Pirate's Cove

Let’s be honest, big legislation like Obamacare is most likely never going away, just like other big things, regardless of there being no Constitutional authority for Los Federales to do things like Obamacare. The time to kill it was before it started, but, Republicans ran Mitt Romney. But, there are certainly ways to at least sort of make it work

House Republicans float bill mirroring Trump’s health care demands

Republicans on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee are circulating a bill that would mimic President Donald Trump’s proposal to redirect health insurance subsidies directly to individuals, according to a person granted anonymity to share direct knowledge of the private directions.

The legislation, previously introduced by Florida Republican Reps. Kat Cammack and Greg Steube, would give enrollees in the Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges the ability to elect to receive a portion of financial assistance from insurers directly in their tax-advantaged health savings accounts. Those HSA contributions would be in lieu of assistance that insurers would usually apply on the back end to the out-of-pocket health costs for low-income individuals.

Staff for Ways and Means Republicans are currently preparing a presentation for committee members to review the proposal, along with other potential policies to lower health costs, according to the person.

The bill would help Congress codify Trump’s recent calls on social media for congressional Republicans to redirect the “Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies” and send them “directly to the people.”

You can bet Democrats will be against this, even if it would help Americans who get their health insurance through the Ocare exchanges (and are forced to get the insurance or be taxed out the ying yang), because the insurers who donate to Democrats wouldn’t be getting their scratch my back cash.

The exhortations are already complicating nascent and fragile negotiations to extend the Obamacare tax credits before they sunset at the end of the year. Some moderate Republicans hope to work with Democrats on a bipartisan proposal that would pair an Obamacare subsidy extension with new limits sought by conservatives that both parties could live with

How about a plan to lower costs for Ocare recipients, which would likewise help with costs for those not getting their health insurance through Ocare, instead of subsidies? A plan which would give them better control?

In another development that casts doubt on compromise, Senate Finance Republicans have asked Brian Blase, a chief antagonist of the Obamacare subsidies to testify at a Wednesday hearing on the rising costs of health care.

Blase, who runs the Paragon Health Institute, was an architect of the dramatic Medicaid cuts enacted as part of the GOP megabill signed into law this summer. Senate Finance has also invited Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the president of the conservative American Action Forum, to testify at the hearing.

I’m shocked that Politico mentioned the big Medicaid reductions, because people had forgotten about that. Though, it’s at the end of the article, and most won’t make it there.

The Democratic witnesses include a health care expert and an individual who would be personally affected by the expiration of the subsidies.

That might not go so well for Democrats when the GOP asks the individual about how expensive their insurance is, how much the deductibles and copays are, and how much their premiums have risen over the years.