Cartoon of the Day

Steve Kelley cartoon via Townhall

Healthcare & the GOP : Pathetic Fail or Corrupt?

Michael Ramirez cartoon via U.S. News and World Report

The headline:  Pat Toomey says GOP wasn't ready with healthcare ...because they didn't think Trump would win. That’s the conclusion in this Jul-07 report by Robert Laurie at the Canada Free Press:

For some time, I’ve been arguing that the GOP should have had a plan to repeal ObamaCare ready - and on the President’s desk - the week that Donald Trump took office. The ACA’s elimination should have been a day one priority, then you could rest of the year working on healthcare fixes and tax reform.  I’ve heard a whole pile of excuses about why that didn’t happen and I’ve never really bought any of them.

There were only two answers that made sense: Either the GOP didn’t really want to repeal ObamaCare, or they simply dropped the ball and we’re witnessing one of history’s worst cases of political shortsightedness.

While I still suspect there are a lot of Republicans who’d love nothing more than to leave the ACA in place and have the whole issue go away, it sounds more like the GOP just ...failed.  According to [Senator] Pat Toomey (R-PA), no one bothered to ready an ObamaCare repeal bill, because they all thought Hillary was going to be your next President.

He made the remarks during a town hall, hosted by ABC27 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

“I didn’t expect Donald Trump to win. I think most of my colleagues didn’t. So we didn’t expect to be in this situation.

And given how difficult it is to get to a consensus, it was hard to force that until there was a need to.”

In other words; “We could vote to repeal ObamaCare 40 times when we knew Obama wouldn’t sign the bill, but we never wasted our time preparing for the eventuality that we might actually win the next election.”  That’s just pathetic, and it validates a lot of criticisms that Democrats were lobbing at Republicans back during the Obama years.

It’s an admission that their healthcare votes during the Obama administration really were just obstructionist political theater and it suggests that they spent more time preparing for a Hillary presidency than they spent trying to secure a victory.

Remember, they had eight years to ready a repeal, replacement, or fix.  Instead, they put on a big show, yakked about their alleged principles, smiled at their constituents, and kicked the can.

They squandered their time, your money, and our collective efforts because it was easier than getting together on a solution.

No wonder they’re so despised.

My own take: When Senator Toomey admits that the GOP did not seriously prepare for the repeal of Obamacare because they did not expect to win the House, Senate, and White House, he makes the GOP look like fools, but that’s probably better than admitting the truth. I suspect that Laurie’s alternative is correct: the GOP does not want to repeal Obamacare. Nearly all of the GOP, including the so-called Freedom Caucus, are members of The UniParty, and they have already been bought.

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Question of the Day

Via Bookworm Room:

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Trumpcare: Senate version -- is Portman against it

photo credit: Pat J Dooley Photography

Update: The photographer points out that the flying banner may be a message TO Senator Portman, not sponsored BY Sen. Portman. If so, apologies to the Senator, and here's hoping he considers it.

[Apparently] Senator Rob Portman hired an advertising plane this afternoon to circle the downtown Cleveland area. He is coming out of the gate opposed to the newly-revealed/leaked Senate version of President Trump and Secretary Tom Price’s healthcare bill. If Portman is opposed to the bill, it is probably a pretty good start to the process of repealing Obamacare.

Conservative Treehouse jogs everyone’s memory: 

The original (’09/’10) ObamaCare bill was 2,700 pages and most of the toxic takeover construct was intentionally and ambiguously deferred to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius where she added an initial 74,000 pages of regulatory and compliance rules and procedures. [Those HHS regulations now total 673,448+ pages and growing.]

Conservative Treehouse also has a fascinating analysis of the Trump healthcare plan. His blog post is worth reading in full, but here’s the very short précis:

Under Trump’s long-term (3 step) approach – the non-government healthcare market, the majority of the population, will break free from almost all of the ObamaCare government regulations; and the insurance market will be empowered to provide an insurance product that fits the individual needs of the person purchasing the insurance.

