With the Republican Obamacare alternative still missing in action, Obamacare&#8217;s cost continues to skyrocket, and President Trump must again subsidize insurers for the month of August to help shoulder the Affordable Care Act&#8217;s incredible financial burden.
One of Obamacare&#8217;s provisions requires the federal government to subsidize insurers with something called cost-sharing reduction payments (CSRs), to help with the law&#8217;s mandate for reduced deductibles and co-payments for low-income buyers of health insurance, which cost insurers millions.
Though President Trump has threatened to end these subsidies, even if the AHCA collapses, the mounting pressure from insurers on congress asking for certainty has put the President in a tough bind.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/891334415347060736">July 29, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
Trump has been extending the subsidies on a month-by-month basis, and the White House says there is no guarantee the subsidies will continue for much longer. Insurers have grown nervous at the prospect of operating without these federal funds, but as the White House points out, just these Obamacare subisides will cost taxpayers $7 billion in 2017.
But if the subsidies stop, Obamacare&#8217;s customers will pay the price &#8212; literally. According to <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/publication/53009">analysis</a> from the Congressional Budget Office, premium prices for mid-level insurance buyers will increase 20% in 2018 should the subsidies end.
More from <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/346851-trump-to-make-obamacare-payments-to-insurers-in-august">The Hill</a>:
<blockquote>
Senate Health Committee Chairman <a data-nid="188199" href="http://origin-nyi.thehill.com/people/lamar-alexander">Lamar Alexander</a> (R-Tenn.) <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/344883-gop-chairman-opens-door-to-democrats-on-obamacare&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1502997606771000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGtDX-RjCQiNZ37PsoqepWCON_W0g" href="http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/344883-gop-chairman-opens-door-to-democrats-on-obamacare" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">has said he</a> would like to include funding for CSRs in a bipartisan, short-term stabilization bill for ObamaCare. The panel will begin hearings on stabilizing the marketplace the first week of September.
Additionally, an update is due Sunday in a court case that went against the administration. Trump could drop the appeal, which could halt the payments. The case has been delayed for months, and it&#8217;s possible another delay could occur.
</blockquote>
Plans to &#8220;repeal and replace Obamacare&#8221; remain shelved in congress for the moment, though a recent article for <a href="http://dailysignal.com/2017/08/16/house-conservatives-plan-revive-obamacare-repeal-work/">The Daily Signal</a> profiled a new strategy from the House Freedom Caucus to force a floor vote on a repeal bill, similar to a bill passed in 2015 that President Obama vetoed.
If legislators can acquire 218 signatures on a &#8220;discharge petition,&#8221; they can bring the bill out of committee without a committee report or any further consideration, and place it on the floor for a vote. The measure, they claim, is likely to pass the House of Representatives, at least.
<blockquote>
The 2015 bill, passed by the House and Senate but vetoed by President Barack Obama, contained repeal of key Obamacare provisions, <a href="http://dailysignal.com/2017/02/28/6-lawmakers-promise-to-reject-obamacare-legislation-that-doesnt-repeal-as-much-as-2015-bill-did/">including</a> the expansion of Medicaid benefits and almost all of the health care law&#8217;s tax increases.
The bill also repealed the law&#8217;s insurance mandates for individuals and employers as well and <a href="http://dailysignal.com/2017/02/02/conservative-congressmen-call-on-gop-leaders-to-bring-2015-obamacare-repeal-bill-for-vote/">defunded Planned Parenthood</a>.
</blockquote>
<div>Some Republicans have expressed optimism of the plan&#8217;s success. Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC), chairman of the Republican Study Committee, the largest caucus of GOP lawmakers in the House, said the discharge bill has a real shot.
&#8220;I have no problem leading &#8230; as we continue to put pressure on the Senate from every angle possible,&#8221; Walker said. &#8220;And hopefully at some point, this could free things up enough; there&#8217;s enough pressure coming from both Republicans in Congress and people back home to get this thing done.&#8221;
<div> </div>
</div>

