Tag Archives: ACA Repeal
Conservatives Want Obamacare Repeal, and They Want It Now
http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/demint-to-congress-repeal-obamacare-now
Conservatives rallying here are calling for their congressional brethren to keep the faith and quickly gut the 2010 health care law, dismissing concerns about lost health coverage and motivated voters at town halls.
Reported remarks by former Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, far away from the conservatives gathered at the convention hotel provided the latest cause for alarm. Boehner had said that repeal and replace was “not going to happen,” according to Politico.
“The last I checked, Boehner doesn’t have a vote anymore,” Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas told Roll Call just as a cacophony of barking came from nearby police canines.
“This is a test. It’s a test for Republicans in the executive and both Houses of Congress. Do we honor the promises we made? This election was a referendum on repealing Obamacare,” Cruz said in a brief interview. “I think failure is not an option.”
“We’ve got to keep that promise, and I believe we will,” Cruz said.
Cruz, who has been among the loudest voices for rolling back as much of the 2010 law as possible, was one of few lawmakers appearing at CPAC during the February congressional recess, flying back from Texas for the occasion. He got a heroes welcome from the conservative activists and media assembled at the hotel just outside D.C.
Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint, the former South Carolina Republican senator, called on activists attending the Conservative Political Action Conference to push their members of Congress to send to President Donald Trump the same legislation that dismantled the law and was vetoed by President Barack Obama with all due haste.
“We must and we can repeal Obamacare now,” DeMint said. “They should send that same bill to President Trump right now.”
DeMint called the idea that there needs to be a replacement on the front end, “absolutely ludicrous.”
The left rallies to save Obamacare with passion but little cash
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/obamacare-progressives-town-halls-235333
Obamacare is blowing up congressional town hall meetings from California to Virginia. But high rollers aren’t stepping up to write checks to defend the law and possibly turn voter outrage over losing coverage into a sustainable movement.
Though many Republicans charge the town hall sessions are stoked by moneyed interests and professional protesters, health care groups and foundations that have been crucial to the Affordable Care Act cause have remained on the sidelines. Without cash, the smaller progressive organizations left could be hard-pressed to fight a long battle as conservatives spend heavily to pressure lawmakers to finish off the law and, possibly, revamp Medicaid.
“If you’re looking for where funding used to go to fight for the health care bill … I think you gotta keep looking,” said Ezra Levin, a former Democratic congressional staffer now helping direct the Indivisible Project, which is organizing pro-Obamacare demonstrations and other protests against President Donald Trump’s agenda. “It’s not coming to us, at least not right now.”
The flow of funds began slowing not long after the law was passed. After securing former President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement, key players involved with messaging and advocacy declared victory and moved on without fully completing the sales job. The Health Care for America Now coalition, one of the most audible voices in getting the law enacted, folded in late 2013 after mounting a $60 million campaign to pass Obamacare and protect it during implementation.
It’s left to groups such as the Indivisible Project to confront GOP lawmakers and tap outrage or voter anxiety over the party’s repeal-replace effort. The progressive forces also include the Protect Our Care campaign backed by health consumer groups, and some of the original backers of Health Care for America Now. Another group, the Alliance for Healthcare Security, has aired several rounds of ads that are largely being funded by the Service Employees International Union, though the SEIU declined to specify how much it had contributed.
Huge amounts of cash for advertising and outreach may not be as essential in a social media-fueled crucible, where town hall confrontations can almost instantly go viral and organizers can rely on Facebook and other tools to mobilize. The pro-ACA groups scoff at the notion advanced by the Trump administration and some GOP lawmakers that Democrats are paying protesters to make a ruckus over Obamacare at town halls. “To say that we’re a ‘grasstops’ thing is a complete lie,” said Indivisible Project co-founder Angel Padilla.
But the pro-ACA groups are up against formidable foes. Republicans intent on not only dismantling the ACA but capping the open-ended nature of Medicaid are getting backing from money powerhouses such as the American Action Network, which is aligned with House Republicans, and One Nation, a group with ties to Senate GOP leadership that’s spending millions of dollars targeting vulnerable Democratic senators up for reelection in 2018.
