• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

Never forget that he train is barreling down on Trump, even as he dances on the tracks.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

It’s a new day. Light all those Biden polls of young people on fire and throw away the ashes.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Mobile Menu

  • Four Directions Montana
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2024 Elections
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Anderson On Health Insurance / Potentially good news everybody

Potentially good news everybody

by David Anderson|  March 29, 20177:02 am| 41 Comments

This post is in: Anderson On Health Insurance

FacebookTweetEmail

Two ACA related stories from yesterday.

The first is from the Hill on the Cost Sharing Reduction subsidies:

Key House Republicans on healthcare say they want to find a way to fund ObamaCare payments that they previously sued the Obama administration over.

The payments, known as cost-sharing reductions, reimburse insurers for providing discounted deductibles for low-income ObamaCare enrollees. If the payments were canceled, insurers warn they could pull out of the market because of the hole left in their budgets, causing chaos….
top Republicans say they realize they need to fund the payments. Providing that funding would go a long way to stabilizing the market and removing a major source of insurer anxiety

If CSR is funded with 100% certainty, insurers will get into the market. Every other risk can be priced into the premiums that are to be submitted this summer. CSR cut-off risk effectively can not be priced into rate submissions. If CSR is cleanly funded, that would be an excellent indicator that the Trump Administration will at most clip the ankles of the ACA instead of making a studs up tackle straight into its knees.

And now onto Kansas:

Big news: KS legislature has sent Brownback a Medicaid expansion bill. Now has 10 days to sign or veto. https://t.co/0DyqoIrGHS

— Sarah Kliff (@sarahkliff) March 28, 2017

Large but short of veto-reversing super-majorities in both houses of the Kansas legislature just voted for Medicaid expansion. Gov. Brownback will most likely veto the bill because of argle-bargle-cargle reasons. But there is a flurry of states that are pushing forward on Medicaid expansion. Georgia most likely will submit an Indiana style waiver, but Maine may try yet again to expand as they have a demonstrated legislative coalition to expand.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Stee-RIKE!
Next Post: Security Theater Open Thread: Wolverines! — Not the UM Kind »

Reader Interactions

41Comments

  1. 1.

    Mustang Bobby

    March 29, 2017 at 7:14 am

    I have no doubt that Brownback will veto the expansion because it goes against his plan to screw the state into the ground, and if the Ingalls family that lived in that little house on the prairie just south of Independence could live without it, then by jingo so can everyone else.

  2. 2.

    Another Scott

    March 29, 2017 at 7:16 am

    Indeed good news.

    Are you missing some closing blockquotes in there?

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  3. 3.

    zach

    March 29, 2017 at 7:17 am

    Missing from the Kansas stories is its budget crisis. Brownback tried and failed to propose a budget that drastically cut public school funding (rebuffed politically and by courts where there’s been a long fight over unequal education across the state). He needs money wherever he can find it… Medicaid expansion is state-budget-positive for sure in the short term and taking it means lower tax increases to meet the budget shortfall.

  4. 4.

    amk

    March 29, 2017 at 7:20 am

    And meanwhile zegs and thugs are still pushing for repeal. Replace? What replace?

  5. 5.

    Baud

    March 29, 2017 at 7:21 am

    Good.

  6. 6.

    rikyrah

    March 29, 2017 at 7:22 am

    Always welcoming Medicaid expansion-that means more of my fellow citizens will get Healthcare.
    Thanks for keeping us informed, Mayhew.

  7. 7.

    rikyrah

    March 29, 2017 at 7:22 am

    @amk:
    Never forget..
    Trumpcare was just a tax cut bill disguised as a healthcare plan.

  8. 8.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 29, 2017 at 7:32 am

    I’ll believe it when I see it, but it is still good to hear.

    @Mustang Bobby: @zach: Brownback is sure that conservatism didn’t fail, reality failed conservatism. I really don’t know if his delusions have limits.

  9. 9.

    jacy

    March 29, 2017 at 7:33 am

    One good thing about this whole mess — it showed at least some people that the ACA and Obamacare are the same thing. Anybody who wakes up, it’s a positive. I think it gets harder to say “repeal,” and I hope the “let’s let Obamacare implode” talking point becomes toxic. Republicans are going to have to at least try to figure out how to govern….even if it’s only because that’s their only path to self-preservation.

