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You are here: Home / Anderson On Health Insurance / The real healthcare plan of the Republican Party

The real healthcare plan of the Republican Party

by | 28 Comments

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Last night, the President released a “healthcare plan.”

It is a combination of a bribe attempt and fantasy.

We don’t need to go into the weeds as we already know what the Republican Party thinks about health insurance and financial security.  We can see what was in AHCA/BCRA (Repeal and Replace) from 2017:

 


Major changes to the US healthcare system require legislation.  Tweaks around the edges can be done with executive orders, but those are temporary and very pliable.  Major changes require Congress to assemble working majorities.  The Democrats were able to assemble a working majority in 2009 and 2010 for their vision of what the US healthcare system should be.  The Republicans were almost able to assemble a working majority in 2017 for their vision.  These visions are distinct.  And they are different.

Everything else is fluffery.

Reader Interactions

28Comments

  1. 1.

    Cheryl Rofer

    I wonder if those $200 coupons for prescriptions will ever be sent out. What is the source of the money? And can the government work fast enough to get them printed up and in the mail before the election? Plus won’t there have to be a system for reimbursing the pharmacies and drug companies that handle them?

  3. 3.

    Barbara

    @Cheryl Rofer: If I ever thought I did, I definitely no longer think that I have any idea of how the average voter views this kind of stunt.  However, $200 is just slightly less than the mandatory deductible under the Part D plan.

    There are two main problems with Part D coverage.  The first is the coverage gap, and the second is that there is no out of pocket maximum once you hit the catastrophic phase.  Instead, you have to continue paying 5% of the costs.  So let’s say you have drug costs of $2000 per month.  You will be in the catastrophic phase by March, at which point you will be required to pay $100 monthly.  $200 is a couple months of your out of pocket expenditures.  For really expensive drugs, like Hep C drugs, even the generics cost something like $24,000 for a full course of treatment (over 12 weeks).

    And when I think about someone like Trump who thinks $200 should be enough to buy off the average senior citizen, I ask myself when the last time it was that he actually paid for anything, like groceries or gas or the cable bill.

  4. 4.

    Hoodie

    Trump’s imaginary health care plan was part of the source of my irritation with the front page of the local rag this morning –  “Trump Touts Health Care Plan.”  Buried down in the story is the fact that his health care plan is an illusion, but the headline writers must be working for the RNC.  The headline about Trump’s visit is coupled with an equally neutered headline about two GOP board of elections members pulling a stunt resignation complaining about a settlement they had just voted in favor of a day or two earlier.    We have a good friend who works at the paper and I’ve kept our subscription going because I know they’re at death’s door, but crap like this makes me want to stop subscribing.  The damn thing has been gutted and mostly runs crappy AP wire stories anyway.

  6. 6.

    Kirk Spencer

    @Just Chuck: of course. Please recall the belief seniors would/should sacrifice themselves for the children. And other times they said the quiet parts out loud.

  7. 7.

    BruceFromOhio

    Classic. Tout the ‘plan,’ and then claim Dems are stonewalling. Give Speaker Pelosi and the House yet another opportunity to save ACA, or what’s left of it.

  11. 11.

    Another Scott

    BlueVirginia.US:

    Governor and First Lady Northam Test Positive for COVID-19

    RICHMOND—On Wednesday evening, Governor Ralph Northam and First Lady Pamela Northam were notified that a member of the Governor’s official residence staff, who works closely within the couple’s living quarters, had developed symptoms and subsequently tested positive for COVID-19. Both the Governor and First Lady received PCR nasal swab tests yesterday afternoon, and both tested positive. Governor Northam is experiencing no symptoms. First Lady Pamela Northam is currently experiencing mild symptoms. Both remain in good spirits.

    WaPo (from 9/22):

    Richmond — The day after Thomas C. Wright Jr. tested positive for the novel coronavirus, his office sent an email to Victoria Christian Church, warning fellow worshipers that the Republican state legislator from Lunenburg might have unwittingly exposed them.

