Senate Republicans unveil 'discussion draft' of health care bill

[Bigun]

Its broke because of the insurance companies were allowed by the govt to push laws which were quite favorable to them.   The relationship between govt and the insurance companies (& trial lawyers) is very incestuous.

A doctor I know is prohibited from taking cash payments.  He was sued for giving preferential treatment to a cash payer.   

The cost for someone paying cash is usually higher than someone using insurance.    By design

Humm!  I personally know three doctors who operate cash only practices and believe me they aren't starving!

[Right_in_Virginia]

@Right_in_Virginia

No one cried a tear when folks lost their insurance due to Obamacare. Why should this be any different?

Maybe it won't be.  Maybe no one will even notice.   

[XenaLee]

@Right_in_Virginia

No one cried a tear when folks lost their insurance due to Obamacare. Why should this be any different?

And..... nobody shed a tear when folks lost their friggin jobs due to ObamaCare either.... and during the highest unemployment era and worst job market since the Great Depression.

It's real simple.   Expand Medicaid to cover anyone that can't afford to PAY for their own damned health insurance. 

[Sanguine]

And..... nobody shed a tear when folks lost their friggin jobs due to ObamaCare either.... and during the highest unemployment era and worst job market since the Great Depression.

It's real simple.   Expand Medicaid to cover anyone that can't afford to PAY for their own damned health insurance.

Let the states handle indigents.  That way people can move to states that offer them what they want. 

[austingirl]

Let the states handle indigents.  That way people can move to states that offer them what they want.

Nice idea and when they all move to California it will fall into the ocean from the weight, LOL!

[roamer_1]

It's real simple.   Expand Medicaid to cover anyone that can't afford to PAY for their own damned health insurance.

It's already pretty much that way now. And what medicaid won't cover, county generally will.

[truth_seeker]

Its not recklessness; its the insurance companies and trial lawyers.

I submit it is even MORE the democrat politicians that created Obamacare. It is mostly related to the "Ten Essential health benefits" that all insurance must cover:

The 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) set forth the following ten categories of essential health benefits,[2][3] at Section 1302(b)(1) of the ACA, codified at 42 U.S.C. § 18022(b):[4]

A.Ambulatory patient services. [outpatient care]
B.Emergency services.
C.Hospitalization. [inpatient care]
D.Maternity and newborn care
E.Mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment.
F.Prescription drugs.
G.Rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices.
H.Laboratory services
I.Preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management;
J.Pediatric services, including oral and vision care.

Health insurance plans must cover these benefits i.e. they must cap people´s out-of-pocket spending and must not limit annual and lifetime coverage
 

It was structured to destroy the previous system, and replace it with addicting aspects, which made it very difficult to eliminate.

[austingirl]

I submit it is even MORE the democrat politicians that created Obamacare. It is mostly related to the "Ten Essential health benefits" that all insurance must cover:

The 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) set forth the following ten categories of essential health benefits,[2][3] at Section 1302(b)(1) of the ACA, codified at 42 U.S.C. § 18022(b):[4]

A.Ambulatory patient services. [outpatient care]
B.Emergency services.
C.Hospitalization. [inpatient care]
D.Maternity and newborn care
E.Mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment.
F.Prescription drugs.
G.Rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices.
H.Laboratory services
I.Preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management;
J.Pediatric services, including oral and vision care.

Health insurance plans must cover these benefits i.e. they must cap people´s out-of-pocket spending and must not limit annual and lifetime coverage
 

It was structured to destroy the previous system, and replace it with addicting aspects, which made it very difficult to eliminate.

Obamacare was a stealth plan designed to implode and get us to single payer and its disastrous results for freedom and personal choice.

[Sanguine]

Nice idea and when they all move to California it will fall into the ocean from the weight, LOL!

 

[kevindavis007]

This bill can't be totally bad. I mean it actually does add flexibility for states to innovate & reject one-size-fits-all solutions. What is wrong with Federalism?? Until the GOP gets a supermajority of both houses a total repeal is not going to happen.  I'm sorry, but it is the real world.

[XenaLee]

Let the states handle indigents.  That way people can move to states that offer them what they want.

And.... enact a law preventing states from shipping off their homeless and deadbeats to other states (See: Hawaii).

[Sanguine]

And.... enact a law preventing states from shipping off their homeless and deadbeats to other states (See: Hawaii).

A federal law?  That would exceed the limits of the Constitution.  And, why?  Sounds like the best of all worlds to me.

[truth_seeker]

And.... enact a law preventing states from shipping off their homeless and deadbeats to other states (See: Hawaii).

Okay, here is an anecdotal topic:

Item E. Provides for substance addiction treatment and recovery. One of the essential ten areas.

Southern California is getting clobbered. The beautiful weather, scenery, abundance of legitimate treatment and recovery, PLUS federal "disability" laws dating to GHW Bush, PLUS California's own "Group Living" home laws and regulations provide a wide open pathway for billions of scams, fraudulent billings, etc.

