AMERICAN HEALTH CARE ACT
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Wait till Jesus takes over leadership of this world during His 1000 year reign... the Word says He is going to rule with a hand of iron!
Evil doers will be whacked on the spot... the Lion of the Tribe of Judah don't play dat Yo.... just wait, all evil will be met with swift punishment so there's not going to be any liberals
Evil doers will be whacked on the spot... the Lion of the Tribe of Judah don't play dat Yo.... just wait, all evil will be met with swift punishment so there's not going to be any liberals
The Bible promises even more punishment to the Pharisees most of which in this society are from the far right.
Exactly... and only Doctor Jesus has the cure.
Mankind has a roll of the dice, and an increasing inability to cure any of the ills of mankind
Oh, so it's the baby killers and dope smokers on the left that are holy and upright before the Lord???
It all depends on who you are calling lord...
If that were true, the baby killing would stop.
Enjoy it while you can cupcake snowflake... once Jesus starts His 1000 year reign there ain't gonna be no mo satan for liberals to support cause he gonna be locked up YO
Mankind has a roll of the dice, and an increasing inability to cure any of the ills of mankind
Oh, so it's the baby killers and dope smokers on the left that are holy and upright before the Lord???
It all depends on who you are calling lord...
If that were true, the baby killing would stop.
Enjoy it while you can cupcake snowflake... once Jesus starts His 1000 year reign there ain't gonna be no mo satan for liberals to support cause he gonna be locked up YO
Note the name calling, hate, and personal attacks along with denial that it is the Republican party which legalized abortion. This despite all the evidentiary links previously posted which prove that point. Note also how the same pattern of hate and innuendo is used much like other right wing posters. Same words, same attacks. No wonder why it has been suggested previously that it is the same person using different forum identities.
Try again, this time with facts, not recriminations.
Try again, this time with facts, not recriminations.
Exactly... and only Doctor Jesus has the cure.
Mankind has a roll of the dice, and an increasing inability to cure any of the ills of mankind
Oh, so it's the baby killers and dope smokers on the left that are holy and upright before the Lord???
It all depends on who you are calling lord...
If that were true, the baby killing would stop.
Enjoy it while you can cupcake snowflake... once Jesus starts His 1000 year reign there ain't gonna be no mo satan for liberals to support cause he gonna be locked up YO
Mankind has a roll of the dice, and an increasing inability to cure any of the ills of mankind
Oh, so it's the baby killers and dope smokers on the left that are holy and upright before the Lord???
It all depends on who you are calling lord...
If that were true, the baby killing would stop.
Enjoy it while you can cupcake snowflake... once Jesus starts His 1000 year reign there ain't gonna be no mo satan for liberals to support cause he gonna be locked up YO
More hate from the basement right wing keyboard warrior(s) and not one substantive word on the topic. No surprise given his/their endless hate, irrationality, endless dodges, and admissions that they have been defeated. They are as successful in winning a debate as their Republican heroes are in cleaning up the political mess they created:
House Republicans likely to start two-week recess without passing health-care bill
House Republicans indicated Wednesday that they would leave Washington this week without passing their stalled health-care bill, spurning a spirited White House effort to revive the legislation amid a fresh round of intraparty finger-pointing.
Three top GOP leaders each dialed back expectations for action before a two-week recess begins Thursday, after a late-night meeting of holdout factions led by Vice President Pence on Tuesday failed to produce a breakthrough.
“We can keep working this for weeks now,” House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said Wednesday morning, emphasizing that there was “no artificial deadline” for action.
“Getting this done by tomorrow? I think that’s tough,” said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), a view that was echoed by Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), who said it was “very unlikely” the health-care bill would be voted on this week.
[Republicans try to revive health-care effort as leaders seek to temper expectations]
A continuation of a meeting that began Tuesday night was not expected Wednesday as originally planned, foreclosing any chance that the GOP’s American Health Care Act might be resurrected before the Easter recess begins. However, late Wednesday, Ryan was asked to meet with Pence at the White House, with health care the primary topic, according to House GOP and White House aides. Ryan also met briefly with Trump, a Ryan aide said.
“It’s alive, and we’re making progress,” Ryan said Wednesday night in an interview on NPR. But, he added, “it’s going to take a little bit of time.”