Trump Will Subsidize Obamacare … For Now

American Health Care Act (AHCA)

Donald Trump

Health Care

Obamacare

Anthem, one of the largest health insurers in the nation, has announced that it will no longer offer plans through the exchanges of the Affordable Care Act &#8212; aka Obamacare &#8212; in Nevada beginning next year.
&#8220;Planning and pricing for ACA-compliant health plans has become increasingly difficult due to a shrinking and deteriorating individual market, as well as continual changes and uncertainty in federal operations, rules and guidance, including cost sharing reduction subsidies and the restoration of taxes on fully insured coverage,&#8221; Anthem said in a statement Monday.
The move is likely to prompt an exodus of other providers. If a health insurer the size of Anthem won&#8217;t stay with Obamacare, smaller providers are expected to reduce &#8212; or cancel &#8212; their involvement with the troubled system, too.
&#8220;Anthem&#8217;s decision blindsided the state, which has been in talks with the provider following its earlier decision to pull out its exchange plans from most of Nevada&#8217;s rural areas starting in 2018. Gov. Brian Sandoval called it &#8216;a significant blow to the state&#8217;s individual marketplace,&#8217; &#8221; The <a href="http://www.rgj.com/story/news/2017/08/07/obamacare-anthem-leaving-nevada-aca-health-insurance-exchange-2018/546109001/">Reno Gazette-Journal</a> reported.
<blockquote>
&#8220;I am frustrated and disappointed with Anthem&#8217;s surprise and abrupt decision to leave the healthcare exchange especially during uncertain times,&#8221; Sandoval said. &#8220;Residents in Washoe, Clark and Nye Counties who have purchased from the state-based exchange will still have two providers to purchase from during the next open enrollment period.
&#8220;(The Governor&#8217;s) office is in regular contact with the two remaining providers in order to ensure there will continue to be options for the more than 80,000 Nevadans who purchase insurance through the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Anthem spokesman Jeff Blunt told the Gazette-Journal that dealing with the ACA made it difficult to continue, given the volatility in the market.
&#8220;A stable insurance market is dependent on products that create value for consumers through the broad spreading of risk and a known set of conditions upon which rates can be developed,&#8221; Blunt said. &#8220;Today, planning and pricing for ACA-compliant health plans has become increasingly difficult due to a shrinking and deteriorating individual market, as well as continual changes and uncertainty in federal operations, rules and guidance, including cost sharing reduction subsidies and the restoration of taxes on fully insured coverage.&#8221;
In May, insurance giant Aetna announced it was leaving Obamacare. The company said it will no longer offer policies in Nebraska or Delaware next year under the ACA-established exchanges. Earlier this year, Aetna bailed from Iowa and Virginia. There&#8217;s a simple reason: Aetna says it has lost more than $200 million just this year alone. And for the three years before that, it lost nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars.
President Trump has been saying for months &#8212; years, even &#8212; that Obamacare will implode. In fact, former president Barack Obama made sure to back load the whole plan so that the really painful cost spikes occurred after he left office.
And right on cue, here come those massive increases to premiums.
Of course, the cost of health care has already skyrocketed since the passage of the ironically named Affordable Care Act (no, Mr. Obama, we did not each save $2,500 a year, like you promised, nor were we able to keep our own doctors). But now it&#8217;s all about to jump again.
&#8220;Major health insurers in some states are seeking increases as high as 30% or more for premiums on 2018 Affordable Care Act plans, according to new federal data that provide the broadest view so far of the turmoil across exchanges as companies try to anticipate Trump administration policies,&#8221; The Wall Street Journal reported this week.
&#8220;Big insurers in Idaho, West Virginia, South Carolina, Iowa and Wyoming are seeking to raise premiums by averages close to 30% or more,&#8221; according to preliminary rate requests published Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
And those are just the &#8220;average&#8221; hikes. Many people will see increases far above that.