♦Dual System Approaches – Much like Secretary Mnuchin is proposing leaving government (via Dodd-Frank) attached to the “too-big-to-fail” group of banks and cutting all else loose from the regulations, so too is Secretary Price proposing to leave government attached to the “at risk population” (Medicare and Medicaid), the group 99% of all political talking points are structured around, and cut everyone else loose from the regulations.

•Step #1 establishes the ability (decouples ObamaCare).   •Step #2 allows HHS to frame the parallel system (deregulation). •Step #3 establishes the broader parameters for the non-government health insurance market.

The full pdf file of the Senate bill is here. 

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Coulter on free market healthcare

Image credit: North Country Public Radio

Sorry, I have been off the air for a couple of weeks, and when I got back online this weekend, I found a column by Ann Coulter on HER solution to the healthcare repeal-replace dilemma. Here’s are several extracts and the whole thing (from a little over a week ago) is here.

It’s always impossible to repeal laws that require Ann to pay for greedy people, because the greedy run out on the streets wailing that the Republicans are murdering them.

Obamacare is uniquely awful because the free stuff isn’t paid for through income taxes: It’s paid for through MY health insurance premiums. This is unfortunate because I wanted to buy health insurance.

Perhaps you’re not aware — SINCE YOU EXEMPTED YOURSELVES FROM OBAMACARE, CONGRESS — but buying or selling health insurance is illegal in America.

Right now, there’s no free market because insurance is insanely regulated not only by Obamacare, but also by the most corrupt organizations in America: state insurance commissions. (I’m talking to you, New York!)

Federal and state laws make it illegal to sell health insurance that doesn’t cover a laughable array of supposedly vital services based on bureaucrats’ medical opinions of which providers have the best lobbyists.

As a result, it’s illegal to sell health insurance that covers any of the medical problems I’d like to insure against. Why can’t the GOP keep Obamacare for the greedy — but make it legal for Ann to buy health insurance?

This is how it works today:

ME: I’m perfectly healthy, but I’d like to buy health insurance for heart disease, broken bones, cancer, and everything else that a normal person would ever need, but no more.

INSURANCE COMPANY: That will be $700 a month, the deductible is $35,000, no decent hospital will take it, and you have to pay for doctor’s visits yourself. But your plan covers shrinks, infertility treatments, sex change operations, autism spectrum disorder treatment, drug rehab and 67 other things you will never need.

INSURANCE COMPANY UNDER ANN’S PLAN: That will be $50 a month, the deductible is $1,000, you can see any doctor you’d like, and you have full coverage for any important medical problems you could conceivably have in a million years.

Mine is a two-step plan (and you don’t have to do the second step, so it’s really a one-step plan).

STEP 1: Congress doesn’t repeal Obamacare! Instead, Congress passes a law, pursuant to its constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce, that says: “In America, it shall be legal to sell health insurance on the free market. This law supersedes all other laws, taxes, mandates, coverage requirements, regulations or prohibitions, state or federal.”

The end. Love, Ann.

There will be no whining single mothers storming Congress with their pre-printed placards. People who want to stay on Obamacare can. No one is taking away anything. They can still have health insurance with free pony rides. It just won’t be paid for with Ann’s premiums anymore, because Ann will now be allowed to buy health insurance on the free market.

Americans will be free to choose among a variety of health insurance plans offered by willing sellers, competing with one another to provide the best plans at the lowest price. A nationwide market in health insurance will drive down costs and improve access — just like everything else we buy here in America!

Within a year, most Americans will be buying health insurance on the free market (and half of the rest will be illegal aliens). We’ll have TV ads with cute little geckos hawking amazing plans and young couples bragging about their broad coverage and great prices from this or that insurance company.

The Obamacare plans will still have the “essential benefits” (free pony rides) that are so important to NPR’s Mara Liasson, but the free market plans will have whatever plans consumers agree to buy and insurance companies agree to sell — again, just like every other product we buy here in America.

. . .

Until the welfare program is decoupled from the insurance market, nothing will work. Otherwise, it’s like forcing grocery stores to pay for everyone to have a house. A carton of milk would suddenly cost $10,000.

. . .

STEP 2: Next year, Congress formulates a better way of delivering health care to the welfare cases, which will be much easier since there will be a LOT fewer of them.

