Lindsey Graham says GOP in trouble if Obama’s health care law stands
A GOP senator says all Republicans are in trouble politically if they’re unable to scrap former President Barack Obama‘s health care law and replace it with a better one. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina says he doesn’t mind that President Donald Trump is upset with Republicans for failing to fulfill their seven-year-old pledge on a health overhaul. Graham tells “Fox News Sunday” that if Republicans can’t deliver, “We’re all going to be in trouble, including the president.” Graham’s also defending Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He says the Kentucky lawmaker is viewed by GOP senators as a “good solid leader.” McConnell tried but failed last month to replace the Affordable Care Act. Trump called the outcome “a disgrace” and suggested McConnell may have to think about stepping aside. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Daniel Sutter: Good Samaritans and health insurance
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) taxes Americans without health insurance. The unpopular individual mandate violates personal freedom and was targeted by Congressional Republicans in their recent “Obamacare” repeal efforts. The health insurance mandate addresses a conundrum known as the Samaritan’s Dilemma, which arises frequently in public policy. A strong case exists for the individual mandate even though it infringes on personal freedom. In the Biblical parable, the Good Samaritan stopped to assist a traveler who had been beaten by robbers after several other travelers passed by. The tale teaches us to treat people, even strangers, with compassion. Economist James Buchanan first explained the Samaritan’s Dilemma, which concerns an implication of compassion. Knowledge that a Good Samaritan will be there to assist if needed leads people to take risky actions, like say traveling the road from Jerusalem to Jericho through bandit territory. Such interactions occur frequently. For instance, availability of a search and rescue team can induce hikers to try longer, more difficult trails, increasing the number of hikers needing rescue. The presence of a lifeguard can lead weak swimmers to venture farther out into the water. Today we often have government to assist our fellow citizens instead of waiting on a Good Samaritan. The Samaritan’s Dilemma plagues government as well. Politicians face enormous pressure to assist persons in distress due to natural disasters or illness. This assistance undermines the incentive for personal responsibility. The challenge for Good Samaritans is strategic: How to keep the increased demand for help from overwhelming our resources? A wealthy Samaritan cannot care for everyone if they all need help. As individuals, we frequently help friends and relatives whom we know well; we can consequently evaluate if their distress is truly due to circumstances beyond their control. Government programs typically are designed to help anyone, especially strangers. We can sometimes manage the dilemma by charging for help, like with ambulance rides or wilderness rescues. Charges limit the incentive of people to take advantage of compassionate taxpayers, but the inability of some persons needing assistance to pay a charge limits this mechanism’s usefulness. Governments also manage the Samaritan’s Dilemma by limiting our freedom, as with the ACA’s individual insurance purchase mandate. Let’s see how this works. Debates over health care sometimes imply that the uninsured do not receive life-saving emergency care. This is not true in America; the uninsured get treated in emergency rooms, with costs shifted to patients able to pay their bills. People can take advantage of our willingness to provide life-saving medical care regardless of whether people can pay. I think that we can say that everyone who can afford it has a responsibility to purchase health insurance to avoid burdening others. But we are not going to withhold care when needed. So this responsibility must be enforced by a law. Social Security addresses a form of the dilemma arising from people outliving their savings. If we will have the government support any retiree who runs out of savings, fewer people will save for retirement. Forcing savings through Social Security or employer-provided pension plans reduces the need for assistance to retirees. Disaster assistance also faces the Samaritan’s Dilemma since it makes living in flood zones attractive. We can limit the dilemma by forcing flood zone residents to buy flood insurance. Or government can restrict freedom even further and prohibit living in flood zones altogether. Does the Samaritan’s Dilemma justify restricting freedom? Personally I do not think so. We should simply accept that helping anyone, regardless of how they wound up in distress, will be really costly. Restricting freedom, however, is a natural reaction for taxpayers frustrated about paying for others’ possibly irresponsible acts. Freedom and compassion are virtues, but often conflict in the design of government policy, and quite often this leads to restrictions on freedom, like the ACA’s individual mandate. A third virtue, namely responsibility, could avoid this conflict, but is also undermined by government compassion. ••• Daniel Sutter is the Charles G. Koch Professor of Economics with the Manuel H. Johnson Center for Political Economy at Troy University and host of Econversations on TrojanVision. The opinions expressed in this column are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of Troy University.