The impasse reflects the ongoing inability of the GOP’s moderate and hard-right wings to reach a compromise on just how much of the Affordable Care Act, signed into law eight years ago by President Barack Obama, ought to be undone. The conflict has persisted despite the sky-high political stakes for congressional Republicans who have long promised to repeal the law, as well as President Trump’s desire to notch a victory with only a handful of legislative workdays remaining in his first 100 days in office.
Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.), the chief deputy whip, said the recess could be a “cooling-off period” during which holdouts could “listen to their constituents and justify their position on this bill.”
“You need people to stop, take a deep breath and think through the way to yes,” McHenry said. “Right now, the offerings have diminished votes, not increased them.”
What has filled the void is more blame-casting, with conservatives outside of Congress arguing that the latest standstill lies in the hands of the GOP moderates — a narrative counter to the one pushed by Trump and House leaders, who have blamed the hard-right House Freedom Caucus.
Michael Needham, chief executive of the conservative group Heritage Action for America, said Wednesday morning on a call with reporters that the moderates had “abandoned” efforts to find compromise.
[Trump and House conservatives say a new health-care deal is possible. We’ve been down this road before.]
“It calls into question their commitment to the basic tenets of the Republican Party,” Needham said. “It may be time to spend a couple of weeks trying to explain and educate and build support for good ideas.”
According to Needham, as many as 20 members of the Freedom Caucus had been ready to support a more conservative proposal, one that would have allowed states to undo most of the Affordable Care Act’s insurance mandates — provisions that conservatives say are driving up insurance prices — but moderates balked.
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), the chairman of the Freedom Caucus, argued Tuesday that conservatives have retreated plenty as the health-care debate has progressed.
“We’ve been giving,” he said. “We started out with wanting to repeal all of Obamacare, then we backed off to repealing some of Obamacare and repealing all of the taxes. Then we backed off to saying, ‘Well, we can repeal some of Obamacare and some of the taxes.’ Now we’re down to just a few fundamental issues. . . . Premiums for the people we serve have to come down, and if they don’t come down, we will have failed.”
Rep. H. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), a Freedom Caucus member who was prepared to vote for the earlier bill, agreed that moderates share some of the responsibility for the bill’s failure.
“While we were discussing and trying to convince some of my colleagues to hold their nose and vote yes, suddenly we had major defections from the center,” he said.
But Griffith said the blame game wasn’t helping anyone: “You can’t do it on one side without the other. Some of my friends on the right need to figure out that we can’t get everything that we want. Some of my friends in the center need to figure out that they can’t get everything they want. But we’ve got to do something positive for the American people.”
Moderates, meanwhile, rejected the notion that they were at fault for the health bill’s failure.
Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), a member of the moderate Tuesday Group, said the party’s centrist faction is “always wanting to get to yes and to govern” — a pointed criticism of Freedom Caucus members who have routinely broken with GOP leaders to vote against major bills.
“To somehow try to transfer this obstructionism to us governing members, to me, is just a sign that maybe they may have overplayed their hand, and I think they’re feeling the ramifications of that,” he said.
Said Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), another Tuesday Group member: “I know why the original [bill] failed, and I know who’s to blame for that. . . . When we were really close to getting this passed, there was one group that stopped it.”
But the problems with the bill have gone beyond ideology. Many rank-and-file House Republicans — particularly members of the committees that wrote the bill — are concerned that they have essentially been sidelined from the negotiations.
“Many of us on the committees have spent years on these policies, and to just see it kind of being pulled away and put behind the scenes potentially to me is not the wisest course to take,” said Reed, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.
And there continues to be wariness across the House GOP of moving too fast on a major bill that could potentially affect one-sixth of the U.S. economy. Recent polls have found dismal public opinion of the GOP plan, and a Gallup poll released Tuesday found the ACA’s popularity at an all-time high.
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.), chairman of the House Rules Committee, said it was unrealistic to think that the bill could be resurrected in a matter of days after significant changes.
“For us to vote on something that we have not explained to people back home would be a pretty difficult move for most members,” he said. “Republicans have said we would go home and talk with people back home about where we are and what we’re doing. And that, in my opinion, has not occurred.”
The most recent push to revive the bill came as Trump renewed attacks on the Freedom Caucus and its leaders. But while Trump was tweeting attacks, White House officials wondered whether they could shape a deal around the concept of federalism — that is, allowing states to apply for waivers from the ACA mandates.