Data Note: Variation in Per Enrollee Medicaid Spending Across States
Data Note: Variation in Per Enrollee Medicaid Spending Across States
President Trump and other GOP leaders have called for fundamental changes in the structure and financing of Medicaid along with repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The GOP has proposed transitioning Medicaid from its current structure that provides an entitlement to coverage and provides states guaranteed federal matching dollars with no pre-set limit to a block grant or per capita cap. A block grant would limit all federal Medicaid spending and per capita cap could limit federal funding per enrollee. To understand per capita cap proposals, it is helpful to understand variation in per enrollee spending and per enrollee spending growth across states and enrollment groups. A per capita cap policy could lock in historic variation. A more detailed analysis of per enrollee spending can be found in this brief. This data note uses interactive maps and tables to show variation in per enrollee spending and spending growth by state and eligibility group.
KHN On Call: When Is ACA Repeal For Real?
Health care under the Affordable Care Act is poised to change — again. The Republican-led Congress has vowed to “repeal and replace” the health law known as Obamacare.
That has left many people anxious and confused about what will happen and when. So NPR’s Morning Edition asked listeners to post questions on Twitter and Facebook, and we will be answering some of them here and on the radio in the weeks ahead.
Many of the questions or comments that have come in so far have to do with timing. For example, Steva Stowell-Hardcastle of Lewisburg, Pa., said, “I’m confused about what parts of the ACA have been repealed and when those changes take place.”
First, while some parts of the huge health law have been altered since it passed in 2010, nothing substantive has been repealed in 2017.
Amid Repeal Debate, Public Views Obamacare More Favorably Than Unfavorably
Amid Repeal Debate, Public Views Obamacare More Favorably Than Unfavorably
Public Remains Split on Repeal but a Small Share, Including 31% of Republicans, Favor Repeal Without Replace
Large Majorities Want to Continue Federal Funding for Medicaid Expansion; Two Thirds Favor Current Federal Role over Block Grants or Per-Capita Caps
As President Trump and Congress weigh repealing the Affordable Care Act, the latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds more Americans viewing the law favorably than unfavorably (48% compared to 42%). This is the highest level of favorability measured in more than 60 Kaiser Health Tracking Polls conducted since 2010.
The shift largely reflects more favorable views among independents, who now are more likely to view the law favorably (50%) than unfavorably (39%). Most Democrats (73%) continue to view the law favorably while most Republicans (74%) view it unfavorably.
In spite of these more favorable views, the public remains divided along partisan lines on whether Congress should (47%) or should not (48%) repeal the law. At the same time, more of those who favor repeal want lawmakers to wait until the details of a replacement plan are known (28% overall) than want Congress to repeal immediately and work out the replacement’s details later (18% overall).
Even among Republicans, while the majority want to see Congress vote to repeal the law – fewer want them to vote to repeal the law immediately (31%) than want them to wait until they have the details of a replacement plan announced (48%), and 16 percent of Republicans do not want the law repealed at all.
Boehner: Obamacare repeal and replace ‘not what’s going to happen’
Former House Speaker John Boehner threw cold water Thursday on the prospect of congressional Republicans following through on their pledge to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
“They’ll fix Obamacare,” the former Ohio congressman predicted at a conference hosted by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society in Orlando, Florida. “I shouldn’t have called it repeal and replace because that’s not what’s going to happen. They’re basically going to fix the flaws and put a more conservative box around it.”
Boehner’s comments come as his former colleagues face an uncertain path forward on dismantling then-President Barack Obama’s signature achievement. The party has yet to settle on a replacement plan, and many members are facing criticism at town hall meetings this week from constituents who are upset about the potential ramifications of Republicans following through on the campaign pledge.
The former speaker noted the difficulty Republicans would confront in getting everyone on board.
“This is not all that hard to figure out, except this: In the 25 years that I served in the United States Congress, Republicans never, ever one time agreed on what a healthcare proposal should look like. Not once,” Boehner said.
He said lawmakers were too confident in how easy they thought the process would go.
“All this happy talk that went on in November and December and January about repeal, repeal, repeal — yeah we’ll do replace, replace — I started laughing because if you pass repeal without replace, first, anything that happens is your fault. You broke it.”
Boehner said he warned GOP leaders about repealing Obamacare without a replacement ready because the members “will never ever agree what the bill should be.”
“Perfect always becomes the enemy of the good,” he added.