Employer-based health coverage likely to stay awhile
Get your insurance through your employer? The ongoing political turmoil around “Obamacare” all but guarantees you’ll still be able to do that. Ask Walt Rowen, whose business is etching glass but whose experience managing century-old, family-owned Susquehanna Glass makes him something of an expert on health care. He’s provided coverage to employees, then canceled it, steering them to the health insurance exchange. But with those premiums rising, Rowen this year is again covering his 70 or so workers under the umbrella of employer-sponsored health insurance. Employer-provided health insurance is so ingrained in the American workplace that people expect it to continue even as politicians thrash out the role of government in health care. That’s according to polling, business owners and consumers. And in a nearly saturated labor market, employers don’t want to give workers a reason to work somewhere else. “I think a company – any size company – would be incredibly afraid to just cancel its insurance policy and say the hell with it,” says Rowen, whose company is located in Columbia, Pennsylvania. He said that could result in employees fleeing, especially in states where the Affordable Care Act insurance markets are weak. With the GOP crusade to repeal and replace “Obamacare” failing, the federal mandates that people have insurance and that employers with more than 50 workers provide it seem likely to stay in place in the foreseeable future. The Trump administration on Tuesday pledged to keep working with Congress on a rewrite. “Obamacare’s mandates saddled many with health care costs they simply couldn’t afford,” said White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders. For now, the Trump administration is considering whether or not to continue paying the law’s cost-sharing subsidies, which have helped lower premiums. Without those subsidies, it’s estimated that premiums will rise and insurers will leave markets. The ACA requires companies with 50 or more full-time employees to provide insurance to employees and their dependents. The Kaiser Family Foundation says nearly 96 percent of companies of that size already were offering coverage before the law took effect in 2014. Nearly 35 percent of companies with fewer than 50 workers also were offering insurance. Removing the employer mandate wouldn’t sit well with a wide swath of the American public. A poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research says 61 percent oppose revoking the requirement, including 58 percent of Republicans. Workers have been getting their health insurance through their employers for decades, since the U.S. government exempted employer-paid health benefits from wage controls and income tax during World War II. Nearly 90 percent of workers are in companies that provide health benefits, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation/HRET annual survey in 2016. Taking into account dependents, roughly half of Americans are covered by employer-based insurance. Large companies “need to attract and retain employees and they’d be at a competitive disadvantage if they stopped offering health benefits,” said William Kramer, executive director for national health policy for the Pacific Business Group on Health. As a result, human resource consultants say it’s likely that businesses will remain committed to offering coverage. Some experts question whether the ACA’s employer mandate makes much, if any, difference when there’s a solid business case for providing health care: With unemployment low and the labor market tight, benefits give employers an advantage in recruiting and retaining the best workers. “What kind of message are you giving to employees if you say, ‘I’m going to take this away?’ Are you really willing to risk losing people?” asks David Lewis, CEO of OperationsInc, based in Norwalk, Connecticut. Even if the employer mandate had been repealed, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that larger companies would have been hard-pressed to cancel their health benefits, although some smaller firms would have done so. “As soon as you take it back, you cause massive employee dissatisfaction,” said Jay Starkman, CEO of Engage PEO, a human resources provider whose clients include many small and mid-sized businesses. Rowen, the glass business owner, says his health insurance decisions had less to do with the employer mandate than with cost and employee retention. In the four years before the ACA took effect, Susquehanna Glass had fewer than 50 employees and saw its premiums rise between 15 percent and 20 percent a year. “We were fiddling all the time trying to keep our health care costs for our employees as affordable as possible,” Rowen recalls. He hired an expert to help his employees find insurance on the exchange in Pennsylvania. Lower-paid employees qualified for subsidies, while higher-paid workers could afford plans or went on their spouses’ plans, he said. In some cases, Rowen gave bonuses or raises to help workers afford insurance. He says he owed a penalty of about $40,000 for not providing insurance – less than the six figures he thinks he would have paid to provide group insurance. But by 2016, he said, his workers were complaining that their premiums were increasing. Susquehanna Glass by that time had grown to about 70 employees – enough to qualify for less-expensive group plans joined by medium-sized businesses. Many of his new employees were younger and less expensive to insure. He found that purchasing group health insurance would cost just over $100,000 – not as much as he’d feared. “If they were not able to get an affordable one with me and they found another company that does offer one,” he says, “They might be forced to make the decision to leave me.” Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
White House: Donald Trump to decide soon on ending health payments
