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After months of repeal-and-replace failures, the Senate has a chance of passing something. It’s a great looking bill that addresses many of the problems with Obamacare. It’s clothed in some very appealing components that can get conservatives juiced up. Unfortunately, under the attractive facade lies a sad reality: it’s still just Obamacarelite.
If it can overcome some important hurdles such as getting the CBO report in time and convincing three of five potential Republican dissenters, then it should easily sail through Congress and reach the President’s desk before Thanksgiving. One of the dissenters, Senator Rand Paul, is the only one who seems willing to state the reality that it will not reduce premiums nor will it improve the quality of health coverage. It takes Obamacare and fixes a few things, but it misses completely on the part that most Americans would expect from a repeal and replace.
There’s good to this bill. It puts more power over finances and regulations in the hands of the states. It defunds Planned Parenthood. It eliminates the individual and employer mandates. All of this is great, but that it won’t slow the growth of premiums (and may actually accelerate the rise) should make this a no-go for conservatives.
It won’t. Senators who would normally be opposed to this type of legislation such as Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, and Ben Sasse will probably support it. Why? Because they need to pass something. They need a win soon. The GOP’s abysmal record since getting control of the White House means they need this in order to salvage their futures in the midterm elections.
Most Republican voters will support it. Most conservative pundits will approve. If things were going differently on Capitol Hill with a long list of strong legislation on the books, this bill would be unnecessary. They could hold out for something better such as a full-repeal that gradually cuts Obamacare to pieces over time while putting together a true free-market solution that lowers premiums and increases innovation. Instead, they’re playing politics and keeping most of Obamacare intact to mitigate election-day fallout from their failures.
I detailed the two biggest reasons this bill is unacceptable on the Federalist Party website.
There’s still a good chance it won’t pass. Mike Lee is looking at the details before deciding, but will probably accept it. It’s hard to imagine John McCain not backing Lindsey Graham’s bill. Rand Paul is a hard “no.” That means that to pass, they’ll need to convince Lisa Murkowski or Susan Collins to sign on with an outside chance of Democrat Joe Manchin crossing over. Mitch McConnell has not endorsed the bill yet, saying he’s staying out of it until they get the 50 votes they need to pass. They better hurry. If they can’t get it in under reconciliation, the bill is dead.
Perspectives
Obamacare replacement bill misses on the two most important goals of repeal
Until we remove DC completely from the healthcare system, we’re not going to see lower premiums. We aren’t going to see better healthcare. Don’t fall for any arguments that this bill is a first step. It’s the only step. They’ll call it a day and let this continue to eat away at our economy for years until single-payer rears its ugly head. The only way to prevent Obamacarelite from becoming Berniecare is if we get DC out of healthcare altogether.
Urgent: Will Mitch McConnell Fight For a Vote on an Eleventh-Hour Obamacare Replacement Bill? | Guy Benson, Townhall
Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) met on Tuesday afternoon with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to discuss their last-ditch ObamaCare repeal bill. Leaving the meeting in McConnell’s Capitol office, Cassidy said the leader’s message was that Graham and Cassidy need to find 50 votes for the bill on their own. “He just says we need 50 votes,” Cassidy said of McConnell…”The Leader has said publicly and repeatedly that to move forward on anything we’ll need at least 50 votes,” said McConnell spokesman Don Stewart, calling that a “consistent message.”
GOP Only 2 Votes Away From Replacing Obamacare | Robert Danachie, Daily Caller
Republicans seven month long effort to upend the American health care system failed in late July, after three Republican senators – John McCain of Arizona, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine – shot down the party’s third and final (until now) proposal to repeal Obamacare in a contentious 49-51 vote.
New Report: Obamacare Premiums Will Go Up AGAIN. 15 Percent Hike… | Kacie Burnett, Louder with Crowder
Insurers have pleaded for more certainty on key Obamacare payments called cost-sharing reduction subsidies, which reimburse them for giving discounts to low-income patients. The Trump administration has made the payments on a month-to-month basis, but insurers want them funded on a long-term basis.
Dem Senator: ‘Medicare For All’ Will Fund Abortions | Paul Bois, Daily Wire
Now that socialist Bernie’s “Medicare for All” proposal has gained steam among senate Democrats, the fight for universal healthcare may become the cause celebre for the 2020 election. Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal says the plan should include funding for abortions, which would effectively make the U.S. taxpayer complicit in the mass slaughtering of unborn babies.
Bernie Sanders’ Single-Payer Plan & Democrats | Matthew Continetti, National Review
As President Obama would say: This isn’t my opinion. It’s the conclusion of liberals who would embrace a single-payer system if they had to recreate American health care from scratch. “A commitment to universal health coverage — bringing in the people currently falling through Obamacare’s cracks — should definitely be a litmus test,” writes Paul Krugman. “But single-payer, while it has many virtues, isn’t the only way to get there; it would be much harder politically than its advocates acknowledge; and there are more important priorities.”
Health Care Is So Expensive Because You Don’t Pay For It Yourself
If we applied the same third-party payment technique to any other segment of the economy, we would get the exact same inflationary spiral we see in health care. I buy donuts from time to time. If those donuts were free at the point of purchase, I would buy (and eat) a whole lot more than I do today. The stereotype of cops eating donuts came about because donut shops gave them away to the cops for free.
Can Senate Republicans get Obamacare replacement over the finish line? | Power Line
Collins seems unlikely to back the proposal because it defunds Planned Parenthood. McCain reportedly is well-disposed to the bill, which is sponsored by his pal Lindsey Graham. However, he is said to have cautioned that any repeal effort should go through the regular committee process. We’re already midway through September, which doesn’t leave much time for that.
Final Thoughts
With control of both chambers on Capitol Hill as well as the White House, there should be no reason to keep the seeds of socialized medicine that Barack Obama planted. The GOP that’s been promising to end Obamacare shouldn’t be giving us a different variation of the same thing, but that’s exactly what’s happening. The best-case-scenario if the bill passes is that we continue down the road of unnecessary financial burden on Americans. The worst-case scenario is that this will make it easier for the Democrats to implement their plan for economic oblivion, better known as single-payer.
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