"Providers" recruit across the country, among addicts and alcoholics. "Hey do you want to go to the California beach plus get addiction treatment, etc.? We can get you enrolled in insurance, and on an airplane by tomorrow."

From Malibu to the Mexican border, most coastal towns have 12 step meeting halls, to take their "patients" to attend. The "companies get an MD on their better head, bus their patients around to meetings, to urine tests, to the gym, to the "sober living "houses that they rent.

The $ dollar amounts which Obamacare permits to be billed, would make us all very, very angry. Fact: 40 federal law enforcement agents raided a provider in San Clemente last week.

After recycling the "addicts/alcoholics" through a couple of time, to whatever the allowed maximum is, they do NOT transport them home. They "curb" them, meaning dump them in SoCal. We have an enormous and growing homeless population, in part due to this.

I called my Congressman this morning, and learned he is involved, and his staffer really knows her stuff.

Because he is impacted personally I think it is likely the Republicans will try reforming this fraud. Not solve it entirely but make significant progress.

It is categorized as an $8 billion industry.


 

[Sanguine]

Okay, here is an anecdotal topic:

Item E. Provides for substance addiction treatment and recovery. One of the essential ten areas.

Southern California is getting clobbered. The beautiful weather, scenery, abundance of legitimate treatment and recovery, PLUS federal "disability" laws dating to GHW Bush, PLUS California's own "Group Living" home laws and regulations provide a wide open pathway for billions of scams, fraudulent billings, etc.

"Providers" recruit across the country, among addicts and alcoholics. "Hey do you want to go to the California beach plus get addiction treatment, etc.? We can get you enrolled in insurance, and on an airplane by tomorrow."

From Malibu to the Mexican border, most coastal towns have 12 step meeting halls, to take their "patients" to attend. The "companies get an MD on their better head, bus their patients around to meetings, to urine tests, to the gym, to the "sober living "houses that they rent.

The $ dollar amounts which Obamacare permits to be billed, would make us all very, very angry. Fact: 40 federal law enforcement agents raided a provider in San Clemente last week.

After recycling the "addicts/alcoholics" through a couple of time, to whatever the allowed maximum is, they do NOT transport them home. They "curb" them, meaning dump them in SoCal. We have an enormous and growing homeless population, in part due to this.

I called my Congressman this morning, and learned he is involved, and his staffer really knows her stuff.

Because he is impacted personally I think it is likely the Republicans will try reforming this fraud. Not solve it entirely but make significant progress.

It is categorized as an $8 billion industry.

Wow.  Sorry to hear it's hitting your area so hard.  But, you did make my point for me. 

[kevindavis007]

[jmyrlefuller]

Really?  How would that work?

That's simple.

Person needs health care to survive.

Person does not have money for health care and no realistic means of getting the money necessary for it.

Health care system's ability to lower the price is limited by doctors' own massive student debt.

Medicaid no longer exists because, according to the premise, government should totally be out of the business of health care. (That also means a number of public hospitals will close, driving up demand at the remaining corporate and religious hospitals, almost all of which are congregated in the cities, so if you're rural poor, you're even further up a creek than you were before.)

Person does not get health care.

Person dies.
This is what I talk about when I talk about reckless legislating. The market is objective, emotionless, and totally devoid of regard for individual need. The market does not care whether one lives or dies. That stoic inflexibility has real-life consequences that spill far beyond just dollars and cents.

[Smokin Joe]

This bill may be the best we can do right now.  Right now we have no democrat votes and some squishes on the Republican side. 

As far as 2018 goes, I'm guessing it will go exactly as the two special elections the dems put their hopes and money on went.

You are missing the seminal issue: The government has no business in the health insurance business.

Anything less than 'no' is haggling over price.

[INVAR]

Person needs health care to survive.  Person does not have money for health care and no realistic means of getting the money necessary for it.
Health care system's ability to lower the price is limited by doctors' own massive student debt.
Medicaid no longer exists because, according to the premise, government should totally be out of the business of health care. (That also means a number of public hospitals will close, driving up demand at the remaining corporate and religious hospitals, almost all of which are congregated in the cities, so if you're rural poor, you're even further up a creek than you were before.)

Person does not get health care.

Person dies.

My my.  How in the world did we ever manage to grow to a prosperous nation of millions of people in this country before government got involved with health care??

By your reckoning that just wasn't possible without government healthcare.

The market is objective, emotionless, and totally devoid of regard for individual need. The market does not care whether one lives or dies.

And the government does????????

Your words are those I would expect to read from Obama or Castro, not someone who identifies as Conservative.

[Smokin Joe]

It's already pretty much that way now. And what medicaid won't cover, county generally will.

Not so much. Medicaid caps assets. If you are old enough to own your home, but too young for medicare, and lost your job, you fall through the crack.

