Hurricane Harvey will cause some employers to fail and their employees to lose insurance. Not true for Medicare, Medicaid, Exchanges.
— Amitabh Chandra (@amitabhchandra2) August 29, 2017
States that adapted Medicaid expansion would see an even more comprehensive safety net and shock absorber but this point is critical. There is now a more comprehensive and mobile safety net that can be better at catching people thrown around by a catastrophe today than there was in 2009.
Open thread
Roger Moore
Which, of course, is why we need a National Health Service.
FlipYrWhig
@Roger Moore: Or at least a Health National Guard.
SenyorDave
This is an an obvious opening for Ted Cruz. He can introduce a Harvey relief package that includes a repeal of the ACA. A win-win for the GOP!
Another Scott
Excellent point.
I keep hearing occasional mention of cost estimates for this Harvey disaster – someone estimated $30B yesterday, IIRC – but I haven’t heard any reporting saying that the hit to the people and the economy down there will be (effectively) permanent without rapid and sustained federal government spending to repair the damage and get people on their feet as quickly as possible. People aren’t going to stick around if they don’t have jobs; they’re not going to stick around if they don’t have electricity or water or a home to live in; etc. The health insurance aspects are another huge issue that hardly anyone is mentioning.
Meanwhile TheHill:
(Emphasis added.)
“Passage would secure an important legislative victory for Trump …”
They’re pathological. All they care about is TV ratings and “victories”.
Grr….
We have to fight them every single day.
Cheers,
Scott.
Hunter Gathers
The establishment of a robust safety net will rob future generations of their ability to innovate, push the envelope, think outside the box, disrupt markets, break paradigms and a bunch of other useless marketing terms.
Give people a cushion for when they fall and they’ll never learn the skills needed to aquire a trophy whore from Eastern Europe.
sukabi
Alt-gov social media accounts stepping up to help Harvey rescue efforts
scav
@SenyorDave: Exactly — govt should get entirely out of the way of charity, insurance and medical aid as furnished by Joel Osteen’s church!
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
OT but the Columbia Lakes levee has been breached:
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-weather/article/levee-Columbia-Lakes-breached-Hurricane-Harvey-12142307.php
Also the pool elevation at the Addicks reservoir is over 108 inches and water is now going over the spillway(they did a controlled release yesterday I believe but it wasn’t enough)
https://www.hcfcd.org/flooding-floodplains/addicks-and-barker-reservoirs/
sukabi
@scav: while Osteen has been shamed into responding with something other than “thoughts and prayers” he hasn’t actually done anything other than buy a few air mattresses, take some pictures and say they are preparing to open the stadium. They haven’t actually done anything other than spin.
germy
@sukabi: Is his church flooded or not, I wonder. I’ve seen conflicting reports about that.
scav
@sukabi: Well, then, clearly that conforms to the GOP Trumpian All-‘merkan and GOD’s way! That’s what boot-straps are for: levitating over adversity as non-moochers do (the odd million dollar loan or trust-fund from daddy doesn’t count in the Horatio Alger source narrative.)
Davebo
@Another Scott: I think 30 billion is way low.
@germy: His church did not flood except for the underground parking. It’s elevated really high.
HILFY
Did Texas accept the expanded Medicaid? How abt Louisiana?
R.Porrofatto
Pity Texas never accepted the Medicaid expansion. But then it’s only poor people so yee-haw.
rikyrah
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone:
But, not collapsed, right?
trollhattan
On the insurance front, will this event lead to the end of the National Flood Insurance Program? They seem unlikely to have funds to cover the damage (of those so-insured in TX-LA).
rikyrah
@HILFY:
Texas-no
Louisiana- yes
rikyrah
@Davebo:
Me too. I heard 100 billion being tossed out there.
Fair Economist
@Another Scott:
Even Trump wouldn’t dare veto a CR with Harvey relief funds attached because it didn’t have a pet project attached.
@Davebo:
I also agree it’s very low. I saw an intelligent guesstimate that a rerun of Allison plus the (severe) landfall impacts would be $30 billion. This is way worse than Allison. The affected area is huge too. Apparently there’s flood damage all the way to Austin.
Kelly
If the 17% of the economy that is health care were fully funded by the feds wouldn’t it it be a massive economic stabilizer?
Kirk
@Fair Economist: Perryman’s did a recovery forecast series about two years ago. The model that appears to most closely echo Harvey ran $80 Billion, though that was the high of the disasters and recoveries. Moody’s Analytics is estimating the current mess to take between $40 and $50 Billion to recover.
Touchstone. Katrina cost $130Billion.
Catherine D.
@Kirk:
Did that include petrochemical cleanup? I just keep hearing Tom Lehrer’s Pollution in my head when I see the pictures.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@rikyrah Correct. According to the local news and a friend in San Antonio the Brazos has overtopped the level, the levee did not break:
http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2017/08/29/columbia-lakes-levee-in-brazoria-county-breached-officials-urging-residents-to-evacuate/
“Brazoria County Judge Matt Sebesta says that the water has come over the levee in the northeast part of the subdivision and is starting to fill the area.
He says residents were told that at some point the levee would be “overtopped.” He said that a mandatory evacuation order was issued Sunday.”
This area is south of Houston and west of Galveston
https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/harvey-latest-news-texas-louisiana-impacts
Kirk
@Catherine D.: All I saw was a summary, so while I believe so I do not know.
catclub
@Fair Economist:
this is the kind of statement that gets outdated very fast with Trump
He wouldn’t dare pardon Arpaio.
He wouldn;t dare not recuse himself from his business.
et cetera, et cetera
catclub
@Another Scott: You noted the desire for a victory for Trump.
I note my desire to punch the Freedom Caucus in the neck. And this bill may do that.
gene108
@Another Scott:
Passing a budget and raising the debt limit – and at this point it is any damn budget to avoid a government shutdown, even if no priorities are met, and not defaulting on the debt – is just doing the minimum to get by.
It is not a legislative victory.
Kay is right. Standards have been lowered to ridiculous levels.
gene108
@Kelly:
Sure it could stabilize the economy, but it’d be communism, and we didn’t fight the Cold War for 45 years to become communists. /sarcasm
TriassicSands
The threat to Medicare, Medicaid, and the Exchanges isn’t Harvey. It’s Donald.
NJSOB
Some people will be left with unpaid claims (sometimes large unpaid claims) they incurred before they knew their insurance was gone. That’s because the loss of insurance is these kinds of circumstances is often retroactive, either literally or effectively. An employer with an insured plan fails to pay the premiums (even if it has already collected the employees’ premium contributions), and the insurer cancels the policy retroactively. Or, an employer with a self-insured plan simply fails to reimburse claims because it no longer has the money.