Pence and other administration officials broached the idea with the various House factions over the weekend, then met separately Monday with the Freedom Caucus and the Tuesday Group. Both congressional groups left thinking there might be a path to a deal, but both had made different assumptions about what that deal might involve.
Conservatives thought that what was on offer would allow states to opt out of many ACA mandates aimed at protecting those with preexisting medical conditions, people who would instead be covered through subsidized state-based high-risk pools. The moderates, however, believed the waivers would be much less extensive.
“I think what everybody heard is that we want a deal,” Meadows said. “And so when you hear that you want a deal, you’re willing to latch onto whatever is most important to you, and that’s just human nature.”
The two-hour Tuesday meeting — brokered by the Republican Study Committee, a larger group of House members that includes Freedom Caucus and Tuesday Group members — involved Pence, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, leaders of both House factions and key committee chairmen. But the meeting broke up without a clear resolution — or even the text of a potential proposal for the various factions to review.
McHenry said Wednesday that rolling back the ACA mandates that protect those with preexisting conditions would be a nonstarter — given what Trump, Ryan and many other Republicans had said on the campaign trail.
“It goes counter to the president’s promises. It goes counter to the promises of more than 200 members of the House,” McHenry said. “It’s not a ‘moderate problem.’ It’s a math problem.”
says one commentator who takes Republican politicians to task for their lack of reason and their reckless disregard for the needs of the populace:
What is wrong with these people?????? They all had 8 years to make a plan to get this done, if that was their real objective. So what the hell have they all been doing for the last 8 years?????? This should have been already drafted, years ago, both parties working together to finally do something for the people instead of their party and instead, these dummies are still up there trying to iron out a plan that nobody wants. What gives with this?????????
The nasty truth about these incompetent people is that they never had a plan to do anything but scrap this whole thing and call it over. But......something happened to Ryan while he wasn't concentrating on the change. It has been 8 years! People have the plan now and they all love it. With the exception of the brain scrambled STEPFORDS who really believe that this plan was a death nail, the rest of the 20 million want this and they want it affordable. That is all they want Paul Ryan to do now but he is so hard headed and stupid, he can't catch up with what has happened since these Republicans were out there swearing they would repeal and replace or in some cases, just repeal.
The awful and ugly truth about Ryan and his little band of STEPFORD Republicans in the congress is that what they really wanted was to let Obama care just fall on its face and they could cheer at the funeral. That isn't happening and now the burden is on them to give Americans a good, affordable, workable health care plan. If they don't, they will pay for it at the polls in 2018. Paul Ryan is finding out that people don't want him to replace anything about this but the cost of it. If they keep screwing around with what they have to cut out and what they have to take away, people are going to be furious. Now, Ryan is between a rock and hard place. He has to give the public what they want, not what he wants. We will see if he can actually do that.
Same attitude and lack of sense exhibited by the forum right wingers who fail to engage in rational discourse - a complete and dismal FAIL
House Republicans likely to start two-week recess without passing health-care bill
House Republicans indicated Wednesday that they would leave Washington this week without passing their stalled health-care bill, spurning a spirited White House effort to revive the legislation amid a fresh round of intraparty finger-pointing.
Three top GOP leaders each dialed back expectations for action before a two-week recess begins Thursday, after a late-night meeting of holdout factions led by Vice President Pence on Tuesday failed to produce a breakthrough.
“We can keep working this for weeks now,” House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said Wednesday morning, emphasizing that there was “no artificial deadline” for action.
“Getting this done by tomorrow? I think that’s tough,” said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), a view that was echoed by Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), who said it was “very unlikely” the health-care bill would be voted on this week.
[Republicans try to revive health-care effort as leaders seek to temper expectations]
A continuation of a meeting that began Tuesday night was not expected Wednesday as originally planned, foreclosing any chance that the GOP’s American Health Care Act might be resurrected before the Easter recess begins. However, late Wednesday, Ryan was asked to meet with Pence at the White House, with health care the primary topic, according to House GOP and White House aides. Ryan also met briefly with Trump, a Ryan aide said.
“It’s alive, and we’re making progress,” Ryan said Wednesday night in an interview on NPR. But, he added, “it’s going to take a little bit of time.”
