Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

T R E 4 5 O N

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

šŸŽ¶ Those boots were made for mockinā€™ šŸŽµ

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

You canā€™t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

I am pretty sure Katy Tur wasn’t always such a bootlicking sycophant.

Thereā€™s always a light at the end of the frog.

Well, whatever it is, itā€™s better than being a Republican.

I desperately hope that, yet again, I am wrong.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

When we show up, we win.

It could be worse. Vance could have said ā€œpost-menopausal sows.ā€ Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesnā€™t end.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

Even though I know this is a bad idea, Iā€™m off to do it anyway!

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Reality always lies in wait for ā€¦ Democrats.

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

You are here: Home / Anderson On Health Insurance / Time to call Congress

Time to call Congress

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The AHCA has more lives than a serial killer in a horror movie franchise.

The House Freedom Caucus has an agreement to make the bill worse by allowing states to completely opt out of guarantee issue and essential health benefits.

Steven Dennis of Bloomberg has a good fast analysis of the changes:

Most of the House Freedom Caucus is most likely on board with this bill. That reduces the firm no’s that are not in the HFC down to about 20. The No’s from March need to hear from you again. The unknowns and the shaky yeses need to hear from you.

They also need to be reminded of the following:

There is a minimal blocking coalition of Republican representatives who sit in seats that voted for them and Hillary Clinton. Time to remind them that they can’t survive an electorate that is nine points more Democratic in 2018 than it was in 2016. They know that, but let’s remind them.

So time to call Congress again.

I am convinced that any Republican only health care bill will either pass by 3 votes or fail by at least 15 votes.

Reader Interactions

62Comments

  3. 3.

    Calouste

    Well, the AHCA is a serial killer in a horror movie.

    Or probably more technically correct, a mass murderer. But we’re definitely in a horror movie. Let’s just hope it doesn’t become a franchise.

  4. 4.

    Aleta

    Republicans exempt their own insurance from their latest health care proposal
    Republican legislators want to keep popular Obamacare provisions for themselves and their staff.

    https://www.vox.com/2017/4/25/15429982/gop-exemption-ahca-amendment

    ETA from Vox:
    The new Republican amendment, introduced Tuesday night, would allow states to waive out of Obamacareā€™s ban on pre-existing conditions. This means that insurers could once again, under certain circumstances, charge sick people higher premiums than healthy people.

    Republican legislators liked this policy well enough to offer it in a new amendment. They do not, however, seem to like it enough to have it apply to themselves and their staff. A spokesperson for Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) who authored this amendment confirmed this was the case: members of Congress and their staff would get the guarantee of keeping this Obamacare regulations. Health law expert Tim Jost flagged me to this particular issue.

  5. 5.

    Mnemosyne

    Ugh. Dry and windy weather triggered my asthma but I didn’t realize how much until I used my inhaler and realized I could not hold my breath for 10 seconds.

    And, yes, having a mild case of asthma that has never required hospitalization makes me uninsurable, Republican jackasses.

  7. 7.

    Aleta

    @Mnemosyne: My cousin had to be hospitalized twice, the second time very ill for several days, before she could enter a program that provided a different, effective inhaler. Self-employed all her life.

  8. 8.

    ArchTeryx

    I keep saying that these fuckers won’t rest until me and everyone like me are dead, or their own dead hands are removed from the levers of power for a long, long time.

    They’ve been trying to bury Social Security for 80 years. They’re just getting started on burying the ACA.

  9. 9.

    Mnemosyne

    @Aleta:

    Luckily, mine hasn’t gotten to that point, but insurance companies treat me and your cousin as exactly the same risk and would refuse to cover either one of us for having a “pre-existing condition.”

  10. 10.

    dmsilev

    So, are they going to try and ram this latest atrocity through by the end of the week just to salve Agent Orange’s ego?

    (and, as a side note, whatever ad-bot coughed up a sidebar ad for Trump International Hotels probably needs to be just slightly recalibrated)

  11. 11.

    Aleta

    @Mnemosyne: Many in my extended family never had insurance until the ACA but just suffered along needing treatment. And the protections under the ACA allowed one to finally get the steady regular treatment he had needed for 35 years in order to stabilize his health.

  13. 13.