No actual money-making business is going to survive by taking the welfare cases — the ones that will cover illegal aliens and Mara Liasson’s talk therapy — so the greedy will get government plans.

But by then, only a minority of Americans will be on the “free” plans. (Incidentally, this will be a huge money-saver — if anyone cares about the federal budget.) Eighty percent of Americans will already have good health plans sold to them by insurance companies competing for their business.

With cheap plans available, a lot of the greedy will go ahead and buy a free market plan. Who wants to stand in line at the DMV to see a doctor when your neighbors have great health care plans for $50 a month?

. . .

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From the Townhall cartoon page, cartoon by Steve Kelley:

And here is the latest from Sundance on the run-up to President Trump's meeting with the Freedom Caucus on the Health Care bill. (Let's hope the take is not overly optimistic.)

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Gov. Kasich’s Medicaid Expansion again

art credit: KUT

Legal Insurrection reports [original links retained]

Full repeal or “roll back parts of ObamaCare”?

The ObamaCare Medicaid expansion is a horrible deal for low income Americans; it’s also where a large number of “newly covered” Americans get their new coverage.

Not only does the expansion include “automatic” enrollment in Medicaid through ObamaCare even if it’s not wanted, but expanding Medicaid to slightly higher income levels includes many who have managed to acquire a home or other assets.  Their home and assets, however, go to pay for their Medicaid bills after they die.  In essence, then, Medicaid functions as a loan from the federal government just as it always has, but because the income level has been raised, more Medicaid recipients than ever will have their assets seized to cover the cost of their Medicaid expenses.

Despite this, some GOP governors are fighting their own party to keep the Medicaid expansion in their states.

Politico reports:

Republican governors who reaped the benefits of Obamacare now find themselves in an untenable position — fighting GOP lawmakers in Washington to protect their states’ health coverage.

. . . .  President-elect Donald Trump heaped more pressure on lawmakers to find a resolution of the issue this week when he vowed to “repeal and replace Obamacare essentially simultaneously” after the Senate confirms Rep. Tom Price, his pick for Health and Human Services secretary.

But Trump’s push comes as at least five of the 16 Republican governors of states that took federal money to expand Medicaid are advocating to keep it or warning GOP leaders of disastrous consequences if the law is repealed without a replacement that keeps millions of people covered. They include Govs. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, Rick Snyder of Michigan, John Kasich of Ohio, Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas and Brian Sandoval of Nevada.

The governors explain why they want to keep the Medicaid expansion in their states.

Politico continues:

“We are now able to provide health insurance to 700,000 people,” said Kasich, who circumvented his state Legislature to enact expansion in 2013 and who was the sole GOP presidential candidate in 2016 to defend that portion of Obamacare.

“Let’s just say they just got rid of it, didn’t replace it with anything,” he said. “What happens to the 700,000 people? What happens to drug treatment? What happens to mental health counseling? What happens to these people who have very high cholesterol and are victims from a heart attack? What happens to them?”

. . .

Part of Kasich’s argument is that the federal taxpayer dollars his state gets for Medicaid expansion is “our money,” that of Ohioans.

Hot Air explains this is not exactly the case:

Expanding Medicaid, Kasich has said, allowed him to “bring Ohio money back home,” preventing other states from getting $13 billion of “Ohioans’ federal tax dollars” in the first seven years. He circumvented a legislative ban on Obamacare expansion, waving off concerns about the cost with appeals to his experience in Congress in the ’90s.

In just three years, Kasich’s Obamacare expansion cost $11.3 billion, and not a penny of that new federal spending was “Ohio money” that would have otherwise gone to another state.

It’s not clear what President-elect Trump or the GOP Congress plan to do with or about the ObamaCare Medicaid expansion should they indeed succeed in repealing the entire law rather than picking and choosing what parts to to keep and what to “roll back.”