The impasse reflects the ongoing inability of the GOP’s moderate and hard-right wings to reach a compromise on just how much of the Affordable Care Act, signed into law eight years ago by President Barack Obama, ought to be undone. The conflict has persisted despite the sky-high political stakes for congressional Republicans who have long promised to repeal the law, as well as President Trump’s desire to notch a victory with only a handful of legislative workdays remaining in his first 100 days in office.
Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.), the chief deputy whip, said the recess could be a “cooling-off period” during which holdouts could “listen to their constituents and justify their position on this bill.”
“You need people to stop, take a deep breath and think through the way to yes,” McHenry said. “Right now, the offerings have diminished votes, not increased them.”
What has filled the void is more blame-casting, with conservatives outside of Congress arguing that the latest standstill lies in the hands of the GOP moderates — a narrative counter to the one pushed by Trump and House leaders, who have blamed the hard-right House Freedom Caucus.
Michael Needham, chief executive of the conservative group Heritage Action for America, said Wednesday morning on a call with reporters that the moderates had “abandoned” efforts to find compromise.
[Trump and House conservatives say a new health-care deal is possible. We’ve been down this road before.]
“It calls into question their commitment to the basic tenets of the Republican Party,” Needham said. “It may be time to spend a couple of weeks trying to explain and educate and build support for good ideas.”
According to Needham, as many as 20 members of the Freedom Caucus had been ready to support a more conservative proposal, one that would have allowed states to undo most of the Affordable Care Act’s insurance mandates — provisions that conservatives say are driving up insurance prices — but moderates balked.
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), the chairman of the Freedom Caucus, argued Tuesday that conservatives have retreated plenty as the health-care debate has progressed.
“We’ve been giving,” he said. “We started out with wanting to repeal all of Obamacare, then we backed off to repealing some of Obamacare and repealing all of the taxes. Then we backed off to saying, ‘Well, we can repeal some of Obamacare and some of the taxes.’ Now we’re down to just a few fundamental issues. . . . Premiums for the people we serve have to come down, and if they don’t come down, we will have failed.”
Rep. H. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), a Freedom Caucus member who was prepared to vote for the earlier bill, agreed that moderates share some of the responsibility for the bill’s failure.
“While we were discussing and trying to convince some of my colleagues to hold their nose and vote yes, suddenly we had major defections from the center,” he said.
But Griffith said the blame game wasn’t helping anyone: “You can’t do it on one side without the other. Some of my friends on the right need to figure out that we can’t get everything that we want. Some of my friends in the center need to figure out that they can’t get everything they want. But we’ve got to do something positive for the American people.”
Moderates, meanwhile, rejected the notion that they were at fault for the health bill’s failure.
Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), a member of the moderate Tuesday Group, said the party’s centrist faction is “always wanting to get to yes and to govern” — a pointed criticism of Freedom Caucus members who have routinely broken with GOP leaders to vote against major bills.
“To somehow try to transfer this obstructionism to us governing members, to me, is just a sign that maybe they may have overplayed their hand, and I think they’re feeling the ramifications of that,” he said.
Said Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), another Tuesday Group member: “I know why the original [bill] failed, and I know who’s to blame for that. . . . When we were really close to getting this passed, there was one group that stopped it.”
But the problems with the bill have gone beyond ideology. Many rank-and-file House Republicans — particularly members of the committees that wrote the bill — are concerned that they have essentially been sidelined from the negotiations.
“Many of us on the committees have spent years on these policies, and to just see it kind of being pulled away and put behind the scenes potentially to me is not the wisest course to take,” said Reed, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.
And there continues to be wariness across the House GOP of moving too fast on a major bill that could potentially affect one-sixth of the U.S. economy. Recent polls have found dismal public opinion of the GOP plan, and a Gallup poll released Tuesday found the ACA’s popularity at an all-time high.
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.), chairman of the House Rules Committee, said it was unrealistic to think that the bill could be resurrected in a matter of days after significant changes.
“For us to vote on something that we have not explained to people back home would be a pretty difficult move for most members,” he said. “Republicans have said we would go home and talk with people back home about where we are and what we’re doing. And that, in my opinion, has not occurred.”
The most recent push to revive the bill came as Trump renewed attacks on the Freedom Caucus and its leaders. But while Trump was tweeting attacks, White House officials wondered whether they could shape a deal around the concept of federalism — that is, allowing states to apply for waivers from the ACA mandates.