The Exodus Begins: Another Giant Health Insurer To Bail On Obamacare

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke called Alaska&#8217;s two senators &#8212; both Republicans &#8212; to express the Trump administration&#8217;s displeasure with Sen. Lisa Murkowski&#8217;s (R-AK) vote against debating the Republicans&#8217; ostensible moves to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA/&#8221;Obamacare&#8221;).
Alaska Dispatch News wrote:
<blockquote>
Early Wednesday, <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/890168183079960576">Trump took to Twitter</a> to express displeasure with Murkowski&#8217;s vote. By that afternoon, each of Alaska&#8217;s two Republican senators had received a phone call from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke letting them know the vote had put Alaska&#8217;s future with the administration in jeopardy.
</blockquote>
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) described Zinke&#8217;s call as carrying a &#8220;troubling message&#8221;:
<blockquote>
I&#8217;m not going to go into the details, but I fear that the strong economic growth, pro-energy, pro-mining, pro-jobs and personnel from Alaska who are part of those policies are going to stop.
I tried to push back on behalf of all Alaskans. &#8230; We&#8217;re facing some difficult times and there&#8217;s a lot of enthusiasm for the policies that Secretary Zinke and the president have been talking about with regard to our economy. But the message was pretty clear.
</blockquote>
President Trump expressed displeasure with Murkowski&#8217;s no vote via Twitter on Wednesday:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Senator <a href="https://twitter.com/lisamurkowski">@lisamurkowski</a> of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/890168183079960576">July 26, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
Murkowski described her no vote against continuing deliberations on repealing or changing the ACA as serving &#8220;Alaska&#8217;s best interest&#8221;:
<blockquote>
I base my votes on what I believe is in Alaska&#8217;s best interest. So I know that there are those who wish that I would be more in line with following the party platform, but I don&#8217;t think it should come as any surprise that there have been occasions that I have not followed the lead of the party.
</blockquote>
Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter.

Trump Threatens State Of Alaska To Pressure Senator Murkowski On Trumpcare

Alaska

Trump Administration

Trumpcare

On Tuesday, the Senate voted aye on a &#8220;motion to proceed&#8221; debating amendments to the Senate health care bill, amendments that could repeal Obamacare.
Prior to the vote, one GOP senator, Maine&#8217;s Susan Collins, said she would vote against the motion, leaving the GOP with a precarious 51 possible senators who would approve the motion. Then she was apparently joined by Senator Lisa Murkowski:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Collins and Murkowski are a no. They&#8217;ll have to wait on McCain, who I&#8217;ve heard will be back within the hour.
&#8212; Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) <a href="https://twitter.com/MEPFuller/status/889917342649647104">July 25, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
McCain was flying back to Washington to vote on the motion, crucial for it to pass; if the GOP mustered 50 votes, Vice-President Mike Pence would put it over the top.
There were protesters in the Senate chamber:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
It was pretty surreal to be in that chamber while they were voting. Every Senator could hear protestors yelling &#8220;Kill the bill!&#8221;
&#8212; Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) <a href="https://twitter.com/MEPFuller/status/889918271545364489">July 25, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
The last three GOP senators who had not cast their votes were McCain, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and James Inhofe of Oklahoma, while the Democrats simply abstained from voting until the GOP had voted in toto:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
It&#8217;s 47-2, no Dem will vote until Rs finish voting. Missing Rs are: McCain, RonJohn, Inhoffe.
&#8212; Paul Kane (@pkcapitol) <a href="https://twitter.com/pkcapitol/status/889918507483373568">July 25, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
In the end, it came down to Johnson:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
This all comes down to RonJohn, folks. McCain &amp; Inhofe are yes votes just away from the floor. 
RonJohn is essentially 50th vote. <a href="https://t.co/IVc92ytDYy">https://t.co/IVc92ytDYy</a>
&#8212; Paul Kane (@pkcapitol) <a href="https://twitter.com/pkcapitol/status/889918762484465666">July 25, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
Then, at roughly 3 p.m. EST, Johsnon and McCain both voted yes, as <a href="http://fivethirtyeight.com/live-blog/senate-vote-health-care/">fivethirtyeight.com</a> reported: &#8220;McCain and Johnson just voted aye on the motion to proceed. The 48 Democrats and independents are expected to vote &#8220;no,&#8221; making for a 50-50 tie that will be broken in McConnell&#8217;s favor by Vice President Mike Pence.&#8221; 
No formal legislation has been drafted. Now that the motion has been approved, senators can freely offer amendments, which means the final measure to be passed is still nebulous.

