Paul Ryan: Obamacare repeal is first priority under Trump

Both sides do this.

 

Not quite, but cute attempt.

Democrats wanted single payer, like every grown up nation, but compromised to a plan devised by Republicans. Not surprisingly, the Republicans attempt to sabotage it at every step of the way, JUST BECAUSE, and do so by not expanding Medicaid, which marginalizes its effectiveness.

Democrats constantly asked for the Republicans to propose something, anything, so you know, the people of this country can have healthcare, and of course the Republicans don't, just whine and cry about Obamacare.

Republicans build an entire campaign platform, using ignorance, fear and hate, on repealing Obamacare, and somehow managed to stupid their way into office.

Now they don't have any of these silly tricks to pull anymore, and they have no one left to blame.

This is a win / win. Either they propose something that works, which is great, because, you know, I am not partisan ******* lemming, or they expose themselves as the frauds that they are.

 

Revisionist history. Democrats have officially found a way to blame the Obamacare failure on Republicans.

In 10-15 years from now, they will blame the Republicans for not giving Obamacare time to work. "Obamacare was working, it just needed a couple tweaks". This will have forgotten the skyrocketing costs and all the insurance companies bailing on the industry.

 

I hope they drop the individual mandate and keep the preexisting condition and out of pocket max, that should please everyone except the insurance companies. Maybe we should do what they do in China, if you do not pay, no treatment for you and see how many people are willing to risk not getting treated without insurance, I bet that cuts down on medical cost for everyone.

 

That's flatly inaccurate. If Democrats wanted single payer, they'd have passed that. Democrats didn't want it so one part of the party had to compromise with another part of the party and they passed the ACA without any support from Republicans. In fact, they had such a hard time convincing Democrats to support the bill that they had to throw in a ton of pork in order to bribe the last few Democrats to support it.

It was too recent to flat out lie about and think it's going to pass unnoticed.

 

What failure? ACA did not destroy jobs. More people than ever have medical insurance. And if anything, ACA decreased health care inflation.

 

I can tell you that the big fear in the industry right now is that "repeal and replace" will be politically pressured into a fast bill that devastates the industry.

 

More people have insurance is a true statement and cannot be disputed.

However, prices soared beyond their expectations (which they admit) and the 22 million who get insurance through the individual market have access to worse networks today than they did pre-ACA and we are on course for those 22 million having ZERO options by 2018 under ACA.

I know it makes democrats mad, but in order for the individual market to stay alive every year you are asking insurance companies to take between 100 and 300 million dollars EACH in Texas and lighting it on fire.

 

Why are insurance companies losing money? What would make it profitable?

 

I personally know people who lost full time jobs due to Obamacare, so it did destroy some jobs.....along with not doing anything to help give more access to healthcare.

 

Again do you even remember what it was like before Obamacare? Healthcare costs were already skyrocketing. Thus the urgency of proposing a different approach towards health insurance to make it more affordable and accessible to more people. It's not as though health insurance was just fine before Obamacare and then President Obama decided to ruin a good thing by forcing Obamacare onto people. It was because there was an enormous problem already with skyrocketing health insurance costs and denial of pre-existing conditions. This was when the world was undergoing the Great Recession meaning a good chunk of Americans that probably relied on employee based health insurance were without and suffering the consequences because of it. Again creating the sense of urgency for government intervention of some sort to make health insurance more affordable and readily available to Americans.

One party tried to propose a solution with a single payer system which has worked in other developed nations. Another party offered no solutions of their own except to block any health insurance legislation from passing. To my memory there was no GOP solution to fix the existing problem of skyrocketing health insurance and I still see no solution offered while intending to repeal it 8 years later. The only healthcare legislation I've ever read come from the GOP is tort reform. As though that would make health insurance costs affordable.

So let's say Obamacare gets repealed. Great. What then is the solution to skyrocketing health insurance premiums and denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions? What of allowing parents to cover their children later in adulthood? I genuinely would like to know.

 

And they are still skyrocketing.....so yeah, not really an improvement. Obamacare did next to nothing positive and a whole lot negative. Things were bad before Obamacare and they are a bit worse since then. Of course health care needs reform, but getting rid of something that did more harm than good isn't a step backwards.

 

I look at the inability to deny coverage to people based on pre-existing conditions as a positive. Am I to presume skyrocketing health insurance premium will still continue to after Obamacare is repealed, but just not as much? Is that the angle I'm supposed to be sold on? Obamacare failed. I get it. What then is the solution? That's what I want. A solution. If the GOP can do it and make it work. Great. That benefits more Americans. So what is the fix? That's the most important part in all of this.

 

The individual health care insurance market pre ACA was only for people with no pre-existing conditions, which made it a very limited market.

It is very hard to compare the what-if of ACA versus no ACA.

Before ACA, the rate of health care inflation was easily outstripping regular inflation. Without some sort of course change, health insurance would no longer be affordable for the average American family. It was not a question of if but when.

ACA is certainly not perfect, but it is likely better than the alternative.

 

The 20 million or so people who now have health insurance due to ACA are a figment of Obama's imagination? This is a rhetorical question, Bobster.

 

Sure, that's a benefit to those Americans, but it comes at the expense of everyone else. Nothing is free, all of those costs are merely passed along to everyone which aids in the rising cost of health insurance on top of the rising cost of health care which also increases the cost of health insurance.

There's likely not a perfect solution, but Obamacare is set to collapse upon itself due to it being such a colossal failure. Something has to be done.

 

Technically having a health insurance policy does not increase your access to health care, it just means that you are paying for insurance every month. If you can't afford to use the insurance, you still have the same access to health care that you had before you had to start paying for a policy.

 

This is more inline with my thinking vs Trump not caring about this, but I'm not so sure about going with the wind. It seems Trump was impressed with Obama in his first face to face with him and just maybe that is where he got a bit swayed on coverage for preexisting condition and keeping kids up to 26 on parent insurance policy. But again, Trump has said positive things about single payer in the past. Who knows what he's going to do. I do think that he is less about going with the wind and more about going with his inner circle of trusts. But even with that the case, I still don't know what to expect. Expect the worst, hope for the best.

 

I don't expect a solution from you since it's not your job but I do expect the GOP who intends to repeal Obamacare to have a solution proposed to fix the problem with health care costs and denial of coverage. I see none offered. That concerns me. I get that there are Americans that feel like they're paying for other Americans healthcare coverage in some way shape or form and they don't like that. So perhaps a solution from the GOP isn't required from you since it doesn't personally affect you. That said I'd like to see a solution to this problem and again I see none offered.

 

It only took what, 3 years, to get Obamacare going? I would be fearful too if I think politicians think this can be unwind-ed in a blink. I think the GOP is a bit smarter than that though. Some have already stated they would want to take up to 4 years to do this repeal and replace. At least one have said it should be replace then effectively repealed, not repeal then try to replace.