  10. 10.

    pk

    March 29, 2017 at 7:55 am

    So are we to assume that Trump is the best thing that happened for Obamacare?

  11. 11.

    laura

    March 29, 2017 at 8:11 am

    @rikyrah: It was a tax cut for the rich that was was health insurance adjacent.

  12. 12.

    David Anderson

    March 29, 2017 at 8:12 am

    @pk: Not yet, but to some degree that Obama is not president it enables conservative states to take care of their citizens and their budget at the same time without getting right flank primaries.

  13. 13.

    Mobil RoonieRoo

    March 29, 2017 at 8:25 am

    The Kansas expansion is one of the more interesting things going on. Veto or not it will affect the conversation greatly,

  14. 14.

    Patricia Kayden

    March 29, 2017 at 8:41 am

    Great news for consumers. So it looks like some Rs are finally coming to their senses about the ACA. Thanks Obama!!

  15. 15.

    Baud

    March 29, 2017 at 8:42 am

    @jacy:

    One good thing about this whole mess — it showed at least some people that the ACA and Obamacare are the same thing. Anybody who wakes up, it’s a positive.

    It shows the extent to which people took Democrats for granted.

  16. 16.

    low-tech cyclist

    March 29, 2017 at 8:46 am

    “[That is] a $7 billion appropriation we have to figure out how to fund or the plans likely could get canceled,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) said Tuesday.

    Funny how they never ask how they’re going to fund hundreds of billions of dollars of tax cuts or war funding, but they’ve suddenly got to Be Responsible and find money to pay for this $7B appropriation.

  17. 17.

    AnonPhenom

    March 29, 2017 at 8:50 am

    If CSR is funded with 100% certainty, insurers will get into the market.

    maybe, but every day that goes by I’m more convinced that health insurance companies are borrowing the business model of cable television providers and the only thing that will keep them honest, the thing needed to insure competition, is some form of a public option, even if you only make the option available under limited circumstances

  18. 18.

    OGLiberal

    March 29, 2017 at 8:53 am

    Isn’t Brownback in Christie territory when it comes to approval ratings? I know he won in 2014 but not by much, considering it is Kansas. Is he term limited and doesn’t give a shit? It’s not like there are a lot of brown people in Kansas for Brownback to punch down at. Or are they one of those states where the evil, bloodsucking Mexicans have recently started to invade?

  19. 19.

    Glidwrith

    March 29, 2017 at 9:03 am

    @low-tech cyclist: This isn’t a sign of acceptance. This is the ‘Thugs getting ready to pull the trigger on the gun already loaded and pointed at the exchanges. Regretfully, they just won’t be able to find the money, and it was just one of those things and see-they-told-you-so that this just wouldn’t work.

    Puke.

  20. 20.

    Davis X. Machina

    March 29, 2017 at 9:07 am

    Maine’s going to have Medicaid expansion on the ballot in November.
    If it passes, it can’t be vetoed like ordinary legislation that comes up through the legislature. — LePage has vetoed that six times.
    It would have to be repealed by the legislature, or by a citizen-veto referendum.

  21. 21.

    amk

    March 29, 2017 at 9:23 am

    @Davis X. Machina: Wouldn’t their lives be made lot easier by throwing out the racist pos?

  22. 22.

    Davis X. Machina

    March 29, 2017 at 9:26 am

    @amk: The good news — he’s term-limited.
    Impeachment is a non-starter.
    There’s no recall provision in the state constitution.

  23. 23.

    Barbara

    March 29, 2017 at 9:27 am

    @laura: Saying that it was “health insurance adjacent” buys into the misleading marketing effort that Ryan and company pushed — that this bill “repealed” the ACA. First, it’s just important to understand that as many people benefited by the Medicaid expansion provisions of the ACA as they did from the private exchange provisions, and that these numbers would be even higher if all states had expanded. The bill proposed by Ryan would not simply have rolled back private exchange and Medicaid expansion that were enacted by ACA, it basically gutted the original Medicaid program by turning it into a program with set funding (it wasn’t quite a block grant as drafted, but the intention is similar). So:

    1. Eliminate Medicaid expansion entirely over time.
    2. Turn ACA subsidies that vary by age and income into much less generous tax credits that vary a little by age and not at all by income.
    3. Significantly cut existing Medicaid program by capping federal contributions to a fixed amount, forcing states to choose between protecting pregnant women versus nursing home residents.
    4. Give 70% of the “savings” from the first three measures to people who make $250,000 and above, and more than 40% of the savings to people with more than $1 million in earnings. Give a few pennies to people who made more than $50,000 and take money (on average) from everyone else.

