Tag Archives: Obamacare

This is what Democracy looks like – Harrisonville, Missouri – March 22, 2017

23 Thursday Mar 2017

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Wednesday at noon nine individuals, residents of the 4th Congressional District, came to Representative Vicky Hartzler’s Harrisonville, Missouri field office to express their concerns with the republican attempt to repeal the ACA (“Obamacare”) and “replace” it with Trumpcare. Adam Timmerman, a Field Representative for Representative Hartzler (r), opened up the office to hear their concerns. He listened intently, took notes, and, like all of the constituents in attendance, was unfailingly polite throughout the hour long exchange.

“Indivisible” – Harrisonville, Missouri – March 22, 2017.

“Trump care makes me sick” – Harrisonville, Missouri – March 22, 2017.

“Christian Warrior” – Harrisonville, Missouri – March 22, 2017.

Adam Timmerman, Field Representative for Representative Vicky Hartzler (r).

“…I would like my story to be heard, too. And there’s just so much uncertainty about this act, about how it’s going to affect people. Who’s going to lose insurance? And, and, all I ever hear is it will be their choice. But it’s not always a choice. It’s whether you choose to eat, you choose to pay rent, you choose to pay your mortgage, or you choose to have insurance. And I know many people disagree with me, but I agree that health care should be a right, it should be a right by our government…”

“…I think she [Representative Hartzler] is not listening to her people in her district. I think when we get on the phone, um, that is not a good test of the members of her district at all. Town meetings is a good test for that. You can’t get on the phone and take five different people to talk and get a feel of the thousands of people she represents. And she is our voice, she’s not big business or insurance’s voice. Or the party line voice. She is not. We should be able to connect with her and talk with her and give her our worries and concerns and on our issues in this district…”

One of the constituents was concerned with the “facts” presented by Representative Hartzler (r) on a recent district telephone conference call with constituents:

“…if she [Representative Hartzler] truly wants to serve her constituents I think she needs to gain access to these things [facts], which is about a fifteen minute Internet search, actually. I’d be happy to send her those links as well as articles from numerous medical journals that have come out in support of ACA. And then she would have the information she needs to vote, to make a knowledgeable vote, for those individuals that she serves…”

“…Missouri did not expand Medicaid. And, on top of that if Trumpcare does get passed almost an additional forty thousand people in her district alone will not have any health insurance. Now that comes back to when, you know, they wait ’til they’re deathly ill or really, really sick, they go to the emergency room. They can’t pay that bill. So, who does?…”

Eight of the nine individuals present supported continuation and improvement of the ACA (“Obamacare”) and opposed its repeal and the implementation of Trumpcare. With one individual, an apparent libertarian, it was difficult to tell what he thought.

Welcome to Missouri’s 4th Congressional District.

Successful Medicaid innovation in Missouri may die thanks to AHCA

20 Monday Mar 2017

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The Missouri Medicaid environment:

Missouri’s GOP legislature has been adamant that they will never take up the Obamacare offer to provide health care coverage for poor Missourians by expanding Medicaid coverage. In fact, they’re trying to jump the gun on Trumpcare’s not-so-stealthy attack on Medicaid with SB28, which  would request “a global waiver from HHS to transform the state’s Medicaid into a block grant program, which would be federally capped and adjusted for inflation, state gross domestic product, population growth and other factors.” This move would , according to health care advocacy groups, “cut necessary funding for healthcare services for Missouri’s most vulnerable citizens.”

The Good News

Given this anti-Medicaid predisposition in the state, it’s all the more surprising to learn that, thanks to Democratic former governor Jay Nixon, Missouri took aggressive advantage of the provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) (a.k.a. Obamacare), the 2703 grant program, that allocated funds so that 25 Missouri community medical centers could experiment with providing a wide range of coordinated – mental, physical, dental and counseling – services in a community “health home” environment. The results in Missouri have been wildly successful:

