Jimmy Kimmel had Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy on his late-night program last May to talk about health care. Senator Cassidy co-authored and co-sponsors the latest Republican bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Kimmel looked over the details of the bill (you can too, here, in this nifty NPR chart comparing Cassidy-Graham to the status quo and the failed House and Senate ACA repeal bills) and says it fails to live up to what Kimmel and Cassidy discussed in May:
Kimmel laid out four points that Cassidy had said he wanted in a health care bill:
1. Coverage for all
2. No discrimination based on pre-existing conditions
3. Lower premiums for middle-class families
4. No lifetime caps“I’m sorry he does not understand,” Cassidy said Wednesday morning on CNN about Kimmel, adding that under the new bill, “more people will have coverage.”
That’s almost certainly not true, given the Medicaid expansion rollback that would take place under the bill. Medicaid expansion accounted for the largest drop in the uninsured under the ACA.
…”Not only did he fail the ‘Jimmy Kimmel test,’ ” Kimmel said, “it failed the ‘Bill Cassidy test'” [Domenico Montanaro, “WATCH: Jimmy Kimmel Blasts GOP Health Bill, Says It Fails The “Jimmy Kimmel Test’,” NPR.org, 2017.09.20].
Senator Cassidy says Kimmel “does not understand” the new ACA repeal bill, but the Washington Post says Kimmel appears to understand key points of the bill better than its authors do, such as the inevitable increase in the uninsured, the loss of protections for pre=existing conditions, the loss of the guarantee against lifetime caps on health insurance payouts, and the Republican rush to pass this bill before we all figure out that it’s as bad as if not worse than the previous House and Senate ACA repealers.
CBO is promising a preliminary assessment of Cassidy-Graham by early next week. CBO says they’ll have some deficit estimates and “qualitative information” about effects but will need “several weeks” more to give supportable numbers deficits, number of people insured, and premiums.
Kimmel is right. Just think Kristen Noem thinks a women’s choice is wrong and abortion is murder, however once you are born it is Ok to let you die
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/9/20/16333876/republican-senators-graham-cassidy
Vox reporter asks 9 wingnut Sinators about the plan. The big deal is giving states more power to experiment because they are said to be more efficient than DC. Then one senator turns around and says states will not be allowed to do single payer plans because wingnuts don’t like them. So much for state’s rights.
Great. More of my tax dollars going to SD for corruption. More money to GOP coffers, less health for the people. Sounds like a good deal for the crooks.
Bill Cassidy must subscribe to the George Costanza school of truth-telling:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn_PSJsl0LQ
What’s not to like? Let us count thy ways:
1. They take money from the states who expanded Medicaid (blue states) and give it to states that didn’t expand Medicaid (red states) and call that expanding insurance coverage.
2. They say you can’t discriminate against those with pre-existing conditions, but the states have the “flexibility” to waive this provision. What’s that you say, the states won’t waive it? But the federal government is limiting the amount of money going to each state, so each state would have to kick in millions, hundreds of millions, or billions of dollars to fund the pre-existing coverage not funded by the feds now. “Oh, our state can’t afford that. We need a waiver over here!”
3. States can implement lifetime caps on coverage. “But the states can make up the difference.” Ya, right!
4. States can experiment with their block-grant funding. Oh good, states could provide vouchers for healthcare to their citizens! For instance, they could do this: “Here’s a $5,000 voucher for each citizen in Texas. That is the Texas healthcare plan.” “What’s that? Your hospital bill is $50,000? Sorry, your coverage is limited to the $5,000 provided by the state. You owe $45,000 out of pocket. Will that be cash or check?”
5. It doesn’t address the rising costs of healthcare in any meaningful fashion except to limit the feds’ spending and try to shift the burden to the states.
6. It doesn’t address out of control drug prices.
If Sen. McCain is consistent, and he usually is, his criteria for voting yes on this most monumental piece of legislation is still nonexistent. Until the CBO gives us the assessment it gave the last Obamacare Repeal bill, the process hasn’t followed proper Senatorial guidelines for advancement.
However, the fact McCain is fast friends with Lindsey Graham may make McCain overlook his morals and vote yes, anyway.
At that point it goes to the house and New York and California and other BigBlue states that will be decimated by Medicare cuts will see their Republican Congress people vote No, just to save their state from financial ruin. Even a Republican can’t let that happen when what they’ll be buying is far worse than just leaving things the same.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5dd341608282e934b4261ff16ba4e2f607e4ecdf68ee6aae145a013b801f4136.jpg
The truth about fauxknee kristians.
On the good side, passage of Cassidy-Graham could help Democrats win back state legislatures in 2018 thanks to millions of voters who will see their Republican legislators taking away their insurance and turning the block grants into slush funds, the way Rounds did with the stimulus money.
Governor Mike Rounds shifted funding for the uninsured and underinsured to counties. Senator Rounds is shifting funding for the uninsured and underinsured to states.