    Reverse Robin Hood. That is who Paul Ryan is, a fundamentally sociopathic person who seems to believe that he will atone for his own very significant receipt of public expenditures by bowing and scraping and taking money from OTHER people and giving it to the wealthy. He will never reduce his own benefits as a congressional representative. I mean, you have to go back to the era of Dickens to find similar examples of his outlook (as well as, really, his idol, Ayn Rand).

    As more states expand the harder it will get to repeal, ever. We are now at 31 states plus D.C., with 20 states not having expanded. So I really hope Florida and Georgia get their act together, because once they are in, the game is over. The South Florida Republicans were already balking at the AHCA, because their districts have a higher number of people obtaining private exchange coverage than any other in the nation. Governors and senators understand all of this even if individual House reps can go back to severely gerrymandered districts and pretend otherwise.

  24. 24.

    MattF

    March 29, 2017 at 9:27 am

    @OGLiberal: Says here that Brownback’s approval rating is 26%. One assumes that there’s at least a one percent margin of error.

  25. 25.

    Barbara

    March 29, 2017 at 9:32 am

    @OGLiberal: Brownback is on the way out to some federal post, but in any event, he is messianic in outlook. He is like the early Christian ascetics. If whipping themselves did not bring about God’s gifts, then, obviously, they needed to starve themselves and put a hairshirt on as well. Questioning the premise underlying the entire enterprise was never an option.

  26. 26.

    artem1s

    March 29, 2017 at 9:43 am

    So how much of the new Twittler ranting about not being done with healthcare is covering for GOP moderates who don’t want to spend their next break being harassed at town halls? I’m assuming it only being spewed about to give them cover for 2018. I think they really believe they can still go home and spew the same old line, “the Dems made us do it” BS. I’m really really hoping that they get beat up for conning their base into believing that Obamacare and ACA were different things. Like Molly Ivens said, ‘Once you figure out they have been lying to you about race…’ Hopefully at least some of the Cult45 will figure out that their GOP rep has been lying to them about that one thing…

  27. 27.

    MattF

    March 29, 2017 at 9:53 am

    @artem1s: WaPo sez the impetus for ‘reconsidering’ healthcare is from the right-wing reps who have been promising to repeal O-care for the past seven years. But the politics hasn’t changed and there’s no schedule and no road to get there, so most observers see it as gobble-gobble.

  28. 28.

    sdhays

    March 29, 2017 at 9:56 am

    @Barbara: At least those early Christian ascetics you mention whipped and starved themselves rather than others. I think Brownback himself is doing just fine, especially if/when he gets raptured to a federal position.

  29. 29.

    rikyrah

    March 29, 2017 at 10:09 am

    @pk:

    So are we to assume that Trump is the best thing that happened for Obamacare?

    Folks realize they don’t mind the CARE now that that OBAMA fella is no longer President.

  30. 30.

    West of the Cascades

    March 29, 2017 at 10:09 am

    Trump could make a studs up tackle straight into the knees of the ACA and it still wouldn’t be a red card in CONCACAF.

  31. 31.

    rikyrah

    March 29, 2017 at 10:10 am

    @Davis X. Machina:

    Maine’s going to have Medicaid expansion on the ballot in November.
    If it passes, it can’t be vetoed like ordinary legislation that comes up through the legislature. — LePage has vetoed that six times.
    It would have to be repealed by the legislature, or by a citizen-veto referendum.

    That is so cool.

  32. 32.

    rikyrah

    March 29, 2017 at 10:11 am

    @Barbara:

    Reverse Robin Hood. That is who Paul Ryan is, a fundamentally sociopathic person who seems to believe that he will atone for his own very significant receipt of public expenditures by bowing and scraping and taking money from OTHER people and giving it to the wealthy. He will never reduce his own benefits as a congressional representative. I mean, you have to go back to the era of Dickens to find similar examples of his outlook (as well as, really, his idol, Ayn Rand).

    tell it over and over and over again.

