BUMMER: GOP Plans Immediate Obamacare Repeal and Delay

By William Teach

You can’t just rip the bandaid off:

(NY Times) Republicans in Congress plan to move almost immediately next month to repeal the Affordable Care Act, as President-elect Donald J. Trump promised. But they also are likely to delay the effective date so that they have several years to phase out President Obama’s signature achievement.

This emerging “repeal and delay” strategy, which Speaker Paul D. Ryan discussed this week with Vice President-elect Mike Pence, underscores a growing recognition that replacing the health care law will be technically complicated and could be politically explosive.

Since the law was signed by Mr. Obama in March 2010, 20 million uninsured people have gained coverage, and the law has become deeply embedded in the nation’s health care system, accepted with varying degrees of enthusiasm by consumers, doctors, hospitals, insurance companies and state and local governments.

This is the wise move. No matter how bad the law is, no matter how silly it is to have health insurance that people can’t afford to use because of the high deductibles, no matter than insurance providers are dropping out left and right, no matter that the premiums are being jacked up beyond normal rates (and the taxpayers are often paying to cover these through subsidies), no matter etc and so on the problems, the time to eradicate this law immediately was in 2013. Had Republicans come out and voted for Romney, it could have been killed off easily. Now, with it being so embedded, the replacement plan needs to be slowly implemented so that those with Obamacare (let’s not forget that millions of those with Ocare plans were not new to the insurance market, but, simply people who lost their plans due to Ocare and had to sign up via Ocare) and want health insurance are able to keep it.

So the GOP will make sure that there is a transition period so that people aren’t harmed. Obviously, the Times thinks this is a Bad Idea:

But health policy experts suggest “repeal and delay” would be extremely damaging to a health care system already on edge.

“The idea that you can repeal the Affordable Care Act with a two- or three-year transition period and not create market chaos is a total fantasy,” said Sabrina Corlette, a professor at the Health Policy Institute of Georgetown University. “Insurers need to know the rules of the road in order to develop plans and set premiums.”

Would these be the same policy experts who helped write this turd of a law in the first place? The insurers don’t seem to be doing so well knowing the current rules of the road when it comes to Ocare, do they?

But in the Senate, Republicans would need support from some Democrats if they are to replace the Affordable Care Act.

The budget reconciliation rules that would allow Republicans to dismantle the Affordable Care Act have strict limits. The rules are primarily intended to protect legislation that affects spending or revenues. The health law includes insurance market standards and other policies that do not directly affect the budget, and Senate Republicans would, in many cases, need 60 votes to change such provisions.

Really? Dems used parliamentary shenanigans followed by the budget reconciliation method to pass this turd of a bill. Democrats do not get to complain if Republicans do the same. Here’s a phrase you should get used to: you lost.

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