According to a review by the Missouri Department of Mental Health, the results of the 2703 grant program in that state have been impressive. The more than 23,000 Missourians who have received care under the health home initiative met or exceeded six of nine benchmark goals for disease management after the ACA-supported expansion. For patients with diabetes alone (America’s most costly disease, at approximately $332 billion a year), the number with controlled blood glucose levels rose from 18 percent to 61 percent. The percentage of patients with hypertension and cardiovascular disease who controlled their blood pressure went from 24 to 67 percent, and their good cholesterol levels soared from 21 to 56 percent. On the cost side, hospitalizations and emergency room visits for this group dropped 14 percent and 19 percent respectively. This saved the state $31 million just in the first year of the program, and the savings have continued, according to Natalie Fornelli, manager of integrated care at Missouri’s Division of Behavioral Health. In 2015, Missouri’s health home program won the American Psychiatric Association’s Gold Achievement Award for community health services. The program is now considered a national model.

The Bad News:

Under Trumpcare, the funding that supports these programs is likely to disappear:

At the national level, the fate of the 2703 program is also in doubt. It’s possible that, as Republican lawmakers in Washington and the Trump administration wrestle with the complexities of repealing and replacing Obamacare, they’ll conclude that failing to continue the 2703 grants will likely cost more in tax dollars than it saves, even as it would deprive hundreds of thousands of poor, mentally ill Americans the coordinated treatment that can save their lives. But, as Sidney Watson, a professor at the Saint Louis University School of Law and an expert on health care access for the poor, observes, Trump’s new Health and Human Services secretary, Tom Price, “has expressed a lot of skepticism about the Medicare and Medicaid demonstration centers.”

Tom Price? Skepticism? No kidding. They guy believes in freedom. Freedom to die, that is. As Politico notes, Price’s “vision for health reform hinges on eliminating much of the federal government’s role in favor of a free-market framework built on privatization, state flexibility and changes to the tax code.” He’s a member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a far right fringe medical group that declares Medicare “evil” and “immoral.” You can bet that they and their most prominent member, Tom Price, don’t think much of Medicaid either. The better a federal health program does, the more these fools believe it saps our moral fiber, inculcates dependency and undermines physician freedom – the  whole right wing drill, in other words..

Those of you who are calling your representatives and senators and begging them to save our health care, forget about the truly awful AHCA and maybe just fix Obamacare’s relatively minor problems, might also want to bring up the 2703 program and its proven success here in Missouri. Surely the Republicans can’t be so stupid that they’ll argue with success.  Or, on second thought, maybe they will.There is that whole Dump and Dupe AHCA effort. If that isn’t arguing with success – Obamacare increased the ranks of the insured by 20 million, after all – then I don’t know what is.

Trumpcare is bad but Trump hopes you won’t notice how bad it is if he talks about Obamacare instead

10 Friday Mar 2017

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I got the missive below in my email yesterday – Donald Trump’s first effort to come out swinging in favor of Paul Ryan’s Dump and Dupe Obamacare replacement. Notice that the staffers doing the President’s thinking White House’s healthcare PR outreach don’t have much to say about Trumpcare (a.k.a. Ryancare, the American Health Care Act or the AHCA) – which is understandable since the only parties that don’t hold Trumpcare in contempt are the bill’s two sponsors and Paul Ryan – and evidently Donald Trump who tweeted that it’s “wonderful” regardless of the fact that it violates every promise he made to his supporters about replacing Obamacare with something better.

So what do you do when you haven’t really got anything nice to say about the program you’re offering as a replacement for Obamacare? Why you keep on trashing Obamacare. You blast out emails like the one below – which I have presented below in sections annotated with italicized interpositions pointing out the more obvious lies and half-truths:

It’s been seven years since Obamacare was passed, and now, more than ever, we are seeing the harmful effects of this disastrous law.

Obamacare (ACA) insured 20 million previously uninsured people through Medicaid expansion and in the private individual health care market through the exchanges. It enacted a tax on those earning over $200,000/yr that shored up the Medicare system, extending its life by four years at this point – a gain that will be lost if the ACA is repealed in favor of the AHCA which eliminates that high-income tax. Some harmful effects!

Obamacare has led to higher costs and fewer health insurance options for millions of hard-working Americans. Independent analysis found 41 states faced higher average healthcare deductibles last year, with 17 states facing double-digit rate increases. Nearly one in five Americans have only one insurer offering Obamacare exchange plans.