The White House is insisting that the Senate resume efforts to repeal and replace the nation’s health care law, signaling that President Donald Trump stands ready to end required payments to insurers this week to let “Obamacare implode” and force congressional action. “The president will not accept those who said it’s, quote, ‘Time to move on,’” White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said. Those were the words used by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., after the stunning early Friday morning defeat of the GOP bill to repeal former President Barack Obama‘s signature legislative achievement. McConnell is already moving to other business, having scheduled Senate consideration later Monday on a judicial nomination. Conway said Trump was deciding whether to act on his threat to end cost-sharing reduction payments, which are aimed at trimming out-of-pocket costs for lower-income people. “He’s going to make that decision this week, and that’s a decision that only he can make,” Conway said. Trump vented his frustration on Twitter Monday. He said: “If ObamaCare is hurting people, & it is, why shouldn’t it hurt the insurance companies & why should Congress not be paying what public pays?” In fact, most members of Congress get their coverage through the Affordable Care Act like millions of other Americans. The 2010 law was specifically written to include lawmakers, and starting in 2014, members and their staffs had to use federal or state health care exchanges. Most members who use the coverage buy it off the health care exchange created by the District of Columbia. For seven years, Republicans have promised that once they took power, they would scrap Obama’s overhaul and pass a replacement. But that effort crashed most recently in the Senate on Friday. Republicans hold a 52-48 majority in the Senate, where no Democrats voted for the GOP bill and three Republicans defected in the final vote Friday. One of the GOP defectors, Sen. John McCain, has since returned to Arizona for treatment for brain cancer. “Don’t give up Republican senators, the World is watching: Repeal & Replace,” Trump said in a tweet. White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, when asked Sunday if no other legislative business should be taken up until the Senate acts again on health care, responded “yes.” While the House has begun a five-week recess, the Senate is scheduled to work two more weeks before a summer break. McConnell has said the unfinished business includes addressing a backlog of executive and judicial nominations, coming ahead of a busy agenda in September that involves passing a defense spending bill and raising the government’s borrowing limit. “In the White House’s view, they can’t move on in the Senate,” Mulvaney said, referring to health legislation. “They need to stay, they need to work, they need to pass something.” Trump warned over the weekend that he would end federal subsidies for health care insurance for Congress and the rest of the country if the Senate didn’t act soon. He was referring in part to a federal contribution for lawmakers and their staffs, who were moved onto Obamacare insurance exchanges as part of the 2010 law. “If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!” Trump tweeted. The subsidies, totaling about $7 billion a year, help reduce deductibles and copayments for consumers with modest incomes. The Obama administration used its rule-making authority to set direct payments to insurers to help offset these costs. Trump inherited the payment structure, but he also has the power to end them. The payments are the subject of a lawsuit brought by House Republicans over whether the health law specifically included a congressional appropriation for the money, as required under the Constitution. Trump has only guaranteed the payments through July, which ends Monday. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of the three Republican senators who voted against the GOP health bill on Friday, said she’s troubled by Trump’s claims that the insurance payments are a “bailout.” She said Trump’s threat to cut off payments would not change her opposition to the GOP health bill and stressed the cost-sharing reduction payments were critical to make insurance more affordable for low-income people. “The uncertainty about whether that subsidy is going to continue from month to month is clearly contributing to the destabilization of the insurance markets, and that’s one thing that Congress needs to end,” said Collins, who wants lawmakers to appropriate money for the payments. “I certainly hope the administration does not do anything in the meantime to hasten that collapse,” she added. Trump previously said the law that he and others call “Obamacare” would collapse immediately whenever those payments stop. He has indicated a desire to halt the subsidies but so far has allowed them to continue on a month-to-month basis. Conway spoke on “Fox News Sunday,” Mulvaney appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” and Collins was on CNN as well as NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
More hurdles as Senate again delays vote on GOP health bill