Pence and other administration officials broached the idea with the various House factions over the weekend, then met separately Monday with the Freedom Caucus and the Tuesday Group. Both congressional groups left thinking there might be a path to a deal, but both had made different assumptions about what that deal might involve.
Conservatives thought that what was on offer would allow states to opt out of many ACA mandates aimed at protecting those with preexisting medical conditions, people who would instead be covered through subsidized state-based high-risk pools. The moderates, however, believed the waivers would be much less extensive.
“I think what everybody heard is that we want a deal,” Meadows said. “And so when you hear that you want a deal, you’re willing to latch onto whatever is most important to you, and that’s just human nature.”
The two-hour Tuesday meeting — brokered by the Republican Study Committee, a larger group of House members that includes Freedom Caucus and Tuesday Group members — involved Pence, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, leaders of both House factions and key committee chairmen. But the meeting broke up without a clear resolution — or even the text of a potential proposal for the various factions to review.
McHenry said Wednesday that rolling back the ACA mandates that protect those with preexisting conditions would be a nonstarter — given what Trump, Ryan and many other Republicans had said on the campaign trail.
“It goes counter to the president’s promises. It goes counter to the promises of more than 200 members of the House,” McHenry said. “It’s not a ‘moderate problem.’ It’s a math problem.”
says one commentator who takes Republican politicians to task for their lack of reason and their reckless disregard for the needs of the populace:
What is wrong with these people?????? They all had 8 years to make a plan to get this done, if that was their real objective. So what the hell have they all been doing for the last 8 years?????? This should have been already drafted, years ago, both parties working together to finally do something for the people instead of their party and instead, these dummies are still up there trying to iron out a plan that nobody wants. What gives with this?????????
The nasty truth about these incompetent people is that they never had a plan to do anything but scrap this whole thing and call it over. But......something happened to Ryan while he wasn't concentrating on the change. It has been 8 years! People have the plan now and they all love it. With the exception of the brain scrambled STEPFORDS who really believe that this plan was a death nail, the rest of the 20 million want this and they want it affordable. That is all they want Paul Ryan to do now but he is so hard headed and stupid, he can't catch up with what has happened since these Republicans were out there swearing they would repeal and replace or in some cases, just repeal.
The awful and ugly truth about Ryan and his little band of STEPFORD Republicans in the congress is that what they really wanted was to let Obama care just fall on its face and they could cheer at the funeral. That isn't happening and now the burden is on them to give Americans a good, affordable, workable health care plan. If they don't, they will pay for it at the polls in 2018. Paul Ryan is finding out that people don't want him to replace anything about this but the cost of it. If they keep screwing around with what they have to cut out and what they have to take away, people are going to be furious. Now, Ryan is between a rock and hard place. He has to give the public what they want, not what he wants. We will see if he can actually do that.
Same attitude and lack of sense exhibited by the forum right wingers who fail to engage in rational discourse - a complete and dismal FAIL
The deluded hate filled forum right wingers will really hate this truth:
Republicans have achieved something with Trumpcare: making Obamacare more popular than ever
There's nothing like a little buyer's remorse to make people appreciate what they already have. The total disaster that has been Trumpcare so far—the eviscerating of Medicaid, the 24 million people that will be kicked off their insurance, the massive tax breaks to the rich—has apparently made people take a second look at the law we already have, and suddenly fall in love with it.
That makes Obamacare 20 points more popular than popular vote loser Donald Trump.
And don't think moderate Republicans aren't paying attention to that while Zombie Trumpcare lives.
Republicans have achieved something with Trumpcare: making Obamacare more popular than ever
Thank you, Republicans!
Republicans have achieved something with Trumpcare: making Obamacare more popular than ever
There's nothing like a little buyer's remorse to make people appreciate what they already have. The total disaster that has been Trumpcare so far—the eviscerating of Medicaid, the 24 million people that will be kicked off their insurance, the massive tax breaks to the rich—has apparently made people take a second look at the law we already have, and suddenly fall in love with it.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Fifty-five percent of Americans now support the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a major turnaround from five months ago when 42% approved and 53% disapproved. This is the first time a majority of Americans have approved of the healthcare law, also known as Obamacare, since Gallup first asked about it in this format in November 2012. […]
Republicans, Democrats and independents are all more likely to approve of the ACA now than in November, a few days after Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election left Republicans in control of the legislative and executive branches. Independents have led the way in this shift toward approval, increasing by 17 percentage points compared with 10-point changes for both Republicans and Democrats. When including "leaners" (independents who lean toward either the Republican or Democratic Party) in the totals for both major party groups, Democratic approval has increased by 16 points, compared with eight points for Republicans.