In just the past year, Obamacare premiums have increased by 25 percent on the typical plan and coverage choices have dropped by 28 percent as insurers have left the market.

Obamacare did not negatively affect costs for those who receive insurance through their employers; in fact, it slowed the increasing price trajectory in the pre-Obamacare insurance industry. Premiums were rising by an average of 10% a year before Obamacare – and those who had serious illnesses could be charged considerably more – a practice that Obamacare ended. While premiums for those on the exchanges did increase considerably in 2017, the increase was offset by increased subsidies based on income – and consumers were able to use the exchanges to find competitive alternative insurers.

Things are only getting worse. This past year, nearly 20 million American citizens opted not to get healthcare insurance, with 6.5 million paying the penalty and millions more asking for a hardship exemption from the penalty.

Over 48 million people were uninsured before the major provisions of Obamacare took effect. Those with preexisting conditions can get affordable insurance and don’t face lifetime caps thanks to Obamacare. Seems like things have gotten better, not worse.

A higher penalty for refusing to buy insurance, along with more generous subsidies would have brought more younger, healthier people into the exchanges, which would, in turn, have incentivized more insurers to remain in the exchange. Republicans, however, refused to consider fixing these obvious problems. Congress could still decide to fix Obamacare instead of replacing it with the vastly inferior AHCA – a much worse system that will cost more and provide less – or nothing in many cases. But, given the GOP adherence to ideology over pragmatic policy, it’s not likely that a Republican-dominated congress would ever act to make the system better instead of worse

Americans were promised that Obamacare would bring down healthcare costs — that promise was broken. Americans were promised they could keep their healthcare plans under Obamacare – that promise was broken. Americans were promised that Obamacare would not raise taxes on the middle-class – that promise was broken.
The American people want change and President Donald J. Trump promised to repeal and replace this disaster. That is exactly what the President is working with Congress to achieve. Step up and support the repeal and replacement of Obamacare.

Obamacare did slow the growth of healthcare costs as we noted above. Its subsidies made insurance affordable for many in the individual market. Politifact rated the claim that Obamacare raised taxes on the middle class “mostly false,” noting that a few minor associated taxes, like those on tanning salons, might affect the middle class.

Obamacare had problems to be sure – but in most instances they could easily be fixed if Republican in congress were willing to work in good faith with Democrats to insure the program’s success.

So what about Trumpcare? Estimates are that it could leave more than 15,000 people who are currently insured under Obamacare without coverage, cause premiums to raise for even those in the employer-based market, and perhaps ultimately destroy the entire individual market. Pretty clear why the White House doesn’t want to talk about Trumpcare, but prefers to resort to the type of lies about Obamacare they’ve been peddling for the past seven years. Nancy LeTourneau best describes what we get in Trump’s surrender to the Republican ideology that he has ipso facto endorsed – despite his earlier promises to do the opposite:

This embrace of ideology over competence is exactly how we’ve arrived at a post-truth era. An abandonment of facts/data coupled with emotional appeals (often based on lies) have been the tools used to promote ideology. The Republican Party remains devoid of any principles based on the pragmatism of what works. It is possible that, in their zeal, they will be able to destroy Obamacare and maybe even pass their massive tax cuts for the most wealthy among us — all while ignoring the facts about what a disaster those policies will be.

*Formatting revised for readability, text with links to White House Web Page eliminated)  (3/11/2017; 11:31)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): get used to it

08 Wednesday Mar 2017

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The republicans in Congress have revealed Trumpcare. They’ve laid an egg.

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) [2016 file photo].

Via Twitter on Monday, from Representative Vicky Hartzler (r):

Rep. Vicky Hartzler‏ @RepHartzler
Folks all across my district are being hindered by high insurance costs. We can and should do better. #RepealAndReplace
5:29 PM – 6 Mar 2017

Some of the responses:

@RepHartzler If u support the GOP draft bill I just reviewed, u r soooo out of a job come Nov 6, 2018 and it’ll be Hell between now n then

@RepHartzler If that bill is what u meant by “access to health care”, u r totally out of touch w/ your constituents. Oh wait no town halls

@RepHartzler With respect, ma’am, how would you know if you never meet with people from your district?