This report can remind voters why they should push Columbus legislators to pass the Ohio Health Care Compact, so that Ohio citizens can decide if they want to maintain or reject Obamacare. Recall that in 2011,

State Issue 3, a public vote on passage of the Healthcare Freedom Amendment in Ohio, passed overwhelmingly in all 88 Ohio counties.  In Cuyahoga County, the Amendment passed 202,010 votes (58.24%) to 144,908 votes (41.76%). [Source: Ohio GOP] 

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Obamacare: Don't tweak it. Repeal it.

art credit: netrightdaily

Jack Hellner at the American Thinker blog gets it in one opening sentence: 

Bad laws and regulations should be repealed, not tweaked – and Obamacare should go first.

Read the rest here.

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Fascism: redefining the word

woody.typepad via Steven Crowder/Twitter

  

If you managed to wade through Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism, you already know that the term “fascism” has been misappropriated by Communists, Progressives, and other left-of-center isms to mean the opposite of its original far left definition. Several online dictionaries today reflect the switch in meaning, and even the Wikipedia entry shows the difficulty of navigating the origins of the term and its current usage by the political Left as a pejorative.

Today Bookworm (of the Bookworm Room blog) has a piece at American Thinker that summarizes the origin of the left/right nomenclature and the sleight-of-hand in redefining “fascism” – all in the context of a short history lesson. The entire article is here. Below are a couple of extracts:

For months now, the Democrat-Progressive fever swamps have been using the word “fascist” in connection with Donald Trump and those who voted for him. It took Michael Kinsley to elevate this shoddy claim onto pages of the Washington Post: Trump, he asserts, is a fascist.

. . .

Given that conservatives Republicans, including the majority of Trump supporters, are on the liberty side of the spectrum, far from the world’s most brutal tyrants, what gave rise to the glaringly false syllogism that “Republicans are right-wing fascists and Hitler was a right-win fascist, so all Republicans are Hitler”? 

You can blame it on a nasty little historic and linguistic trick American communists pulled, which was to make “fascism” synonymous with the political “right.” Once having done that, they could claim that American conservatives, being “right wing,” are therefore fascist. This is pure disinformation.

. . .

“Fascism,” another historic term, is one that American statists embraced until Hitler tainted it. It first gained political traction in Italy in the 1920s. Mussolini defined it to mean “All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.” In other words, fascism is purely on the statist side of the continuum.

Savvy readers will have noticed that fascism sounds remarkably like communism: It’s all about concentrating all power in the state, leaving the individual entirely subordinate to the state. The primary difference between the two ideologies is that in communism the government nationalizes private property, whereas in fascism the government does not nationalize it but nevertheless completely controls — as is the case, for example, with Obamacare, which saw the government establish the rules for the private insurance market and mandate that Americans buy the product.

. . .

One more thing: Obama said that the biggest disappointment of his presidency was his failure to grab more guns from American hands.  Statists always grab guns because their regimes are fundamentally hostile to the citizens they control, making it impossible for those citizens to defend themselves against tyrannical government. Trump’s promise to protect the Second Amendment is the antithesis of a statist, especially a “fascist,” regime.

Read the rest here. 

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Rep. Tom Price as Secretary of Health and Human Services

photo credit: Star Tribune

Good news! Rep. Tom Price is going to be Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services. CTH reports:

President-elect Donald J. Trump has selected Representative Tom Price, a six-term Republican congressman from Georgia who has led opposition to the Affordable Care Act, to be secretary of health and human services, according to a transition team official.

Mr. Price, an orthopedic surgeon, has been a severe critic of the health law, saying it interferes with the ability of patients and doctors to make medical decisions.

And he says that events have borne out his warnings.  “Premiums have gone up, not down,” Mr. Price said recently. “Many Americans lost the health coverage they were told time and time again by the president that they could keep. Choices are fewer.”

An announcement of Mr. Price’s appointment is expected as soon as Tuesday, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the announcement had not been released. [The WaPo announced it here.]

Some Republicans have attacked the Affordable Care Act without proposing an alternative. Mr. Price, by contrast, has introduced bills offering a detailed, comprehensive replacement plan in every Congress since 2009, when Democrats started work on the legislation.

From his days as a Georgia state senator, Mr. Price, now 62, has been a voice for doctors, often aligned with the positions of the American Medical Association and the Medical Association of Georgia.

Even the New York Times had something nice to say.