Here's what that looks like:Republicans, Democrats and independents are all more likely to approve of the ACA now than in November, a few days after Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election left Republicans in control of the legislative and executive branches. Independents have led the way in this shift toward approval, increasing by 17 percentage points compared with 10-point changes for both Republicans and Democrats. When including "leaners" (independents who lean toward either the Republican or Democratic Party) in the totals for both major party groups, Democratic approval has increased by 16 points, compared with eight points for Republicans.
And don't think moderate Republicans aren't paying attention to that while Zombie Trumpcare lives.
Republicans have achieved something with Trumpcare: making Obamacare more popular than ever
Thank you, Republicans!
So, you worship politics instead of Jesus Christ... right???
Just to give you a heads up... there will be NO political solution for the ills of this world.
Those that believe there is are satanically primed to believe in and follow the anti-christ when the man of sin is revealed to the world.
All the baby killers will walk lock step with the man of sin and some will think they are Christians but in reality they are the children of the dark one who will spend eternity tormented day and night in hell's eternal flames.
Hope that ain't gonna be you hippie man... there's still time to change the road your on to quote Led Zeppelin a favorite band of lots of hippies
Just to give you a heads up... there will be NO political solution for the ills of this world.
Those that believe there is are satanically primed to believe in and follow the anti-christ when the man of sin is revealed to the world.
All the baby killers will walk lock step with the man of sin and some will think they are Christians but in reality they are the children of the dark one who will spend eternity tormented day and night in hell's eternal flames.
Hope that ain't gonna be you hippie man... there's still time to change the road your on to quote Led Zeppelin a favorite band of lots of hippies
Setting aside the hater's hate and Pharisaism, back on topic:
High-cost Alaska sits in the eye of health care reform storm
When Andy Hawk needed hernia surgery last year, his biggest worry wasn't the operation's cost but whether he'd heal in time to lead a spring bear-hunting expedition on Kodiak Island.
For the first time, the self-employed gunsmith in the state with the nation's highest medical costs and most volatile insurance market had some protection. He had coverage for all but $10,000 of the $45,000 tab.
"Before that, I was just damn lucky," said Hawk, 52, who joined the Affordable Care Act marketplace in 2013.
Hawk was relieved last month when Republican leaders in Washington hastily withdrew a House bill to replace parts of the ACA. The legislation's failure left the health care law intact while the GOP regroups on how to address rising insurance costs.
The issue is particularly acute in Alaska, the fourth most expensive state in the U.S., where a standard knee replacement may cost five times what it does in Seattle and pricey air ambulance rides are common in emergencies.
Individual health insurance premiums here climbed almost 40% annually after the ACA went into effect, and high health care costs drove all but one provider, Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield, out of the market in 2017.
Related: In California's conservative Central Valley, millions rely on Medicaid
Hawk and his girlfriend, a self-employed acupuncturist named Jennifer Jolliffe, are watching closely as state leaders grapple with preventing the law's marketplace from collapsing in Alaska. Officials are seeking a $51.6 million federal waiver to shore it up.
"I just want everyone to have health insurance," said Jolliffe, who suffered a life-threatening bacterial infection in 2009 that underscored the need for coverage.
Most of Alaska's more than 738,000 residents receive health coverage through employers or government programs. About 30,000 obtained it through the Medicaid expansion allowed by the ACA, and a smaller number of residents are in its insurance exchange. For the latter, rates have soared because insurers in the vast but sparsely populated state couldn't sign up enough healthy people to offset costs for those with expensive conditions such as end-stage renal disease and cancer.
Premera reported that last year it paid about $67 million in claims for individual members on the Alaska exchange -- with more than $16 million going for just 20 patients. "Alaska has been quite a story over the last few years," company spokeswoman Melanie Coon said. "It's not like other states."
With the market approaching collapse, Alaska tackled the problem in a novel way. Lawmakers voted last year to levy a 2.7% tax on all insurers to create a $55 million reinsurance fund that covers bills for high cost patients, stabilizing the individual market for all other customers.
