Republicans Killing Obamacare Again

“They came on in the same old way, and we saw them off in the same old way” – Arthur Wellesley on Waterloo

Republicans really hate Obamacare a lot. Perhaps they feel they owe it to Zombie St. Ronnie who, as you’ll recall, got his political start crusading against the creeping socialism of Medicare/Medicaid-

Unidicted Co-conspirator Bottomless Pinocchio has never given up his hatred of all things Obama, even the ones that are Republican-Lite, and both Racist Republicans and those who pretend to have principles are still fighting to roll back Reagan’s loss in 1961 because Poor == Black and also Takers. I mean it’s not like things are so much better or that Parasitic Insurance Companies are not still rolling in dough.

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Originally this current effort extended only to Pre-Existing Conditions which sucks if you happen to have Diabetes or Asthma or are Left Handed (it is well known that Left Handers are more accident prone and therefore a greater actuarial risk).

Now they simply want to send all the sick or potentially sick people out on an Ice Flow to die because they’re too Poor and might be Black.

Trump Officials Broaden Attack on Health Law, Arguing Courts Should Reject All of It
By Robert Pear, The New York Times
March 25, 2019

The Trump administration broadened its attack on the Affordable Care Act on Monday, telling a federal appeals court that it now believed the entire law should be invalidated.

The administration had previously said that the law’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions should be struck down, but that the rest of the law, including the expansion of Medicaid, should survive.

If the appeals court accepts the Trump administration’s new arguments, millions of people could lose health insurance, including those who gained coverage through the expansion of Medicaid and those who have private coverage subsidized by the federal government.

“The Justice Department is no longer asking for partial invalidation of the Affordable Care Act, but says the whole law should be struck down,” Abbe R. Gluck, a law professor at Yale who has closely followed the litigation, said on Monday. “Not just some of the insurance provisions, but all of it, including the Medicaid expansion and hundreds of other reforms. That’s a total bombshell, which could have dire consequences for millions of people.”

The new position is also certain to reignite a political furor over the Affordable Care Act, ensuring that it will figure even more prominently in the 2020 elections. Democrats have been saying that President Trump still wants to abolish the law, and they can now point to the Justice Department’s filing as evidence to support that contention.

The health insurance industry has invented a new business model selling coverage to anyone who applies, regardless of any pre-existing conditions.

The law also includes dozens of provisions that are less well known and not related to the individual mandate. It requires nutrition labeling and calorie counts on menu items at chain restaurants. It requires certain employers to provide “reasonable break time” and a private space for nursing mothers to pump breast milk. It improved prescription drug coverage for Medicare beneficiaries, and it created a new pathway for the approval of less expensive versions of biologic medicines made from living cells.

Lawyers said invalidation of the entire law would raise numerous legal and practical questions. It is, they said, difficult to imagine what the health care world would look like without the Affordable Care Act.

The Trump administration’s new position was harshly criticized by the insurance industry and by consumer advocates.

The Trump administration’s new stance appears to put Republicans in Congress in an awkward position. They have repeatedly tried to repeal the health law. But in the last year, they said over and over that they wanted to protect coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, and those protections are among the law’s most popular provisions.

The lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act, Texas v. United States, was filed last year by a group of Republican governors and state attorneys general. Officials from California and more than a dozen other states have intervened to defend the law.

Yeah Republicans. You do you.