The Senate delayed a highly anticipated vote this coming week to repeal and replace the nation’s health care law after Sen. John McCain‘s announced absence due to surgery, an enormous setback as time dwindles for Republicans to pass the signature legislation after years of promises. The decision by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell late Saturday came not long after McCain’s office disclosed that he had undergone surgery to remove a blood clot from above his left eye. He’s expected to be out for the week, recovering in Arizona. Adding to the uncertainty, the Congressional Budget Office also indicated on Sunday it no longer expected to release its analysis on Monday on the estimated cost and scope of insurance coverage under the latest GOP bill, which has the support of President Donald Trump. The No. 2 Senate GOP leader, John Cornyn of Texas, said he still expected the Senate to move quickly, holding a vote as soon as McCain returns. But amid growing public unease over the bill, some Republicans suggested the delay will make McConnell’s task of winning enough support even harder. In a Senate divided 52-48 between Republicans and Democrats, McConnell can lose no more than two GOP votes and still prevail. “There are about eight to 10 Republican senators who have serious concerns about this bill. And so at the end of the day, I don’t know whether it will pass,” said moderate Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. She has made clear she would vote against the bill, citing proposed cuts to the Medicaid health program for the poor and elderly. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who is also opposed, said doubts also are increasing among Republicans who want to see a fuller repeal of the Affordable Care Act. “The longer the bill’s out there, the more conservative Republicans are going to discover that it’s not repeal,” he said. The White House said Sunday that Trump was “monitoring what’s going on with health care” but did not otherwise weigh in on the growing uncertainty. “We wish Sen. McCain a speedy recovery,” said Helen Aguirre Ferre, director of media affairs. McConnell last week had refashioned the legislation to attract additional GOP votes. The new package added language letting insurers sell discount-priced policies with minimal coverage aimed at winning over conservatives, and revised funding formulas that would mean federal money for states including Louisiana and Alaska – home to four GOP senators who are uncommitted on the measure. But the health care legislation was already hanging by a thread. McCain’s absence meant it would become impossible for the majority leader to round up the votes needed this week to proceed on the bill. It was the second time that McConnell was forced to call off a planned vote, even with heavy lobbying by Trump administration officials. A vote was postponed last month also due to limited support. Democrats are unanimously opposed to the bill, as are the nation’s major medical groups and insurers. “While John is recovering, the Senate will continue our work on legislative items and nominations, and will defer consideration of the Better Care Act,” McConnell, R-Ky., said on Saturday. He has already said the Senate will work through the first two weeks of the August recess, citing a need to finish a slate of unfinished business. McConnell did not indicate when he would aim to return to the health care bill, but Cornyn made clear Sunday that moving quickly is important. “I believe as soon as we have a full contingent of senators, that we’ll have that vote,” he said. Cornyn acknowledged that if the Senate is unable to attract enough GOP votes that it will “keep trying” but will eventually have to come up with a different plan. “We’re willing to do what we can to shore up the system now, to stabilize it to make health care available to people now, but we want reforms to go along with it,” he said. The Senate bill, like legislation the House passed earlier, repeals mandates requiring individuals to carry insurance and businesses to offer it, and unravels an expansion of the Medicaid program enacted under President Barack Obama‘s law. Analyses of the earlier version of the Senate bill found it would result in more than 20 million additional uninsured Americans over a decade compared to current law. The newest version attempts to attract conservative support by allowing insurers to offer skimpy coverage plans alongside more robust ones, but also reaches out to moderates by adding billions in help for the opioid crisis and to defray high costs for consumers. In Phoenix, Mayo Clinic Hospital doctors said McCain underwent a “minimally invasive” procedure to remove the nearly 2-inch (5-centimeter) clot and that the surgery went “very well,” a hospital statement said. McCain was reported to be resting comfortably at his home in Arizona. Pathology reports on the clot were expected in the next several days. McCain, 80, is a three-time survivor of melanoma. Records of his medical exams released in 2008 when he was the GOP candidate for president showed that he has had removed precancerous skin lesions, as well as an early stage squamous cell carcinoma, an easily cured skin cancer. Cornyn appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Collins was on ABC’s “This Week” and CNN’s “State of the Union,” and Paul was on “Fox News Sunday” and CBS’ “Face the Nation.” Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Mobile protesters call out Luther Strange, Richard Shelby on health care
Obamacare supporters gathered in front of Mobile’s federal courthouse Monday, with about 100 people protesting Republican efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. As AL.com reports, Monday afternoon’s rally – organized by Mobile attorney Henry Brewster – was part of a statewide effort to get Alabama Sens. Richard Shelby and Luther Strange to “agree to meet face to face with their constituents regarding the health care bill working its way through Congress.” Last week, the Senate revealed its version of the health care bill and their attempt to rollback Obamacare. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was hoping to have a vote by as soon as Wednesday but faces strong resistance by several key conservatives, including Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas, Utah’s Mike Lee and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. Those four senators announced they would oppose the Senate bill without changes, effectively slowing down any chance of passage as is. Similar protests were held both in Alabama and across the country Monday, including one outside the Birmingham’s Robert S. Vance Federal Building and Courthouse. Both Strange and Shelby have indicated they are leaning toward “yes” if the bill comes to a vote on the Senate floor. Strange is already committing to support this bill, while Shelby told FOX Business he was “encouraged by key provisions in the Senate bill, which would repeal Obamacare’s disastrous individual and employer mandates, repeal taxes on chronic care, health savings accounts, and medical devices, and put Medicaid on a budget that works for individual states.” Brewster told reporters that the bill was essentially a $400 billion tax cut “for the 1 percent,” and called for anyone within earshot to express their disapproval to the senators, via phone and social media. “It is critically important that we make as much noise as possible to them,” Brewster said. Among the elected officials speaking at the rally: District 1 Mobile County Commissioner Merceria Ludgood, Democratic State Rep. Barbara Drummond of Montgomery and Lorenzo Martin, who serves on the Prichard City Council. Ludgood said it was a “sad reason to have to come together,” adding she was “outraged” by the effort to repeal Obamacare, “because the calculation is not about human lives, it’s about dollars.” At the same time, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released its report on the bill, saying that as many as 22 million people would lose health coverage in the next decade under the Senate’s plan. While 15 million would lose Medicaid coverage, the plan would lower the nation’s deficit by billions over 10 years, with substantial tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. While 15 million would lose Medicaid coverage, the Senate plan, as it stands, would lower the nation’s deficit by billions over 10 years, providing substantial tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.
These senators will make or break the GOP’s health care push
President Donald Trump‘s campaign promise to repeal and replace “Obamacare” is now in the hands of a key group of GOP senators who are opposing -or not yet supporting – legislation Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing to bring to a vote this week. These lawmakers range from moderate to conservative Republicans, and include senators who were just re-elected and a couple facing tough re-election fights. Their concerns about the legislation vary along with their ideology, from those who say it’s overly punitive in ejecting people from the insurance rolls, to others who say it doesn’t go far enough in dismantling former President Barack Obama‘s Affordable Care Act. Satisfying one group risks alienating another. Trump spent part of the weekend placing phone calls to a handful of these lawmakers, focusing on senators who supported his candidacy – Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky. The next several days will show whether the president’s efforts pay off and if those lawmakers and the others will ultimately fall in line on legislation that would impact health care for millions of Americans, while allowing Trump and GOP leaders to boast of fulfilling a campaign promise seven years in the making. McConnell has scant margin for error given united Democratic opposition, and can afford to lose only two Republicans from his 52-member caucus. A look at the key Republican lawmakers: — THE CONSERVATIVES Cruz, Paul, Johnson and Sen. Mike Lee of Utah jointly announced their opposition to the legislation as written last Thursday, the same day it was released. They said it did not go far enough to dismantle “Obamacare,” and Johnson also complained of a rushed process. “They’re trying to jam this thing through,” Johnson complained Monday to conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. Yet Johnson, like many other congressional Republicans, was elected in 2010 on pledges to repeal Obamacare and has been making that promise ever since. While looking for tweaks that can satisfy the conservatives, Senate GOP leaders are also arguing that any Republican who fails to vote for the leadership bill will be responsible for leaving Obamacare standing. Few Senate Republicans expect Paul to vote with them in the end, because of opposition he’s long expressed to government tax subsidies going to pay for private insurance, but many expect Cruz could be won over, especially since he’s running for re-election. — THE ENDANGERED Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada, the only Senate Republican up for re-election next year in a state Hillary Clinton won, surprised Senate GOP leaders by coming out hard against the health legislation at a news conference Friday. Standing next to Nevada’s popular Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval, Heller said he could not support a bill that that “takes away insurance from tens of millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Nevadans.” Nevada is one of the states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The GOP bill would unwind that expansion and cap Medicaid payments for the future. Nevada also has a disproportionate share of older residents under age 65 – when Medicare kicks in – who would likely face higher premiums because the GOP bill gives insurance companies greater latitude to charge more to older customers. Heller’s fellow moderate Republican, Sen. Jeff Flake, faces similar issues of an aging population in neighboring Arizona. He is viewed as the second-most-endangered GOP incumbent next year after Heller. Flake has not yet taken stance on the bill but is facing a raft of television ads from AARP and other groups that are opposed. Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, a Democrat seen as a possible Flake challenger next year, said Monday the Senate bill “doesn’t make anyone healthier. It doesn’t make anyone safer.” But Flake, who was outspoken against Trump during last year’s campaign but has grown quieter since his election, also faces a potential primary challenge from the right. Both Heller and Flake face the uncomfortable prospect of angering their party’s base if they don’t support the GOP health bill – but alienating general election moderate and independent voters if they do. — THE MODERATES Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska are fellow moderates who’ve raised concerns about the Senate health bill for a variety of reasons. On Monday, after the release of a Congressional Budget Office analysis that the bill will leave 22 million more people uninsured over a decade, Collins announced she would oppose an important procedural vote on the legislation this week. Along with potential opposition from Johnson, Paul and Heller on the vote, that could leave leadership struggling to even advance to a final vote on the health care bill. Collins said that the bill’s Medicaid cuts hurt the most vulnerable and that it doesn’t fix problems for rural Maine. Murkowski has not taken a position but has also expressed concerns about the impacts on a rural, Medicaid-dependent population, as well as funding cuts to Planned Parenthood. — THE TWO-ISSUE SENATORS Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia are generally reliable votes for GOP leadership. In this case, both have two specific, and related, concerns causing them heartburn on the health bill: The prevalence of opioid addiction in their states, and their constituents’ reliance on Medicaid. In many cases, voters with addiction problems rely on Medicaid for treatment help, and Portman and Capito both represent states that expanded Medicaid under Obama’s law. Last year about 100,000 low-income West Virginia residents with Medicaid coverage had drug abuse diagnoses, according to state health officials. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Roy Moore weighs in on Senate Republican’s Obamacare repeal bill
Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice and current U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore weighed in on the newly unveiled Senate GOP health care proposal, saying he opposes it as it does not fully repeal Obamacare, suggesting that is only a repeal “in name only.” “As I stated over a month ago, I will oppose any bill that does not fully repeal Obamacare,” Moore said in a statement Thursday night. “We knew from day one that the concept of Obamacare was doomed to fail just as socialized medicine has failed in every country where it has been implemented.” Moore continued saying the GOP leadership shouldn’t try to “hoodwink the American people.” “Majority Leader McConnell and the Senate Republicans should not hoodwink the American people into thinking that Obamacare has been repealed by doing it in name only. We need to keep our word to the people who elected us last November.” Read Moore’s full statement below: As I stated over a month ago, I will oppose any bill that does not fully repeal Obamacare. We knew from day one that the concept of Obamacare was doomed to fail just as socialized medicine has failed in every country where it has been implemented. Majority Leader McConnell and the Senate Republicans should not hoodwink the American people into thinking that Obamacare has been repealed by doing it in name only. We need to keep our word to the people who elected us last November. Federal intrusion into our healthcare system has reduced choices for consumers, lowered our quality of care, and has set our nation on a course to bankruptcy. The Senate should put forth a plan to repeal Obamacare and also repeal the McCarren-Ferguson Act of 1945. There is no place for the federal government to regulate private insurance plans. If we truly wanted to improve the system of healthcare insurance in this country, we should permit insurance companies to sell policies across state lines and encourage the creation of larger pools of coverage that would address the unique health issues faced by every individual. America’s healthcare system is the best in the world for a reason: free enterprise. Private sector competition improves consumer choice, quality of service, and innovation in every part of our economy. There is never a time to reject the time-tested power of freedom to improve life for everyone.
Alabama sees America’s highest premium spike under Obamacare
A new report from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) details the premium changes Americans across the country have experienced under former President Barack Obama‘s signature legislation, Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. According to the report, which uses the data the Obama administration relied on, “average exchange premiums were 105 percent higher in the 39 states using Healthcare.gov in 2017 than average individual market premiums in 2013.” “Premiums for individual market coverage have increased significantly since the Affordable Care Act’s key provisions have taken effect,” the new report reads. The report also found the State of Alabama saw the nation’s highest premium increase since the implementation of Obamacare with an average 223 percent increase between 2013 and 2017 due to the new regulations. That’s more than double the national average. Alabama 2nd District U.S. Rep. Martha Roby said the statistics show why Republicans are working to offer Americans relief from the burdensome law. “The numbers are staggering. Insurance premiums and deductibles have skyrocketed due to the regulations and mandates imposed by Obamacare,” Roby said. “Providers have been forced out of the market, and Alabama consumers now only have one option for health insurance. Problems like these are why I worked to help build support for our three-step plan to repeal and replace Obamacare.” Earlier this month the U.S. House of Representatives passed the American Health Care Act (AHCA), which is the first of a three-phase plan by Republicans in Congress and the Trump Administration to repeal and replace Obamacare and rebuild America’s health care system, based on a plan that is intended to lower premiums and other out-of-pocket costs that have come to weigh on patients.