"The reinsurance program could be a model for others across the U.S.," said Eric Earling, a senior vice president with State of Reform, a nonpartisan health policy communication group.
Related: Popular coverage for children under 26 may be health law's Achilles' heel
For now, it's working. The insurer just reported that it made $20 million in Alaska's individual market last year, and instead of the expected premium increase of more than 40% for 2017, its rates rose only 7.3%.
Still, premiums remain the nation's highest, $904 a month for a 40-year-old nonsmoker in Anchorage on Premera's second-lowest silver plan, which sets the benchmark for subsidy levels. Enrollment on the individual exchange took a hit, falling from about 23,000 people in 2016 to about 19,145 this year, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
"Some of them just could not afford it," said Lori Wing-Heier, director of the state Division of Insurance.
The reinsurance fund -- approved by a Republican-dominated legislature and signed by an independent governor -- was a one-year deal designed to prevent the state's insurance market from imploding.
For a longer-term solution, state officials in December submitted a waiver proposal to CMS asking that the federal government funnel $51.6 million that would have been paid for 2018 premium subsidies into the reinsurance program. It would be authorized for five years, with a renewal option.
Such waivers have been encouraged by Tom Price, the new Health and Human Services Secretary, and Wing-Heier said she expects Alaska's to be approved "quite quickly" after state lawmakers tweak final language during the current legislative session.
Alaska's all-Republican congressional contingent -- including Rep. Don Young and senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan -- have remained steadfastly opposed to the ACA but did not support the GOP House bill. Murkowski called it "a reckless repeal process" and vowed that she wouldn't support plans to cap federal funds for Medicaid that could endanger the newly insured.
Related: Obamacare's impact on this Alaska town with only one doctor's office
That was welcome news to people like Cindy Stark, 61, who runs a small sewing and embroidery business outside Anchorage and gained health insurance through Medicaid expansion. She was badly injured in horse-riding accidents in 2003 and 2008 and had struggled to pay her previous policy's $950 monthly premium and $5,000 deductible.
"I have asthma and the chronic pain," she explained recently. "My medicine now keeps me on track."
Back at the Anchorage gunsmith shop, where custom rifles and rebuilt shotguns line the walls beneath moose antlers and a wolverine pelt, Hawk has a similar take. The ACA isn't perfect, he said, but its insurance coverage means that he and Jolliffe can lead active Alaskan lives — hunting, fishing, skiing — without worrying about costs of a medical catastrophe.
Hawk worries about President Trump's vow to let the ACA "explode" and fears that, even with a full repeal, the administration will go out of its way to undermine the law.
"We don't smoke, don't drink, we're doing our part," said Hawk, who added: "I don't understand why they couldn't just fix it."
High-cost Alaska sits in the eye of health care reform storm - Apr. 6, 2017
Thank God for Obamacare as it will help spare the lives of these precious people.
High-cost Alaska sits in the eye of health care reform storm
When Andy Hawk needed hernia surgery last year, his biggest worry wasn't the operation's cost but whether he'd heal in time to lead a spring bear-hunting expedition on Kodiak Island.
For the first time, the self-employed gunsmith in the state with the nation's highest medical costs and most volatile insurance market had some protection. He had coverage for all but $10,000 of the $45,000 tab.
"Before that, I was just damn lucky," said Hawk, 52, who joined the Affordable Care Act marketplace in 2013.
Hawk was relieved last month when Republican leaders in Washington hastily withdrew a House bill to replace parts of the ACA. The legislation's failure left the health care law intact while the GOP regroups on how to address rising insurance costs.
The issue is particularly acute in Alaska, the fourth most expensive state in the U.S., where a standard knee replacement may cost five times what it does in Seattle and pricey air ambulance rides are common in emergencies.
Individual health insurance premiums here climbed almost 40% annually after the ACA went into effect, and high health care costs drove all but one provider, Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield, out of the market in 2017.
Related: In California's conservative Central Valley, millions rely on Medicaid
Hawk and his girlfriend, a self-employed acupuncturist named Jennifer Jolliffe, are watching closely as state leaders grapple with preventing the law's marketplace from collapsing in Alaska. Officials are seeking a $51.6 million federal waiver to shore it up.