For Tea Party people who were active during the run-up to the passage of Obamacare, Tom Price is one of our heroes. Good news, indeed. And as Stephen Green (Mr. Vodkapundit) adds on PJ Media, “Give that man a giant scalpel.”

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"Constituting America Hangout" today, October 28th at 6:15 pm Eastern

  

The support for the Health Care Compact (HCC) is quickly growing. Seeing the HCC is the only Constitutional way to defeat Obamacare, more and more Congressmen are signing on as co-sponsors at the federal level.  Ohio's Health Care Compact effort (HB 34) has now passed the Ohio House and is in the Ohio Senate Govt Oversight & Reform Committee.

At 6:15pm today actress and radio host Janine Turner and Health Care Compact founder Leo Linbeck III will be hosting an online event, "Constituting America Hangout" where you can get more info on the HCC, ask questions and spend time with fellow patriots working to defeat Obamacare.

From the folks at Health Care Compact:

This evening:  Constituting America Google Hangout with actress and radio host Janine Turner and Health Care Compact founder Leo Linbeck III. To accommodate the presidential debate the same evening, we've moved up the time to 6:15 pm Eastern (5:15 Central) tomorrow - Wednesday, October 28th. 

Please bring your questions and join us through this link, so you can learn more about the best chance we have to get rid of Obamacare and send health care decisions back to the states. 

In addition to sharing more about the progress of the Health Care Compact on Capitol Hill, Janine and Leo will tell you about steps you can take to ensure your own members get behind our efforts to move health care control out of Washington.

And in case you'd like a quick refresher, Janine published this outstanding column about the Health Care Compact in Friday's Washington Times. Janine has been a devoted champion of states' rights and the Constitution, and we are grateful to have her support.

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Ohio Moves One Step Closer to Health Care Freedom: Health Care Compact

 

For Immediate Release 

Oct. 1, 2015

 

Contact: Diana Price

Clevelandteaparty@gmail.com

 

 

Ohio Moves One Step Closer

to True Health Care Freedom

Ohio - In passing the Health Care Compact ( HB 34) on Sept. 29, 2015,  the Ohio House took the initial steps to place the State of Ohio on a path to true health care freedom. In a 61-31 vote (7 not voting), the Ohio House set in motion the process of becoming a member state of the Health Care Compact.

 

The Health Care Compact would give member states the legislative and fiscal freedom to make health care truly reflective of the health care needs of their state and not a costly one-size-fits-all federal health care program (Affordable Care Act) that has proven to be a failure.

 

“For years, we have heard the complaints about the ACA. We have also seen attempt after attempt to repeal the ACA, but with no back-up plan. Ohio, along with several other states, has taken the lead to find a suitable replacement for the federal control of our healthcare system,” noted bill co-sponsor Rep. Wes Retherford (OH-51).

 

"By returning these dollars to the states, we can start working on state-by-state reforms that best serve our constituents. Ohioans are demanding actions, not just words, and today the Ohio House took that step,” Retherford said after the vote.

"Because it provides true health care freedom and allows Ohioans to break free from the freedom-sapping chains of Obamacare, the Health Care Compact is the only constitutional avenue for citizens to have a voice in their own health care decisions,” stated Tea Party Patriots State Coordinator Ralph King.

"Sponsors Rep. Wes Retherford (OH-51) & Rep. Terry Boose (OH-57), the many co-sponsors, Speaker Rosenberger, & all the Ohio House members voting in support of it should be applauded for using every constitutional means available to put what is best for Ohio first."

"Nine other states have already passed the Health Care Compact," King continued, “and we are looking forward to the Ohio Senate making Ohio the 10th state."

-- # --

Health Care Compact (HB 34) Passes Ohio House

Moving Ohio one step closer to finally achieving true health care freedom, the Ohio House passed the Health Care Compact (HB 34) earlier today.

From Rep. Wes Retherford & Rep Terry Boose -- 

For Immediate Release:

September 30, 2015

Ohio House Passes Health Care Compact

Legislation gives Ohio more freedom over its healthcare policies

COLUMBUS—During today’s session, the Ohio House of Representatives passed legislation that, with approval from Congress, would give Ohio more freedom and flexibility over its healthcare policies.