BREAKING: Senate Votes To Open Debate On Repealing Obamacare

John McCain

Mitch McConnell

U.S. Senate

Unsatisfied with <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/09/29/john-boehner-and-failure-to-live-up-to-conservative-principles.html">throwing cold water</a> on true conservative principles <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/tea-party-group-mobilizes-to-oust-house-speaker-john-boehner/">during his stint</a> as Speaker of the House, former House speaker John A. Boehner told a business gathering on July 21 that Republicans are &#8220;not going to repeal and replace Obamacare&#8221; because &#8220;the American people have gotten accustomed to it.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/boehner-predicts-republicans-will-never-repeal-and-replace-obamacare/2017/07/24/e4190718-70d9-11e7-8f39-eeb7d3a2d304_story.html?utm_term=.0f764dca69f5">The Washington Post</a>, which obtained a video of Boehner&#8217;s remarks, said he argued, &#8220;Here we are, seven months into this year, and yet they&#8217;ve not passed this bill. Now, they&#8217;re never &#8212; they&#8217;re not going to repeal and replace Obamacare. It&#8217;s been around too long. And the American people have gotten accustomed to it. Governors have gotten accustomed to this Medicaid expansion, and so trying to pull it back is really not going to work.&#8221;
Boehner added more bad news, &#8220;When it&#8217;s all said and done, you&#8217;re not going to have an employer mandate anymore, you&#8217;re not going to have the individual mandate. The Medicaid expansion will be there. The governors will have more control over their Medicaid populations and how to get them care, and a lot of Obamacare taxes will probably go.&#8221;
Boehner was appearing at ThoughtSpot, a trade show hosted by Good Neighbor Pharmacy at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.
Boehner expressed disappointment at how President Trump has handled his job, encouraging him to &#8220;quit tweeting&#8221; and avoid public arguments with TV personalities. He said, &#8220;He keeps getting in his own way. &#8230; I mean, going after Mika Brzezinski or Joe Scarborough? What the hell is the point?&#8221; He warned, &#8220;You never get into a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel. He does it every day. Never get into a p&#8212;ing match with a skunk. He does it every day. &#8230; It may have worked during the campaign. But I think he would do himself well if he would just slow the tweeting down and just focus on what he&#8217;s doing and not being critical.&#8221;
Boehner recounted how he would &#8220;sneak into&#8221; the White House to speak with former president Barack Obama so reporters wouldn&#8217;t see him. He asserted:
<blockquote>
If I didn&#8217;t sneak in, if I went in like I would normally go in, the right-wing press would go crazy. &#8220;What is Boehner up to?&#8221; The left-wing press would go just as crazy. &#8220;What is Obama doing? He&#8217;s going to let Boehner roll him again.&#8221; You&#8217;re dead before you even have an agreement.
</blockquote>

Boehner’s Back: ‘Repeal And Replace’ Is A Fantasy

Barack Obama

John Boehner

&#8220;I don&#8217;t like when Republicans use leftist talking points,&#8221; said David Webb on Monday, responding to recurring commentary from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) framing the American Health Care Act (AHCA) as a &#8220;bailout&#8221; for health insurance companies.
&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t help our cause to use leftist talking points,&#8221; added Webb.
Listen to Webb&#8217;s comments below.