Boehner also predicted that some of the fundamental pieces of the health care law would remain in place, including coverage for children up to age 26 and for those with pre-existing conditions. “Most of the Affordable Care Act, the framework, is going to stay there.”
Repeal & Replace: Missing the Medicare Forest for the Obamacare Trees
The Trump Administration has promised to deliver to the American people a healthcare plan that is, in President Trump’s own words, “much less expensive and far better” than Obamacare. But While Obamacare is expected to spend over $900 billion from 2018 to 2027, focusing solely on the Obama administration’s signature achievement ignores bigger fiscal challenges; Namely, the Medicare program.
Our insurance program for the elderly and disabled – Medicare – is expected to cost $900 billion in 2024 alone. From 2018 to 2027, this comes to a whopping $8.5 trillion—an order of magnitude larger than the cost of the ACA. Beyond the topline price tag are a number of endangered programs.
Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund, commonly known as Part A, is expected to run out of money in the next 10 years. This would mean an immediate reduction in benefits when the money runs out—2028, according to the program’s actuaries. Meanwhile, the funds that Medicare uses to pay for physician services (Part B) and prescription drug benefits (Part D) are consistently growing as a share of revenue.
Pew Poll: Support for ACA Reaches New High
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/23/support-for-2010-health-care-law-reaches-new-high/
With congressional Republicans discussing proposals to replace the Affordable Care Act, public support for the 2010 health care law has reached its highest level on record.
Currently, 54% approve of the health care law passed seven years ago by Barack Obama and Congress, while 43% disapprove, according to a national Pew Research Center survey conducted Feb. 7-12 among 1,503 adults.
Throughout the law’s history, opinions about the Affordable Care Act have tended to be more negative than positive — or, less frequently, divided. As recently as December, about as many approved (48%) as disapproved (47%) of the law.
The new survey finds that when those who disapprove of the law are asked about what should happen to it now, more want GOP congressional leaders to focus their efforts on modifying the law than on getting rid of it. One-in-four adults want Republican leaders to modify the law, while 17% want them to get rid of it entirely.
As in the past, there are deep partisan divisions over the health care law. Democrats overwhelmingly support the law, with 85% expressing approval. Among independents, about half (53%) approve of the health care law, while 45% disapprove. By contrast, Republicans broadly disapprove of the law (89%); just 10% express approval.
Republicans who disapprove of the health care law are divided on whether GOP congressional leaders should modify the health care law or get rid of it entirely. Nearly equal shares say Republican leaders in Congress should focus their efforts on modifying the law (42%) and focus on getting rid of it entirely (44%).
Among independents, nearly twice as many say Republican leaders should focus on modifying the law rather than scrapping it (29% vs. 15%).
GOP governors confront Medicaid divide
Governors are descending on Washington this weekend as Republicans wrestle with the future of ObamaCare’s expansion of Medicaid.
GOP lawmakers say they are looking to governors for advice on what to do about the program, which is one of the toughest issues Republicans face as they look to repeal and replace the healthcare law.
Many of the lawmakers representing states that accepted the Medicaid expansion are looking to keep it. But they are at odds with conservatives and Republicans from states that rejected the expansion; they are pushing full repeal.
It will be hard for any repeal and replace bill to pass Congress unless Republicans can bridge that divide, and they are looking to the governors, who help run Medicaid as a joint federal-state program, for help.
“We’re in extensive discussions with them and we’ll talk with them more when they get here and then move ahead on both Medicaid and the individual market,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) told reporters earlier this month, speaking of the governors meeting.
Republican governors are almost evenly divided on the Medicaid issue, with 17 hailing from states that rejected the expansion, and 16 hailing from states that accepted it.
States that took the expansion broadened eligibility for Medicaid — the government healthcare program for the poor and disabled — up to 138 percent of the federal poverty line. About 11 million people have gained coverage because of the Medicaid expansion.
The healthcare plan that House Republicans outlined last week calls for eventually eliminating the extra federal funding for the Medicaid expansion. If states wanted to continue covering the additional people, they would have to spend more of their own money.
Some Republican governors from states that accepted the expansion have been vocal about wanting to protect it — and none more so than Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Over the weekend Kasich called the House GOP plan “a very, very bad idea, because we cannot turn our back on the most vulnerable.”
HENRY KOTULA 