Tag: Trumpcare

CBO: Defunding Planned Parenthood would lead to thousands more births

In the grand scheme of what Trumpcare would do to the people of this country, this outcome received little or no coverage.

The following article by Sandhya Somashekhar was posted on the Washington Post website March 13, 2017:

A congressional plan to make Planned Parenthood ineligible for federal funding would leave many women without services to help them avoid pregnancy, resulting in thousands of additional births, according to a new federal budget analysis.

The prediction came Monday as part of a much-awaited analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which assesses the fiscal impact of major legislative bills. It was part of a more sweeping look at a congressional health care bill that would repeal and replace the law known as Obamacare. Continue reading “CBO: Defunding Planned Parenthood would lead to thousands more births”

GOP Health Care Bill Recycles Tired Moralizing Of The Poor

The following article by Mary Sanchez was posted on the National Memo website March 13, 2017:

Donald Trump meets with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan on Capitol Hill. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Conservatives are a curious bunch. They profess a sunny faith, most of the time, in the unique power of free markets to lift society’s poor and afflicted. Yet when markets fail and government steps in to deliver social goods or services, to alleviate suffering or poverty or misdistribution, conservatives switch their tune to moral outrage.

Case in point: the current debate over repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act. The health care system set up by this law, commonly known as Obamacare, is not perfect but it made huge strides toward two vital social objectives: decreasing the number of uninsured Americans and putting a brake on the spiraling trend of national health care costs.

Some conservatives hate Obamacare because of the president whose namesake it is. Others hate it because they think anything the government does to soften the blows of free-market discipline is immoral. It spares the poor from their deserved punishment. And, of course, Obamacare operated through a framework of taxes and mandates and regulations — all things that good conservatives execrate. Continue reading “GOP Health Care Bill Recycles Tired Moralizing Of The Poor”

Fact-checking the White House’s rhetoric on the CBO report

The following article by Glenn Kessler and Michelle Ye Hee Lee was posted on the Washington Post website March 14, 2017:

White House press secretary Sean Spicer offered a number of attacks and claims during a news briefing dominated by the new Congressional Budget Office report on the House Republican replacement bill for the Affordable Care Act. The report estimated that 24 million fewer people would have health insurance in 2026 if the law were approved in its current form, causing political headaches for the effort to replace Obamacare. Here’s a guide to his rhetoric.

“CBO coverage estimates are consistently wrong and more importantly do not take into consideration the comprehensive nature of this three-prong plan to repeal and replace Obamacare with the American Health Care Act.”

Continue reading “Fact-checking the White House’s rhetoric on the CBO report”

Trump said no Americans would lose coverage under Obamacare repeal. Paul Ryan won’t make that promise.

The following article by Kelsey Snell was posted on the Washington Post website March 12, 2017:

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said Sunday that he doesn’t know how many Americans would lose coverage under his proposal to revise the Affordable Care Act, which is under fire from fellow Republicans, AARP and virtually every sector of the U.S. health-care industry.

“I can’t answer that question,” Ryan said in an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Continue reading “Trump said no Americans would lose coverage under Obamacare repeal. Paul Ryan won’t make that promise.”

Trump voters would be among the biggest losers in Republicans’ Obamacare replacement plan

The following article by Noam N. Levey was posted on the L.A. Times website March 12, 2017:

Americans who swept President Trump to victory — lower-income, older voters in conservative, rural parts of the country — stand to lose the most in federal healthcare aid under a Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, according to a Times analysis of county voting and tax credit data.

Among those hit the hardest under the current House bill are 60-year-olds with annual incomes of $30,000, particularly in rural areas where healthcare costs are higher and Obamacare subsidies are greater.

In nearly 1,500 counties nationwide, such a person stands to lose more than $6,000 a year in federal insurance subsidies. Ninety percent of those counties backed Trump, the analysis shows. Continue reading “Trump voters would be among the biggest losers in Republicans’ Obamacare replacement plan”

The House health plan: Here’s how the numbers don’t add up for the poor

The following article by Megan Foster Friedman was posted on The Conversation website March 12, 2017:

House Republicans introduced the American Health Care Act (AHCA), their proposal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA, also known as Obamacare).

At a press conference, Speaker Paul Ryan called this bill “an act of mercy.” For the most vulnerable, that characterization is ironic at best.

Yes, there are winners in this bill. But those who benefit would be predominantly young, healthy and less likely to need insurance or older, well off and more likely to be able to afford insurance. Continue reading “The House health plan: Here’s how the numbers don’t add up for the poor”

Trump Supporters Have the Most to Lose in the G.O.P. Repeal Bill

The following article by Neil Cohn was posted on the New York Times website March 10, 2017:

The people who stand to lose the most in tax credits under the House Republican health plan tended to support Donald J. Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, according to a new Upshot analysis.

Over all, voters who would be eligible for a tax credit that would be at least $1,000 smaller than the subsidy they’re eligible for under Obamacare supported Mr. Trump over Hillary Clinton by a seven-point margin. Continue reading “Trump Supporters Have the Most to Lose in the G.O.P. Repeal Bill”

GOP Less Generous than Obamacare for Older Americans

The following article by Stephen Ohlemacher was posted on the Associated Press website March 10, 2017:

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) listens to remarks next to a “Make America Sick Again” sign, during a news conference after meeting with President Barack Obama in the U.S. Capitol, January 4, 2017, in Washington, DC. Republicans have begun to move to repeal Obamacare as one of their priorities in the 115th Congress. Photo by Mike Theiler/UPI

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans hate “Obamacare,” so House GOP leaders freak out whenever their health care bill is compared to President Barack Obama’s law. But one reason some conservatives are branding the bill “Obamacare Lite” comes down to the tax credits to help consumers buy insurance.

Both tax credits target people who don’t get health insurance from their employer or from the government. They are both available to people even if they don’t make enough money to owe any federal income tax. And they are both entitlement programs — if you meet the criteria, you are entitled to the benefit.

But there are significant differences in the size and reach of the tax credits.

The Obamacare tax credits are designed to limit the share of income that people have to spend on health insurance. Continue reading “GOP Less Generous than Obamacare for Older Americans”

What the GOP health plan really means for taxes

The following article by Kelsey Snell was posted on the Washington Post website March 8, 2017:

When House Republicans unveiled on Monday a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, one thing was immediately clear: the new approach could create a major shift in taxes for low-and-middle income people while delivering a $600 billion tax break, primarily to the rich.

Republicans have long criticized the ACA for creating a whole new system of tax credits based on individual income levels intended to help people buy health insurance on established health-care exchanges. The new plan replaces those credits with a fresh series of tax subsidies based on age and income that are intended to make it easier to buy insurance on the private market. Continue reading “What the GOP health plan really means for taxes”