<div class="embed video fluid-video">
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LI28f5PyVfc" width="854"></iframe></div>

</div>
Paul regularly casts the AHCA as an example of &#8220;<a href="http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/tag/rand-paul/">crony capitalism</a>,&#8221; neglecting to note the Affordable Care Act&#8217;s (ACA/&#8221;Obamacare&#8221;) purpose: to destroy the financial viability of free markets for health insurance to provide a political justification for a state takeover of the nation&#8217;s health care infrastructure.

Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k">Twitter</a>.

Webb: Rand Paul ‘Using Leftist Talking Points’

Rand Paul

According to <a href="v">The Washington Post</a>, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is certain that the cuts in Medicaid planned in the Senate health care bill are never going to happen.
Paige Winfield Cunningham of the Post writes:
<blockquote>
What McConnell has told several hesitant senators (including Portman and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.): The bill&#8217;s deepest Medicaid cuts are far into the future, and they&#8217;ll never go into effect anyway. &#8220;He&#8217;s trying to sell the pragmatists like Portman, like Capito on &#8216;the CPI-U will never happen,&#8217;&#8221; a GOP lobbyist and former Hill staffer told me.
</blockquote>
The current version of the Senate health-care bill would prompt federal Medicaid spending to plunge 26% &#8211; but that means nothing, considering Congress&#8217; dallying when it comes to cutting entitlements. As Cunningham notes, &#8220;After all, that&#8217;s what Congress did for years by enacting the so-called &#8220;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2015/03/26/bipartisan-doc-fix-passes-the-house-how-did-polarized-parties-do-it/?utm_term=.6af2e523ff1b">Doc Fix</a>&#8221; to a Medicare doctors&#8217; payment formula.&#8221;
The Senate health care bill, according to the Congressional Budget office, <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/changes-senate-health-care-bill-coming-medicaid-cuts-remain-n782226">includes</a> <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/changes-senate-health-care-bill-coming-medicaid-cuts-remain-n782226">over $700 billion</a> worth of cuts to Medicaid. Republicans have added $70 billion to a stabilization fund to help lower-income people pay for medical costs.
Even The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/21/upshot/gop-health-plan-is-really-a-rollback-of-medicaid.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;clickSource=story-heading&amp;module=first-column-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news">admitted</a>, &#8220;There is some evidence that Medicaid programs enroll some people who are not eligible and sometimes cover some services that are not medically necessary.&#8221;

McConnell to Republicans: Vote For Trumpcare, We’re Lying About Medicaid Reform Anyway

Medicaid

On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mcconnell-says-gop-must-shore-up-aca-insurance-markets-if-senate-bill-dies/2017/07/06/e2df2b8e-6251-11e7-8adc-fea80e32bf47_story.html?utm_term=.26bde983ff46">threatened the members of his own party</a> in the Senate, warning that if they didn&#8217;t pass the Senate plan to rewrite the Affordable Care Act, the Senate would have to pass a watered-down version of the bill with Democratic support.
McConnell said, &#8220;If my side is unable to agree on an adequate replacement, then some kind of action with regard to the private health insurance market must occur. No action is not an alternative. We&#8217;ve got the insurance markets imploding all over the country, including in this state.&#8221;
McConnell had famously pledged in 2014 to eviscerate Obamacare &#8220;root and branch,&#8221; but last week he intimated that he might work with Democrats. He has suggested strengthening insurance exchanges created under the ACA, a position contrary to Republican talking points.
Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) didn&#8217;t make anything rosier for McConnell when he said Wednesday, &#8220;We&#8217;re still several weeks away from a vote, I think.&#8221; He was echoed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), who said Thursday, &#8220;If we cannot bring the conference together and agree on repeal legislation, then I think President Trump&#8217;s absolutely right that we should pass a clean repeal.&#8221; He had told KTSA radio in San Antonio, &#8220;I don&#8217;t know if we get it done or not&#8230; It is precarious.&#8221;
Sen. Jerry Moran, (R-KS), <a href="http://www.kiro7.com/news/gop-leader-acknowledges-health-care-drive-may-fall-short/551682344">added</a>, &#8220;There are people who tell me they are better off&#8221; under Obama&#8217;s law, &#8220;and I believe them.&#8221; 
True to form, on Thursday Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) called McConnell&#8217;s statement &#8220;encouraging&#8221; and said his caucus is &#8220;eager to work with Republicans to stabilize the markets and improve the law. At the top of the list should be ensuring cost-sharing payments are permanent, which will protect health care for millions.&#8221;