House Bill 34, sponsored by Rep. Retherford and Rep. Boose, ratifies the Health Care Compact., through which Ohio would enter a multi-state contract that would secure more rights to the states for healthcare policy decisions. The measure is a response to rising costs and deficits, as well as the increased federal overreach into health care. If signed into law by Governor Kasich and approved by the US Congress, the Compact allows Ohio to suspend the operation of all federal laws and regulations that are inconsistent with Ohio laws adopted through the Compact. Should Congress approve the Compact, however, it would still be up to the state legislature whether to change Ohio’s healthcare policy, as well as what those specific changes would be.

Under the legislation, Ohio would receive federal funding to support health coverage each fiscal year. The amount of funding would be determined based on the estimated level of federal funding used for health care, which would be updated periodically based on population and inflation.

“For years, we have heard the complaints about the ACA. We have also seen attempt after attempt to repeal the ACA, but with no back up plan. Ohio, along with several other states, have taken the lead on finding a suitable replacement to the Federal control of our healthcare system. By returning these dollars to the states, we can start working on state by state reform that will best serve our constituents. I want to thank my colleagues in supporting my efforts to find a solution to our Healthcare crisis. Ohioans are demanding actions, not just words, and today the Ohio House took that step.” – Retherford said.

The Health Care Compact included a set of core principles, inspired by the goals of personal freedom and federalism. The principles include:

• The separation of powers, both between the branches of the federal government and between federal and state authority, is essential to the preservation of individual liberty.
• The Constitution creates a federal government of limited and enumerated powers, and reserves to the states or to the people those powers not granted to the federal government.
• The member states seek to protect individual liberty and personal control over healthcare decisions, and believe the best method to achieve these ends is by vesting regulatory authority over health care in the states

House Bill 34 now goes to the Ohio Senate for further consideration.

-30-

For more information, contact Adam Landefeld in Rep. Boose’s office at (614) 466-9628 or Adam.Landefeld@ohiohouse.gov; or Nicholas Stallard in Rep. Retherford’s office at (614) 644-6721 or Nicholas.Stallard@ohiohouse.gov.

 

It is Time for Ohioans to be in Control of our own Health Care

With the uncertainty of Obamacare in the courts, the outcome of any ruling, even if in our favor, will not completely rid Ohio citizens from the chains of Obamacare & the federal government.

US Senator John Cornyn & US Senator James Lankford explain in this op-ed how through the Health Care Compact, we have an opportunity at a second chance to get health care right in our country.

 At the federal level, Congressman Doug Collins of Georgia filed the Health Care Compact in the U.S. House of Representatives. Once Congress passes the legislation, the nine (and counting!) states that have joined the Compact would be able to take back control of health care from the federal government.

Looking to become the 10th member state of the Health Care Compact, the Ohio Health Care Compact (HB 34) has passed out of State Government Committee and is eligible to be put on the Floor for a House vote.

The House Rules & Reference Committee sets the schedule for House votes.

Please contact the below GOP members of the House Rules & Reference Committee and respectfully request that they support the Health Care Compact (HB 34) and put Ohioans in charge of their own health care destiny.

With your support and immediate action, we can move one step closer to achieving our goal of true health care freedom for all Ohio citizens and remove ourselves from under Governor Kasich's Medicaid expansion!

Rules & Reference Committee

GOP Members

Rep. Ron Amstutz / Chair
Phone: (614) 466-1474
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Cliff Rosenberger / Vice-Chair
Phone: (614) 466-3506
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Andrew Brenner
Phone: (614) 644-6711
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Bill Hayes
Phone: (614) 466-2500
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Ron Hood
Phone: (614) 466-1464
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Stephanie Kunze
Phone: (614) 466-8012
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Dorothy Pelanda
Phone: (614) 466-8147
Contact: Click Here

Rep. Scott Ryan
Phone: (614) 466-1482
Contact: Click Here

Please call your OH House member and tell them to support the Health Care Compact - Click for OH House Directory.

Historical (and historic) votes

A mini-history lesson via the Mama Grizzly : 

Do your friends and family know any of this?

