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You are here: Home / Anderson On Health Insurance / A very important point

A very important point

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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.

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30Comments

  3. 3.

    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!

  4. 4.

    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:

    GOP leaders seeking a way out of their September logjam are talking about tying a disaster aid bill for Hurricane Harvey to a larger measure funding the government and raising the nation’s borrowing limit.

    Including the disaster aid would almost certainly win some Republican votes for the package, which will otherwise be unpopular with GOP lawmakers who oppose a “clean” debt ceiling hike and would like to impose restrictions on government spending.

    But the move risks a confrontation with President Trump, who is demanding that the end-of-month bill include $1.6 billion in funding for his southern border wall.

    […]

    GOP leaders in the House and Senate did not say anything publicly on Monday about their plans for a package tying Harvey aid to the government-funding package.

    AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), said the House is prepared to provide emergency funding for Texas but first must receive guidance from the administration on what is needed.

    “We will help those affected by this terrible disaster. The first step in that process is a formal request for resources from the administration,” she said.

    Republican aides said the argument GOP leaders are likely to make to Trump in the coming weeks is that adding emergency funding to the package will increase pressure on members of both parties to vote for it.

    Passage would secure an important legislative victory for Trump even if it doesn’t include wall funding — which can be the subject of another battle later this year, an administration source said.

    […]

    Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus have already objected to lumping the stop-gap spending measure and the debt limit bill into one bill.

    “I’m surprised how firmly the House Freedom Caucus has said that’s not happening,” said a Republican source involved in the talks, referring to pairing the continue resolution and the debt limit.

    Conservative lawmakers want to separate the two priorities so they can garner more attention for their demand that the debt limit increase be attached to spending reforms.

    Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), the chairman of the Freedom Caucus, reiterated in a recent interview with the Hill, that a clean debt limit measure without spending reforms is not acceptable.

    […]

    (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.

  5. 5.

    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.

  6. 6.

    sukabi

    Alt-gov social media accounts stepping up to help Harvey rescue efforts

    Trump also placed restrictions on scientists and staff to prevent them from publishing their taxpayer-funded research findings. The two incidents prompted a series of government employees to start secret Twitter accounts known as “alternatives” to the Trump government. While there is no evidence that some kind of coup d’etat exists nor is a cabal being coordinated by the former president, Trump continues to attack the employees.

    The digital army of Alt-gov staff saw the aftermath of Harvey and recognized a desperate need to help survivors as soon as possible.

    “There’s a massive gap in emergency rescue right now,” one staffer who wanted to remain anonymous told Raw Story.”The 911 system can’t handle this volume of rescue calls, and cities and federal agencies don’t yet have a system for responding to SOS calls on social media. So we created it for them.”

    The @HarveyRelief account and HarveyRescue.com site pulls together a list of all of those begging for help on social media, who might not have been able to make it through the 911 backlog, busy signals and holds. Those sending out “SOS calls” and tagging them #HarveySOS are being curated into the map. Roughly 100 individuals have been helping first responders with boat rescues. It is their hope that the site can help save people’s lives by making searches and rescues more streamlined, telling boats where they need to go.

    “Our volunteers are specifically coding the data in the ways that USCG and Cajun Navy have requested,” the Alt-Gov staffer explained. “I can’t say enough about the amazing volunteers who offered to help. They have taken on huge leadership roles and helped @HarveyRescue ramp up to a place we never imagined.”

  9. 9.

    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.

  11. 11.

    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.)

  14. 14.

    R.Porrofatto

    Hurricane Harvey will cause some employers to fail and their employees to lose insurance. Not true for Medicare, Medicaid, Exchanges

    Pity Texas never accepted the Medicaid expansion. But then it’s only poor people so yee-haw.

  16. 16.

    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).

  19. 19.

    Fair Economist

    @Another Scott:

    But the move risks a confrontation with President Trump, who is demanding that the end-of-month bill include $1.6 billion in funding for his southern border wall.

    Even Trump wouldn’t dare veto a CR with Harvey relief funds attached because it didn’t have a pet project attached.

    @Davebo:

    I think 30 billion is way low.

    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.

  20. 20.

    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?

  21. 21.

    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.

  22. 22.

    Catherine D.

    @Kirk:

    The model that appears to most closely echo Harvey ran $80 Billion, though that was the high of the disasters and recoveries.

    Did that include petrochemical cleanup? I just keep hearing Tom Lehrer’s Pollution in my head when I see the pictures.

  23. 23.

    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:

    dfw.cbslocal.com/2017/08/29/columbia-lakes-levee-in-brazoria-county-breached-officials-urging-reside…
    “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

    weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/harvey-latest-news-texas-louisiana-impacts

  25. 25.

    catclub

    @Fair Economist:

    Even Trump wouldn’t dare veto a CR with Harvey relief funds attached

    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

  26. 26.

    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.

    Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus have already objected to lumping the stop-gap spending measure and the debt limit bill into one bill.

    “I’m surprised how firmly the House Freedom Caucus has said that’s not happening,” said a Republican source involved in the talks, referring to pairing the continue resolution and the debt limit.

  27. 27.

    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.

  28. 28.

    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

  29. 29.

    TriassicSands

    Hurricane Harvey will cause some employers to fail and their employees to lose insurance. Not true for Medicare, Medicaid, Exchanges.

    The threat to Medicare, Medicaid, and the Exchanges isn’t Harvey. It’s Donald.

  30. 30.

    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.

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