McConnell Threatens Republicans: If We Don’t Pass Trumpcare, We’ll Have To Fix Obamacare

Much to the White House&#8217;s credit, President Trump is <a href="https://www.axios.com/wh-official-endorses-cruz-lee-health-care-efforts-2451992308.html">supporting</a> Sen. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee&#8217;s proposal to add more health insurance choices to the Senate health care bill. The Cruz/Lee proposal also might exclude some of the Affordable Care Act&#8217;s protections for pre-existing conditions.
On Sunday, White House legislative affairs director Marc Short <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcxSSnx3Teg">told</a> Fox News, &#8220;We support Senator Cruz and Senator Lee&#8217;s efforts &#8212; this is similar to efforts that transpired in the House, and we think that it&#8217;s perfectly appropriate, his amendment; we hope it&#8217;s part of the process of bringing everybody together.&#8221; That comment by Short flies in the face of some GOP senators who were <a href="https://www.axios.com/republican-health-care-bill-update-ted-cruz-pre-existing-conditions-2450217682.html">flustered</a> by Cruz&#8217;s pitch to alter ACA&#8217;s pre-existing condition protections; one Senate GOP aide said many Republican senators were &#8220;surprised and pissed&#8221; because they had agreed not to alter the protections. Another aide added, &#8220;No matter how narrowly-proposed, wading into pre-ex is not just a &#8216;No,&#8217; it&#8217;s a &#8216;Hell No&#8217; for the vast majority of the Senate GOP.&#8221;
But a spokesman for Cruz pointed out that the idea didn&#8217;t suddenly germinate, that Cruz has been discussing the idea for weeks, even handing out cards to sell the idea. The spokesman asserted, &#8220;Those who are trying to make this about pre-existing conditions do not understand the policy we are discussing &#8212; this is about providing choice, flexibility, and more affordability.&#8221;
An administration source said last week, &#8220;I think we&#8217;re going to pass this. I really think they&#8217;ll bribe off the moderates with opioid money and then actually move policy to shore up Mike Lee and Ted Cruz.&#8221;
Cruz&#8217;s &#8220;Consumer Choice&#8221; proposal would allow a healthy person to choose plans without the ACA protections, which would be cheaper. Thus sick people could stay in the programs through the premium subsidies that they&#8217;d get in the ACA exchanges, instead of making healthy people pay for them. Cruz <a href="https://www.axios.com/vitals-2450398425.html">said</a>, &#8220;If those with serious illnesses are going to be subsidized &#8230; I think far better for that to happen from direct tax revenue rather than forcing a bunch of other people to pay much higher premiums.&#8221;

GOOD TRUMP: White House Pursuing Cruz-Lee Solution On Trumpcare

Mike Lee

Ted Cruz

&#8220;Tens of thousands of people every single year will die,&#8221; said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) of Republican proposals to change &#8220;social welfare&#8221; programs ostensibly providing health insurance: &#8220;If you throw &#8230; 32 million people off of health insurance, what doctors who have studied this issue say [is] that tens of thousands of people every single year will die.&#8221;

Sanders made his most recent repetition of the aforementioned claim in a <a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1707/02/sotu.01.html">Sunday-aired interview</a> with CNN&#8217;s Jake Tapper for State of the Union.