    “Because he was in church this past Sunday, he felt it necessary to inform you of his positive test results,” Wright’s legislative assistant, Tammy Brankley Mulchi, wrote on Aug. 26.

    But House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax) said neither Wright nor his office officially notified his fellow legislators, who had met with him a week earlier, on Aug. 18, when the House convened for one day in a basketball arena before moving the rest of a special legislative session to an online format.

    While a guest column written by Wright, 72, later popped up in a local publication criticizing Democratic House leaders for operating virtually, he had been absent from online House and committee meetings since Aug. 29. He returned for the first time Monday

    Hmmm…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  12. 12.

    Brachiator

    Last night, the President released a “healthcare plan.”

    Weird political stunt. A Washington Post article suggests that Trump claims that by getting rid of the individual mandate, he effectively “repealed” the ACA. Definitely playing to the rubes here since the mandate was very unpopular with a lot of people, and gave them an excuse to ignore any other aspect of the law’s benefits.

    Then Trump doubles down on lies by falsely claiming that his executive order on pre-existing conditions is the first time this has been guaranteed.

    He’s got nothing here.  And he will bring his empty BS to the debates. He is counting heavily on his base’s desire to be duped.

  13. 13.

    Raoul Paste

    So I’m seeing some story about the rich allegedly fleeing San Francisco .   There’s been an uptick in expensive real estate being sold and prices have jumped up by 22% this year

    So apparently the real story is that even richer people are moving in

  16. 16.

    Just Chuck

    @Raoul Paste: I imagine Russian mobsters are dumping their money-laundering properties before the next administration freezes their assets.  At least in NYC anyway, I dunno about SF.

  17. 17.

    debbie

    I can’t imagine any of this will win him new voters, so I’m wondering why it would be unveiled at this time.

  18. 18.

    Jinchi

    I really hope Joe Biden knows how to tie this together in the debates.

    Biden helped get Obamacare passed in 2010. That’s why people with pre-existing conditions have protections today. Republicans have been trying to repeal it ever since, including a case in heading to the Supreme Court right now. Trump’s court nominee could be the swing vote that strips millions of insurance, in the middle of a pandemic. Having failed to control the pandemic, he now threatens to strip your ability to get medical help if you catch it.

    This concisely ties together several major issues immediately facing voters today. It’s not an abstraction. It’s real, it’s pressing and it’s universal.

    And Trump is on the wrong side at every step.

  19. 19.

    randy khan

    I read the first chunk of the executive order, and it was all things that already had been done by the Administration (most of them pointless or actually bad).  There seemed to be very little in the way of an actual plan going forward.

    And I can’t ever recall an executive order that spends so much time extolling the virtues of the Administration that adopted it.

  20. 20.

    Geminid

    These days I hear a lot of republicans crying about the terrible ordeal Brett  Kavanaugh and his family went through. If Kavanaugh and his cohorts strike down the ACA, millions of American families will go through far worse.

  22. 22.

    Ruckus

    @debbie:

    Well if I wanted to delve into it using the proper language, given his propensity for jumping face first into any disaster of his own manufacture I’d have to say it’s because he’s a fucking idiot.

  23. 23.

    Geminid

    I listen to AM radio a lot and lately a particular public service announcement has been played often. It starts with Surgeon General Jerome Adams earnestly exhorting Americans to work together to defeat Covid-19, and to observe social distancing guidelines. Then a woman says, “Produced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, at taxpayer expense.”

  25. 25.

    StringOnAStick

    This is trump’s response to getting called out on the “great” healthcare plan he’s said he’d have ready in 2weeks several weeks ago?  Alright D admeisters, hit this one HARD.

  26. 26.

    gvg

    @Geminid: What’s wrong with that?  It should be at tax payer expense. I’ve heard it on FM.  I have actually been wondering why Trump hasn’t fired him.  It seems like a normal sane science based public service announcement, a bit simplistic for broad consumption.

  27. 27.

    Geminid

    @gvg: I’ve heard plenty of public service announcements that certainly were government funded, but I don’t recall ever hearing that particular language about taxpayer funding before. I think it was intended to undercut the message, and inserted by a conservative political hire.

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