More health insurance woes looming: blame Donald Trump or Barack Obama?
Another year of big premium increases and dwindling choice is looking like a distinct possibility for many consumers who buy their own health insurance – but why, and who’s to blame? President Donald Trump has seized on early market rumbles as validation of his claim that “Obamacare” is a disaster, collapsing of its own weight. Democrats, meanwhile, accuse Trump of “sabotage” on a program he’s disparaged and wants to dismantle. It’s more complicated, say some independent experts. As for blame, there’s enough to go around. Many insurers in the subsidized markets created by the Affordable Care Act are still struggling to overcome financial losses. The cost of care for their new customers turned out higher than expected, a fundamental factor driving premiums next year and nudging some insurers toward the exits. But the Trump administration has also sent mixed signals that insurers find unsettling. A market stabilization regulation gave the industry changes it wanted. However, insurers’ top priority has become a political football. Trump keeps hinting he might stop paying billions of dollars in subsidies to reduce deductibles and copayments. Insurers are also worried that under Trump the IRS will ease up enforcing the health law’s unpopular requirement that most individuals have coverage, which can help drive healthy people into the market. Finally the GOP legislation in Congress would cut private insurance and Medicaid subsidies indirectly flowing to the companies. The impact will vary by state and insurer, but “I think it is the case that the uncertainty we are dealing with is adding to the premium increases this year,” said Cori Uccello of the American Academy of Actuaries, which represents experts who make long-range cost estimates for health care and pension programs. New York is the latest state where some are predicting double-digit hikes as insurers begin unveiling premiums for 2018. Nationally, about 20 million people buy their own health insurance policies. Roughly half receive subsidies through the ACA marketplaces, and are cushioned, but the rest will face the brunt of increases. In the latter group are many early retirees, self-employed professionals and small business owners – a traditional Republican constituency. In Virginia, seven insurers are seeking average premium increases that range from just under 10 percent to more than 50 percent. Kurt Giesa, a partner with the Oliver Wyman consultancy, said such a wide spread signals to him that some insurers may be pricing for political uncertainty. “Insurers are operating under a lot of uncertainty right now, and really, the uncertainty isn’t being cleared up,” he said. “The administration isn’t clearing up the uncertainty.” Virginia state officials declined to comment. Standard & Poor’s analyst Deep Banerjee had earlier forecast relatively modest increases. Now he’s not so sure. “There is a cloud of uncertainty that is hanging over 2018,” he said. In Maryland, where five insurers are seeking increases that average from 18 percent to nearly 59 percent, Insurance Commissioner Al Redmer, Jr., says he’s told insurers he’s not inclined to make any allowances for political uncertainty. “Trump hasn’t been in office for three or four years, and for anybody to try to point to him as the problem, that’s either falsifying history or delusional,” said Redmer, a Republican. The fundamental factors are sicker customers and higher operating costs, he added. “Congress needs to put aside partisan differences and fix the ACA.” Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Teresa Miller said she’s not expecting price shock in her state, but she’s convinced the Trump administration isn’t helping. “They would rather destabilize the markets and see them fail,” said Miller, appointed by a Democratic governor. Insurance industry trade groups don’t discuss prices because of antitrust qualms. But in Tennessee, a major company’s CEO cited the potential impact of political uncertainty as a factor in premiums in a recent letter to insurance Commissioner Julie Mix McPeak. “Given the potential negative effects of federal legislative and/or regulatory changes, we believe it will be necessary to price-in those downside risks, even at the prospect of a higher-than-average margin for the short term, or until stability can be achieved,” wrote JD Hickey of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. Translation: Part of the company’s premium request may reflect the impact of uncertainty, even if that means the insurer would take in more money than it needs to cover claims and expenses. In a statement, the Trump administration said the problems lie with the ACA, not its own stewardship. “It requires impressive mental gymnastics to make the case that Obamacare is working,” said spokeswoman Alleigh Marre. But former President Barack Obama‘s Medicare administrator said Trump is deliberately trying to make things worse. “This is purposeful so that the president can create a crisis and use that to force the Congress to pass his law,” said Andy Slavitt. “He’s holding the match.” Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Martha Roby: Keeping our promise