Sanders pointed to PolitiFact &#8212; a left-wing and Democrat-aligned &#8220;fact-check&#8221; operation &#8212; as evidence of his claim&#8217;s veracity:
<blockquote>
The answer is it comes from PolitiFact which, you know, tries to verify what public officials say.
Last week &#8211; just on a Sunday show I made that point. PolitiFact checked it out and what they ended up saying during the week is, Sanders was right. And they listed a dozen different studies.
People can go to my web site, sanders.senate.gov, and get that information. Dozen different studies from scientists and doctors say what is fairly obvious. Jake, if you have cancer, if you have heart disease, if you have diabetes and you don&#8217;t have any health insurance, you know what? There is a likelihood you will die.
And what they said is that if you throw one of the studies &#8212; one of the studies &#8212; said that if you throw 23 million people off of health insurance, which is what the House bill did up to &#8212; no one knows exactly the number &#8212; up to 28,000 people a year &#8212; a year will die from that decision. So what we&#8217;re talking about is a disastrous bill.
</blockquote>
America must &#8220;guarantee health care to all&#8221; and &#8220;join every other country,&#8221; said Sanders, calling for a communist administration of health care and insurance. Tapper did not challenge Sanders on the morality or economics of his communist proposals.

Tapper presents himself as a politically objective and non-partisan news media figure. CNN similarly presents itself as a politically objective and non-partisan news media outlet, billing itself as &#8220;The Most Trusted Name In News.&#8221;

Follow Robert Kraychik on <a href="https://twitter.com/kr3ch3k">Twitter</a>.
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" width="480" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tOCcw9GWjPw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>

Sanders AGAIN: ‘People Will Die…’

Bernie Sanders

Communism

Jake Tapper

Leftism

Medicare

In an attempt to gain support from the constituents <a href="http://freebeacon.com/politics/new-poll-shows-warrens-approval-ratings-slipping/">who don&#8217;t approve of her performance</a> as a United States Senator, Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) <a href="https://www.wsj.com/article_email/elizabeth-warren-tries-to-win-back-voters-in-trump-country-1498555802-lMyQjAxMTA3OTIyNzMyMjc2Wj/">visited</a> various towns in Massachusetts in an attempt to connect with communities that voted for Donald Trump in the presidential election. She continued her rain dance about how the middle class cannot possess any power unless they are well-connected while also talking about how Washington is to blame for the many issues that exist in areas outside of the Greater Boston Area.
Warren also spent a considerable amount of time discussing the American Health Care Act (AHCA), colloquially known as Trumpcare. Even though Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has since <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/18011/breaking-senate-majority-leader-pulls-trumpcare-ben-shapiro">pulled out</a> the Senate&#8217;s version following opposition from Republicans, Warren believes that the Democrats need to push toward single-payer health care. Speaking with The Wall Street Journal, Warren <a href="https://www.wsj.com/article_email/elizabeth-warren-tries-to-win-back-voters-in-trump-country-1498555802-lMyQjAxMTA3OTIyNzMyMjc2Wj/">stated</a>:
<blockquote>
President Obama tried to move us forward with health-care coverage by using a conservative model that came from one of the conservative think tanks that had been advanced by a Republican governor in Massachusetts. Now it&#8217;s time for the next step. And the next step is single payer.
</blockquote>
Warren also suggested that the Democratic Party run on a more progressive platform rather than trying to moderate themselves with specific branches of the Republican Party. This includes an increased minimum wage, social security expansion, and tightening regulations on the financial industry.
Single-payer health care in the United States would be just as disastrous as the current crisis with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Peter Hegseth stated in a <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/15303/prageru-video-single-payer-healthcare-america-aaron-bandler">Prager University video in April</a> that despite the VA&#8217;s budget doubling since 2009 and hiring 100,000 new people in the past decade, wait times have increased, some VA facilities had thousands of backlogged appointments, and people died waiting for care. While Warren and many progressive Democrats believe that allowing the government to put more money into the health care system will solve its issues, the same has not been the case for the VA.
Follow Elliott on <a href="https://twitter.com/ElliottRHams">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ElliottRHams/">Facebook</a>