  33. 33.

    amk

    March 29, 2017 at 10:25 am

    @Barbara: Dem cong critters never did propagandize the benefits of Obamacare.

  34. 34.

    Barbara

    March 29, 2017 at 10:31 am

    @sdhays: Yeah, there always seems to be a Deus Ex Machina when these guys are facing a failure they can’t get out of. They used to call it a sinecure.

  35. 35.

    zach

    March 29, 2017 at 10:57 am

    @OGLiberal:

    It’s not like there are a lot of brown people in Kansas for Brownback to punch down at.

    Having few people in the minority that you’re attacking is actually hugely beneficial for those tactics: (1) you can lie because few people actually known anyone black/latino/muslim to know you’re full of crap, (2) there are few people whose votes you’re 100% certain to lose by going full bigot. The GOP is really successful in KS with voter fraud nonsense and anti-immigrant stuff… see Kris Kobach’s influence with Trump re: the Wall and related crap during the transition.

  36. 36.

    Barbara

    March 29, 2017 at 11:05 am

    @OGLiberal: What are you talking about? Kansas City, Kansas and Topeka, Kansas have substantial minority populations. Remember that lawsuit styled as “Brown v. Board of Education”? Where do you think that was brought? Kansas had enough “dark people” to establish segregated schools. And yes, Kansas is a place where many Latino immigrants have gone to — as in many farm states or states meat processing or packing industries. Census Quick Facts tells me that around 18% of the population of Kansas is Hispanic, and that 61% of the population of Kansas is white, not Hispanic. Why do you think Kris Kobach is focusing on Kansas? Think about 40% of potential voters being black or Latino or “other” and if 80% of them voted Democratic?

  37. 37.

    Barbara

    March 29, 2017 at 11:19 am

    @OGLiberal: @Barbara: OGLiberal, my apologies. It seems like my Census go to website is having problems and keeps giving me national information even though I keep asking for Kansas. So I don’t actually know the current demographic make up of Kansas. Those numbers are for U.S. nationally.

  38. 38.

    Linkmeister

    March 29, 2017 at 5:54 pm

    Are the Cost-Sharing Reduction subsidies the same thing that Rubio got removed from the 2015 (and forward) budgets? As I understand it, there are something called “risk corridors” which were meant to be paid to insurance companies until the pool of insured got big enough, and Rubio blocked them two years ago. Are the CSRs those payments? It sure sounds like they are.

  39. 39.

    David Anderson

    March 29, 2017 at 6:17 pm

    @Linkmeister: no. Rubio killed risk corridor funding, a short term stability program that no one not in the finance department of an insurer cares about.

    CSR reduces deductible for working poor

  40. 40.

    burnspbesq

    March 29, 2017 at 8:24 pm

    Is Seamus Coleman coming to DC to testify on the Hill against Ryan’s next proposal?

  41. 41.

    Linkmeister

    March 30, 2017 at 3:03 am

    @David Anderson: Ah. Thank you.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

  • jackmac on War for Ukraine Day 785: Chernihiv Attacked! (Apr 17, 2024 @ 10:15pm)
  • artem1s on Humpty Trumpty (Open Thread) (Apr 17, 2024 @ 10:13pm)
  • WaterGirl on Arizona In The Crosshairs (Apr 17, 2024 @ 10:13pm)
  • WaterGirl on Arizona In The Crosshairs (Apr 17, 2024 @ 10:12pm)
  • scav on Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Baltimore Bridge Updates (Apr 17, 2024 @ 10:08pm)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Talk of Meetups – Meetup Planning
Proposed BJ meetups list from frosty

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8
Virginia House Races
Four Directions – Montana
Worker Power AZ
Four Directions – Arizona
Four Directions – Nevada

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
Positive Climate News
War in Ukraine
Cole’s “Stories from the Road”
Classified Documents Primer

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Political Action 2024

Postcard Writing Information

Balloon Juice for Four Directions AZ

Donate

Balloon Juice for Four Directions NV

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2024 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!