crimes, not Emailing While Female. While unlikely to lie under oath, Comey can mostly be depended on to feed his gluttonous ego, probably by some combination of grandstanding about Trump’s nonsensical “wiretapp” allegations from a couple weeks ago and relishing his ability to withhold information whether he needs to or not.

It’s vital to understand as much of the background as you can, which starts with understanding that this is just the tip of the iceberg. There is an ongoing investigation into a sensitive issue, which generally implies that there is some information that nobody knows. Because that investigation is ongoing, there’s a lot that some people doing the talking tomorrow know but will not be able to say. All members of Congress have gotten some classified briefings; the House and Senate Intelligence Committees have gotten more in-depth briefings; the party leaders from each house and high-ranking members of relevant committees have gotten even more comprehensive intelligence.

While it’s maddening to know that there’s so much we’re not being told, this extended process is a tacit confirmation that something very serious is being discussed. It is not normal for senators to be summoned to the basement two at a time to be briefed behind what’s basically a real-life Muffliato spell and come out looking spooked, and yet, here are the ranking members of the Senate Judiciary Committee:

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That’s Democrat Dianne Feinstein speaking for herself and the committee chair. He appears to be more shaken up than she is – and here’s how rattled she seemed to the constituents who have been watching her for decades:

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Point being: this is real. We don’t know what “this” is, and we’re not going to know much by this time tomorrow, but there’s very good reason to believe that you need to brace yourself for something.

COMING SOON:

The House of Representatives plans to vote on the repeal of the Affordable Care Act on Thursday, and the cartoonishly sociopathic budget remains a pressing issue. None of this is a distraction. All of it is for real.

WHAT CAN I DO?

  • Call your senators and tell them not to confirm Gorusch. Call your representative and remind them that their constituents don’t want the ACA repealed, and that the Trump-Ryan budget is shockingly immoral.
  • Be proactively cautious about passing on misinformation. If you’re going to share something, great, but check it out first.

Note that this is the stuff that we know about which is planned for tomorrow. There’s going to be a lot going on, some of which is in areas where context is even more important than usual. I would strongly recommend that you resist the urge to try and follow everything by sneaking peeks at your Twitter feed throughout the day. If you, like most people, aren’t going to have the time to immerse yourself in the various stories, it’s probably better that you pick one or two people to help you follow along an issue, and then catch Maddow tomorrow night to fill you in on everything else. I’d recommend @imillhiser for the Gorsuch hearing and @andreachalupa, @russian_starr, or @sarahkendzior for Trump/Russia. I don’t know which thing @JoyAnnReid is going to be on throughout the day, but she’s usually pretty active and is unlikely to steer you wrong.

As usual, I’ll pass on a helpful summary if I find one. Remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint.

jadelyn:

berniesrevolution:

These guys are literally asking what “benefits” (to the rich) Meals on Wheels provides and since it doesn’t give any benefits (to the rich) they should be dismantled.

This is the problem with the hypercapitalist mindset that good businessmen make good politicians, than government should run on business principles.

Because if you’re running a business, it’s entirely reasonable to ask “what’s the ROI for this program?” and to scale it back or abandon it if you’re not seeing good ROI.

But that’s because the aim of business is to make money. The aim of government is not about making money, it’s about responsible stewardship of shared resources and doing the best we can to take care of our people.

And yet here we are, living the plutocratic dream under the control of a bunch of businessmen who ask “are we making enough money off of this?” about programs to care for the poor.

Tldr eat the rich. It’s the only viable solution at this point. We’re too far gone for anything else.

Source: berniesrevolution