Elizabeth Warren: Democrats Should Run On Single-Payer

Elizabeth Warren

Massachusetts

On Monday, the <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/115th-congress-2017-2018/costestimate/52849-hr1628senate.pdf">Congressional Budget Office</a> released its score for the Senate health care bill that would restructure Medicaid and reform Obamacare while leaving most of its major regulations intact.
There are several problems with this approach. The biggest problem is that there are three possible metrics of success for a health care reform plan: (1) higher number of people covered; (2) lower average premiums; (3) lower government expenditure. Thanks to media coverage and Republican cowardice, the first metric has become the most prevalent &#8212; and that&#8217;s the one that hurts Republicans the most, since even if people opt out voluntarily, they are now &#8220;uncovered&#8221; by this metric. The second metric, lower average premiums, would be achievable along with lower government expenditures through simple repeal of Obamacare. But Republicans won&#8217;t abandon (1) in favor of (2) and (3), and thus they have presented a plan that&#8217;s mediocre on all three counts.
Here&#8217;s what you need to know.
1. It Will Reduce The Deficit. According to the CBO, the Senate bill would reduce the federal deficit from 2017 to 2026 by $321 billion, $202 billion more than the savings from the House version of the bill. Overall, the bill would reduce spending by $1.022 trillion and thanks to tax cuts, reduce government funding intake by $701 billion. Most of the cuts would come via future reductions in projected spending on Medicaid &#8212; cuts that may never materialize given the shifts in Congressional attitudes about spending.
2. It Will Increase The Uninsured. The CBO has always had a rosy view of Obamacare; they suggest that the same number of people who are uninsured now will be uninsured by 2026 under Obamacare. That&#8217;s not remotely true. But using that baseline, they say that the Senate bill would increase &#8220;the number of people who are uninsured by 22 million in 2026,&#8221; leaving some 49 million uninsured. They also say that 15 million more people would be uninsured by 2018 &#8212; mainly because people would opt out after not having to pay the Obamacare mandate penalty. Lower Medicaid spending would supposedly also force people off Medicaid, leading to enrollment drops of 16% among people aged 65 by 2026; furthermore, rising deductibles for poorer Americans would cause them not to buy health insurance in the first place.
3. The Markets Would Stabilize. This is the most questionable assertion by the CBO. First, the CBO says that Obamacare itself is stable &#8220;in most areas.&#8221; That&#8217;s highly doubtful, given the death spiral occurring from lack of sign-ups and elevated cost to insurers, who are pulling out of the program. But the CBO says that the system would also be stable under the Republican Senate plan: thanks to subsidies, cost-sharing subsidies (payoffs to insurance companies), and additional federal funding, insurance companies would stay in the markets.
4. Premiums Would Increase, Then Drop. According to the CBO, in 2018 and 2019, premiums would jump. That&#8217;s because those years still use the Obamacare benchmark plan of 70% covered benefits on average for subsidies; because there&#8217;s no mandate, people would drop out, driving up costs. In 2020, the costs would drop precipitously because the new plans under Trumpcare would have a benchmark coverage of 58%. These plans would have high deductibles but lower premiums. The CBO estimates that low-income people won&#8217;t buy any plan rather than the higher-deductible plans. The CBO concludes that &#8220;some enrollees could see large increases in out-of-pocket spending because annual or lifetime limits would be allowed.&#8221;
So ,here&#8217;s the bottom line: Trumpcare reduces future spending on Medicaid; reduces regulations on essential health benefits, caps, and age-to-spending ratios at the state level, but only in 2020; and gets rid of the Obamacare mandate, as well as some taxes. None of this would be bad in and of itself; in fact, most of it would be good. But it won&#8217;t be, in all likelihood, because Republicans own what Obama created.
If Republicans were willing to argue for free markets,they could have done all of this and more by simply repealing Obamacare wholesale and opening up the individual market. By playing the Democrats&#8217; game &#8212; accepting their baseline premise that the government&#8217;s job is to provide health insurance &#8212; Republicans lose no matter what happens next.

Menu