    Gin & Tonic

    I got a statement of my ER expenses from last month. Uncomplicated case that they could not, in fact, do anything useful for, so they put on a splint and sent me on my way. I was seen by an RN, a couple of nurse’s aides, some x-ray techs and a PA.Never saw or spoke to an MD. Two doses of fentaanyl. Some bandages. 5 hours, of which at least two was hanging out and waiting. $4300.

    Luckily I have good insurance.

    “Just go to th ER” is complete bullshit.

  17. 17.

    seaboogie

    Once again, the Freedom Caucus is tied to the only yoke they know, and shoulder with great willingness – that being one of habitual *opposition*.

    I think they are hopeless, because they are mean and stupid. Target the GOP house members who are not FC, and do massive public protests (for local media coverage) at their constituency offices, phone, fax etc.

    DNC could do some good getting out volunteers to canvas the non-McMansions in all GOP districts-including FC members, to point out this venality.

  21. 21.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Aleta: For this reason alone (keeping the existing conditions provision of Obamacare for themselves), Tom MacArthur should be boiled in oil.

  24. 24.

    NotMax

    Can we haz a general, fresh (preferably innocuous) front page post please? Coming up fast on 14 hours since the last one with Open Thread as a tag.

    Someone’s slacking off. :)

  28. 28.

    seaboogie

    I just did a tweet-storm to Tom Perez, inviting him to get off the bro-stick (I didn’t put it quite that way) with Keith Ellis and Bernie, and to engage the activist, opposition energy around single issues (health care, right now). DNC site is just a request for money, v a “call to action”, which is NOT what we want right now.

    Message was that if we can get engaged and act on issues that are universal to us, the foot soldiers are working towards goals that we agree on, and the party platform will build from where action takes us. Then we’ll have the people who will act and contribute $$$.

  31. 31.

    Taylor

    @Gin & Tonic: You’re paying for all the other people who go to ER and can’t pay.

    Which is why “just go to ER” is a good way to completely bankrupt your entire healthcare system, and ultimately your whole society (and we’re just not talking about the moral bankruptcy).

  33. 33.

    seaboogie

    @Steeplejack: Thank ye kindly…operating a laptop (for typing) and an ipad but I’ve only figured out how to make the iphone to connect to my wee Oontz bluetooth speaker, so called this up on the phone for a listen. Several screens happening, and lovely tunes, too.

  38. 38.

    amk

    @Taylor: Wonder how many of those millions who got covered by obamacare turned up to vote or worse, voted for the thugs, like the stupid kentuckians.

  40. 40.

    seaboogie

    @Steeplejack: Much like the first time I woke up on a road trip to discover I was in the Rocky Mountains, I will never tire of the miracle of this sort of immedate communication from one coast to another – always sort of a ‘wow’ in the best possible way.

  44. 44.

    seaboogie

    @Steeplejack: Love mine – my space is tiny – and it is perfect. Even did it portable once to share kirtan music with my landlord on the patio one evening because he was curious about the music I was enjoying.

    BTW, I love that I get more music on youtube following a song link…tres lovely…

  47. 47.

    seaboogie

    @Steeplejack: Interesting that we use technology to link us to this most analog of experiences – music, that starts with instruments – including the instrument of human voice..

  53. 53.

    Steeplejack

    @seaboogie:

    Sorry I haven’t been more communicative. I’ve been grappling with Trump-based anger and have self-deported a bit.

    And with this I’m out: Shirley Horn, “Forget Me.” (Not supposed to be symbolic!)

  55. 55.

    LurkerNoLonger

    @Calouste: Trumpcare is kind of like the Police Academy franchise, no one likes it but they keep releasing new installments.

  56. 56.

    seaboogie

    @Steeplejack: @Origuy:

    Thank you for your gifts, which offer a bridge of connection – and sweetness – in my solitude. Such a wonderful end to this lovely day…

    Good experiences kept and cherished, ranty angst laid down like a garment, until I wish to take it up again…

  58. 58.

    seaboogie

    @Steeplejack: I’ve also dialed out, and do understand. I appreciate that we can connect in these quiet spaces, sometimes – catch as catch can – as I observe other commenters doing also. Your remembering about my kitty when I showed up later touched me deeply. Thank you for your sweet gifts of music this eve – they are deeply appreciated.

    So off to the last one, as I put head upon pillow…

  60. 60.

    Aleta

    Just tuned in. The music makes me dream again in the best way, which has been mostly lost to me this year. Thanks so much seab and s’jack. Goodnight.

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