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End Obamacare Exemption

End Obamacare Exemption : Sen. David Vitter’s bill 

Art credit: Sodahead.com

Next week, on June 17 at noon, patriots across the country will visit and call their representatives to demand that they no longer enjoy an exemption from Obamacare. For far too long, the "Ruling Class" politicians have lived above the law while the American people suffer. Help end that special Obamacare exemption.

For the 60-second ad being run across the country, go here (scroll down; it’s on the left-hand side). For more info, go to Sen David Vitter's website here. 

Mark your calendar for Weds., June 17 at noon. Find the office of your representative at this map. Plan to visit or call.

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King vs. Burwell and Obamacare

Art credit: crooks and liars.com

The King vs. Burwell case is expected to be decided by the Supreme Court at the end of June. The SCOTUS could strike down Obamacare subsidies in 34 non-exchange states. Here is an interactive map showing the status of each state and its health care exchanges. Ohio is one of seven states categorized as “Federally facilitated marketplace; state conducting plan management.”

Last week, Betsy McCaughey identified the potential winners and losers if SCOTUS strikes down the subsidies:

If Supremes slap ObamaCare, it’s health insurers who lose

. . . the Supreme Court ruling in King v. Burwell, expected this month . . . will determine the fate of these subsidies in 37 states.

Without subsidies, ObamaCare buyers in those states will have to pay the actual — and unaffordable — sticker price of ObamaCare. And you — taxpayers — will not have to fork over hundreds of billions of dollars to subsidize insurers over the next decade.

But the dirty secret is that insurers stand to lose the most from King v. Burwell.

The Affordable Care Act compels the public to buy their product, and forces taxpayers to subsidize it. What a sweetheart deal.

The giant players — United Healthcare, Cigna, Aetna, Anthem and Humana — have seen stock prices double, triple, even quadruple since the law was passed in 2010. The coming ruling threatens to put an end to their gravy train.

Democrats are predicting disaster if the court rules against President Obama.

Republicans will “rue the day” they let millions of people lose their subsidies, says Nancy Pelosi. That’s crazy talk.

No one will lose their coverage immediately, the poor will be unaffected and the biggest losers will be insurance companies.

Employers, job-seekers and taxpayers actually stand to win here.

In addition, most Republicans in Congress are inclined to compromise with the president to provide some type of financial help for insurance buyers. If the Supremes gut ObamaCare, there will be many more winners than losers. Here’s how it shakes out:

The Affordable Care Act says subsidies will be provided only in states that set up their own exchanges. But only a handful of states (including New York) did.

In 37 states that didn’t, people use the federal healthcare.gov Web site instead. The Obama administration handed out subsidies to these people anyway, playing fast and loose with the law — and your money.

If the justices rule that the Obama administration can’t do that, some 7.7 million people will eventually lose their subsidies.

. . .

Insurance companies are lobbying furiously for a congressional fix.

Meanwhile, outside Washington, DC, a ruling nixing the subsidies will benefit employers and job-seekers.

Any of the 37 states that want to can set up an exchange and immediately qualify for the subsidies. But most are controlled by the GOP and won’t do it.

Without subsidies, the employer mandate is toothless, because employers are only fined if their uninsured workers go to an exchange and get a subsidy.

Employers who have been struggling to keep their workforce under 50 (where ObamaCare kicks in) and use part-timers (who aren’t subject to ObamaCare) won’t have to worry any more. Nullifying the employer mandate is likely to ignite a hiring boom.

According to the US Chamber of Commerce, that looming mandate has caused 21 percent of small businesses to reduce workers’ hours, 41 percent to delay hiring and 27 percent of franchises (such as fast-food restaurants) to replace full-timers with part-timers.

People facing a penalty for being uninsured will also come out ahead. Without subsidies, most will be exempted from the penalty, saving them $2,000 on average next year.

Despite Democrats’ dire warnings, the poor won’t be hurt. An amazing 89 percent of people who are newly insured because of ObamaCare are on Medicaid, which won’t be affected.

Ignore the alarmist rhetoric. A loss for the Obama administration in King v. Burwell will be a win for most Americans.

Read the entire article here.

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