"I just want everyone to have health insurance," said Jolliffe, who suffered a life-threatening bacterial infection in 2009 that underscored the need for coverage.
Most of Alaska's more than 738,000 residents receive health coverage through employers or government programs. About 30,000 obtained it through the Medicaid expansion allowed by the ACA, and a smaller number of residents are in its insurance exchange. For the latter, rates have soared because insurers in the vast but sparsely populated state couldn't sign up enough healthy people to offset costs for those with expensive conditions such as end-stage renal disease and cancer.
Premera reported that last year it paid about $67 million in claims for individual members on the Alaska exchange -- with more than $16 million going for just 20 patients. "Alaska has been quite a story over the last few years," company spokeswoman Melanie Coon said. "It's not like other states."
With the market approaching collapse, Alaska tackled the problem in a novel way. Lawmakers voted last year to levy a 2.7% tax on all insurers to create a $55 million reinsurance fund that covers bills for high cost patients, stabilizing the individual market for all other customers.
"The reinsurance program could be a model for others across the U.S.," said Eric Earling, a senior vice president with State of Reform, a nonpartisan health policy communication group.
Related: Popular coverage for children under 26 may be health law's Achilles' heel
For now, it's working. The insurer just reported that it made $20 million in Alaska's individual market last year, and instead of the expected premium increase of more than 40% for 2017, its rates rose only 7.3%.
Still, premiums remain the nation's highest, $904 a month for a 40-year-old nonsmoker in Anchorage on Premera's second-lowest silver plan, which sets the benchmark for subsidy levels. Enrollment on the individual exchange took a hit, falling from about 23,000 people in 2016 to about 19,145 this year, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
"Some of them just could not afford it," said Lori Wing-Heier, director of the state Division of Insurance.
The reinsurance fund -- approved by a Republican-dominated legislature and signed by an independent governor -- was a one-year deal designed to prevent the state's insurance market from imploding.
For a longer-term solution, state officials in December submitted a waiver proposal to CMS asking that the federal government funnel $51.6 million that would have been paid for 2018 premium subsidies into the reinsurance program. It would be authorized for five years, with a renewal option.
Such waivers have been encouraged by Tom Price, the new Health and Human Services Secretary, and Wing-Heier said she expects Alaska's to be approved "quite quickly" after state lawmakers tweak final language during the current legislative session.
Alaska's all-Republican congressional contingent -- including Rep. Don Young and senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan -- have remained steadfastly opposed to the ACA but did not support the GOP House bill. Murkowski called it "a reckless repeal process" and vowed that she wouldn't support plans to cap federal funds for Medicaid that could endanger the newly insured.
Related: Obamacare's impact on this Alaska town with only one doctor's office
That was welcome news to people like Cindy Stark, 61, who runs a small sewing and embroidery business outside Anchorage and gained health insurance through Medicaid expansion. She was badly injured in horse-riding accidents in 2003 and 2008 and had struggled to pay her previous policy's $950 monthly premium and $5,000 deductible.
"I have asthma and the chronic pain," she explained recently. "My medicine now keeps me on track."
Back at the Anchorage gunsmith shop, where custom rifles and rebuilt shotguns line the walls beneath moose antlers and a wolverine pelt, Hawk has a similar take. The ACA isn't perfect, he said, but its insurance coverage means that he and Jolliffe can lead active Alaskan lives — hunting, fishing, skiing — without worrying about costs of a medical catastrophe.
Hawk worries about President Trump's vow to let the ACA "explode" and fears that, even with a full repeal, the administration will go out of its way to undermine the law.
"We don't smoke, don't drink, we're doing our part," said Hawk, who added: "I don't understand why they couldn't just fix it."
High-cost Alaska sits in the eye of health care reform storm - Apr. 6, 2017
Thank God for Obamacare as it will help spare the lives of these precious people.
Please, please show me verses where the Lord specifically tells His people to trust the ability of mankind for their health instead of trusting in the Lord God Almighty!
I've asked that question over and over and so far... nobody can show any call to action in scripture where God says "you folks gonna have to trust the arm of the flesh of health"
Go ahead... post the verses if ya got 'em... I'll hold
I've asked that question over and over and so far... nobody can show any call to action in scripture where God says "you folks gonna have to trust the arm of the flesh of health"
Go ahead... post the verses if ya got 'em... I'll hold
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