Republicans in the House of Representatives took a critical first step towards keeping our promise to repeal and replace Obamacare by passing the American Health Care Act (AHCA). While I’ve been committed to making this happen since day one, it took a lot of negotiating and hard work by President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence to get it over the finish line in the House. Obamacare is crumbling all around us as premiums continue to skyrocket, deductibles continue to increase, and coverage continues to implode. As if we needed further proof that the status quo is unsustainable, Aetna recently announced they will join several health insurance providers in fully leaving the Obamacare marketplace. When more news about the failures of Obamacare comes to the forefront, it serves as a reminder that the time to give Americans relief from this disastrous law is now. I’m proud that we’ve begun the process of replacing Obamacare with a patient-centered health care system that will offer Americans more choices and lower costs. For seven years I have promised the people of Alabama’s Second District that I would repeal and replace this failed law, and I was finally able to deliver on that promise in a meaningful way with my vote in favor of the AHCA. Passing the AHCA is the first of a three-step plan by Republicans in Congress and the Trump Administration to put an end to Obamacare. Our bill dismantles the taxes in Obamacare that have harmed our nation’s job creators, increased costs for patients, and given Americans fewer options. It also eliminates both the individual and employer mandate penalties that forced millions of Americans into health care plans that they do not want and cannot afford, among many other provisions. Upon enactment of the AHCA, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price will begin using his authority to dismantle the Obamacare rules and regulations that drive up patient costs and force insurers out of the market. Finally, Congress will take up pieces of legislation that conservatives have advocated for over the years to further bring down costs through proposals such as allowing insurance competition across state lines and health care portability. Before AHCA came before the House earlier this month, I sat in the Oval Office with President Trump and assured him that I would help him get this legislation through. House passage of AHCA was just one step, but it was an important one, and it would not have been possible without the direct involvement of President Trump and Vice President Pence. The AHCA now awaits further action by the Senate, and I’m hopeful they will continue our progress. Americans need and deserve relief from Obamacare now and, while it will take some work, I’m confident the Senate can get this done so the president can sign this conservative solution into law. It is refreshing and encouraging to now be working with a unified Republican majority that is committed to delivering results and keeping our promises to the American people. After so many years of gridlock in Washington, Republicans in the House, the Senate, and the White House are working to get things done – together. ••• Martha Roby represents Alabama’s Second Congressional District. She lives in Montgomery, Alabama with her husband Riley and their two children.
Aetna pullout shows Obamacare on life support
While Republicans rewrite the Affordable Care Act in Washington, the immediate future of the law has grown hazier with the nation’s third-largest health insurer saying that it will completely divorce itself from state-based insurance exchanges. Aetna says it won’t sell individual coverage in Nebraska and Delaware next year after projecting a $200 million loss this year. The insurer had already pulled out of several states after losing about $450 million in 2016. The exchanges are a pillar of the federal law because they allow millions of people to buy coverage with help from income-based tax credits. But insurers like Humana, and now Aetna, have been fleeing that market. Others like the Blue Cross-Blue Shield carrier Anthem say they are wary of returning without guarantees of at least one key financial support. Every exchange had at least one insurer offering coverage for 2017, but a growing number were down to only one. Insurance experts expect holes to develop in 2018 with the coverage growing so thin. Customers may be able to find individual insurance coverage off the exchanges, but those marketplaces offer the only way for people to get tax credits to help pay the premium. About 12 million people bought coverage through the exchanges for this year. Most used tax credits to help buy coverage. Among the states in trouble for next year is Iowa. Aside from Aetna, Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield also said it will leave that state’s individual market after only a year on it. Another insurer, Medica, said earlier this month that its “ability to stay in the Iowa insurance market in any capacity is in question at this point.” Earlier this year, Humana’s decision to leave the exchanges temporarily left 16 Tennessee counties with no on-exchange coverage options for 2018. But BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee recently said it would fill that void. Insurers are in the middle of figuring out their prices and coverage plans for 2018. The departure of competitors from a market could play a role in their decisions because that may swamp them with a wave of new customers, some of whom likely have expensive medical conditions. The ACA prevents insurers from rejecting patients based on their health. “All it takes is one insurance company to exit, and that can create panic for other insurers and they pull out too,” said Cynthia Cox, a health insurance expert for the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, which studies health care. “Insurers don’t want to be the last one holding the bag.” But she also noted that an insurer doesn’t have to worry as much about pricing too high and losing business if it has no competitors in a market. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