[truth_seeker]

That's simple.

Person needs health care to survive.

Person does not have money for health care and no realistic means of getting the money necessary for it.

Health care system's ability to lower the price is limited by doctors' own massive student debt.

Medicaid no longer exists because, according to the premise, government should totally be out of the business of health care. (That also means a number of public hospitals will close, driving up demand at the remaining corporate and religious hospitals, almost all of which are congregated in the cities, so if you're rural poor, you're even further up a creek than you were before.)

Person does not get health care.

Person dies.
This is what I talk about when I talk about reckless legislating. The market is objective, emotionless, and totally devoid of regard for individual need. The market does not care whether one lives or dies. That stoic inflexibility has real-life consequences that spill far beyond just dollars and cents.

That is amazing series of comments, from somebody that claims to be conservative.

--Save to have money for rainy days of all kinds, including medical emergencies
--Pay your own bills with your own cash.
--Negotiate payments with providers
--Borrow from relatives, then repay
--Get good job with insurance, even if that entails moving
--Don't have children, if you cannot afford them
--Do not participate in dangerous activities, if you can't afford the medical bills
--Go to emergency room, in the event of emergency and get care, regardless of immediate ability to pay
--etc.

[Chosen Daughter]

I am not surprised.  Seven weeks and this is all that they can come up with? Idiots!  As Cruz stated "Want a Dem-Led Congress? Pass Obamacare Repeal Bill That Doesn’t Repeal Obamacare!"

Don't see this passing anyways. I would almost guarantee you that Cruz, Lee, and Paul won't vote for this and you know that Chucky and crew aren't going to vote in favor either.

Yep, Cruz is among the 4 who will not vote for this bill.  Does not completely repeal Obama Care and does not lower health coverage premiums.  They are sticking to campaign promises.

[Smokin Joe]

That is amazing series of comments, from somebody that claims to be conservative.

--Save to have money for rainy days of all kinds, including medical emergencies
--Pay your own bills with your own cash.
--Negotiate payments with providers
--Borrow from relatives, then repay
--Get good job with insurance, even if that entails moving
--Don't have children, if you cannot afford them
--Do not participate in dangerous activities, if you can't afford the medical bills
--Go to emergency room, in the event of emergency and get care, regardless of immediate ability to pay
--etc.

All of the above are best. Plan for and try to cover your own bills, with money set aside for the purpose. I used to keep catastrophic care with a high deductible and pay the small stuff out of pocket. Obamacare eliminated the high deductible plan, and my insurance carrier quit offering health policies. I managed to get into surgery three days before my policy ended. Thankfully, there were no complications, and my care didn't go past the end of the policy. 

But, if you really suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, iIf all that doesn't quite get there, try crowdfunding. Hard to go hat-in-hand, but there are folks who will help, out of the goodness of their hearts.

We have benefit auctions and events in this area quite a few times a year to help folks who got nailed with severe medical problems, and there is almost always a donation jar for someone whose kid got cancer or the like on the counter of local convenience stores.

[roamer_1]

That's simple.

Person needs health care to survive.

Funny that... I wonder how there were old folks around before we had this vaunted 'health care'.

Medicaid no longer exists because, according to the premise, government should totally be out of the business of health care. (That also means a number of public hospitals will close, driving up demand at the remaining corporate and religious hospitals, almost all of which are congregated in the cities, so if you're rural poor, you're even further up a creek than you were before.)

Your premise is flawed. State run and county run health care services would still exist, and have existed for a long time. Allow churches back into the health care game, and suddenly you have a player in the system whose penchant, whose very existence, requires charity.

These were the major players prior to fedzilla and insurance.

Person does not get health care.
Person dies.

But person DOES get help, and does not die.

This is what I talk about when I talk about reckless legislating. The market is objective, emotionless, and totally devoid of regard for individual need. The market does not care whether one lives or dies. That stoic inflexibility has real-life consequences that spill far beyond just dollars and cents.

HOLD ON. Do you envision GOVERNMENT, especially federal government as being the opposite? Do you think this federal behemoth is charitable?

If you do, you've another think coming. I can't even agree with you that business is less charitable than government. All the small businessmen I know are charitable, and donate to many groups in the course of business.

[Suppressed]

The greatest nation on earth can decide we don't want people dying in the streets, but we can't do anything about it but set out a jar at the hardware store and hope some Christians pick up the tab out of the kindness of their hearts.

Wow.

[roamer_1]

The greatest nation on earth can decide we don't want people dying in the streets, but we can't do anything about it but set out a jar at the hardware store and hope some Christians pick up the tab out of the kindness of their hearts.

Wow.

I doubt you'll understand it, but that is what has made us the greatest nation on earth. What has infected us, this socialism that so many now wail for, is precisely what will cause us to cease being the greatest nation on the earth.