WILL TRUMP PREVENT THE ANSWER TO THE LATEST HEALTH CARE ISSUE?

…Senators Patty Murray & Lamar Alexander

 

Do the Republicans have the “Cojones” to pass a health care bill that helps Americans?

 

It has become pretty clear that our medically-ignorant president refused to do his homework as he  told the nation that the cost-sharing reduction payments (CSR’s) that were being made to insurance companies were going to the bottom-line of the insurance company’s profits.  He had not taken the time to learn that CSR’s were the money that the government promised to the insurers in exchange for their participation in Obamacare.  It was a way to allow low-income households to afford their health care coverage.

 

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) had previously warned that ending the payments would actually cost the government $194 billion over 10 years.  That is because it would force other federal programs to pay out more in subsidies to consumers in the individual health-insurance market. As usual, President Trump ignored this warning.

 

However, there is now a bi-partisan health-care proposal that would fix most of this crap coming from our president.

The bipartisan compromise proposal crafted by Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Patty Murray (D-WA) now officially falls into the category of: “it’s so obvious, it should pass immediately.”  (But that may not apply to this congress.)

 

Unfortunately, the president has already done the damage for 2018.  But the Alexander-Murray bill could restore those CSR payments for two additional years and the CBO predicts that the bill would restrain premiums and premium increases and cut government spending for 2019. If the payments were continued beyond that point, the savings would continue as well.

 

Obviously, when a winning idea gets presented in Washington, everybody else just has to try to get on the wagon.

 

Even though the Alexander-Murray bill is a no-brainer, some congressional conservatives are trying to compete with it. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) put out their plan that also funds the CSRs for two years.  However, theirs also includes a slew of provision that have already gotten thumbs down from the majority of US Senators, both Democratic and Republican.  Their plan repeals the individual and employer mandates and the expanded health savings accounts. It’s impossible to see how that concept will gain much support since hardcore conservatives will oppose anything that keeps Obamacare alive and Democrats will oppose everything else.

 

In plain English, the Alexander-Murray bill does exactly what the CBO predicted Congress would eventually have to do, so the costs were built in to the existing budget estimates. In essence, the bill just prevents a catastrophe despite Trump’s meddling.

 

Even with all these great selling points, they may still not change Republican thinking.  This comment is made because the Huffington Post reported that House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-WI) told conservative lawmakers that the Alexander-Murray plan probably would NOT be attached to a year-end budget package.  And that is the most likely vehicle to assure its passage.

 

Of course, as usual, President Trump has been all over the map on this bi-partisan compromise.

 

Trump seemed to first encourage the deal and then, at another point, he demanded absurd new concessions that Democrats would never accept.

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch and Rep. Kevin Brady later released their “dog of a compromise bill”, which was an unhelpful, partisan proposal that would hurt all American health-care markets.

 

The reality is that it is time for Trump to decide what he wants to do.  He needs to either help those that need health care in America or he can once again stick it to Americans with soaring premium costs.  He can either back a bill that shrinks the deficit and maintains much of the status quo or tell low-income Americans to “bend over and spread their cheeks”.

 

For any other president this would be a “slam-dunk”.  For Trump, with no understanding of the real situation, it’s more than just paralyzing.

 

Get used to it folks.  This is what we could be dealing with for years to come.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2017