@RepHartzler I’m in your district, and you have never held a town hall or spent time with your constituents that I can tell.

Hey @RepHartzler – how does screwing them over with HSA plans help them out at all? Oh right, it doesn’t. The replacement is a J-O-K-E

@RepHartzler Meet with the “folks” in your district sometime, you liar.

@RepHartzler do you think HSA’s are a fair or realistic solution for the people of Cass County? Do you know our average household income?

@RepHartzler Better? The new GOP bill favors young and wealthy over elderly and poor. How is that better? Hope you’re ready for a fight.

@RepHartzler, this plan will let ppl die and make rural hospitals fail.

@RepHartzler How will insurance costs go down for those who need it most?

@RepHartzler Once again you leave out the people in your district that ACA helped. LIES MATTER! Read your Bible about them

@RepHartzler Where is the CBO score, which shows cost and how many will lose their insurance and lives? You are not a Christian

@RepHartzler you sure don’t know your district

@RepHartzler The people of Boonville would like to invite you for a townhall on the subject. You name time and place.

That ain’t gonna happen.

Previously:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): just checking (February 20, 2017)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): Well, you asked. (February 21, 2017)

You think Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) has been smiling a lot this week? (February 23, 2017)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): just a slight indication of what an open public town hall in the district would be like (February 26, 2017)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): before that Russian thing happened today (March 2, 2017)

Roy Blunt will work to pass GOP Dump and Dupe healthcare plan

07 Tuesday Mar 2017

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Yesterday Republicans finally released their plan to dump Obamacare while duping Americans about how badly it’s going to hurt. And how badly will it hurt? Paul Waldman offers a quick summary of the most salient parts of this mess – in short, it will cut benefits for older and poorer people, cost them more, undermine the insurance market, undo Medicaid expansion, cut Planned Parenthood funding and drain Medicare sooner – but, hey, it will also give a big tax cut to the wealthy so it’s all good right?

And then there’s the question of its cost relative to the number of people it will deprive of insurance. A question that we can’t answer because Paul Ryan is intent on getting it out of committee and up for a vote before the Congressoinal Budget Office (CBO) has a chance to score it. It’s that bad.

Paul Krugman explains just how bad the GOP Dump and Dupe plan really is:

For the GOP proposal basically accepts the logic of Obamacare. It retains insurer regulation to prevent exclusion of people with preexisting conditions. It imposes a penalty on those who don’t buy insurance while healthy. And it offers tax credits to help people buy insurance. Conservatives calling the plan Obamacare 2.0 definitely have a point.

But a better designation would be Obamacare 0.5, because it’s really about replacing relatively solid pillars with half-measures, severely and probably fatally weakening the whole structure.

First, the individual mandate – already too weak, so that too many healthy people opt out – is replaced by a penalty imposed if and only if the uninsured decide to enter the market later. This wouldn’t do much.

Second, the ACA subsidies, which are linked both to income and to the cost of insurance, are replaced by flat tax credits which would be worth much less to lower-income Americans, the very people most likely to need help buying insurance.

Taken together, these moves would almost surely lead to a death spiral. …

Nothing here that’s too surprising. The GOP boxed itself into a corner, braying continuously about the horror that was Obamacare – which, in fact, incorporated many ideas devised by conservative thinkers at the Heritage Institute Foundation. Obamacare pumped all the workable ideas out  of the conservative idea well. Which why the repeal part of replace and repeal hasn’t gotten much attention from Republicans apart from bland assurances that all will be well. Of course, now that they have to come up with something, they don’t want to be left with the mess repeal and replace will inevitably create, so they’re twisting and turning and hoping to placate their base with dump and dupe.

Lots of observers think that this particular iteration of dump and dupe will die in the Senate if it even makes it that far – the super rightwing House Freedom Caucus rather emphatically doesn’t buy into the replace/dupe part of the exercise – they want straight out repeal or nothing. That assessment has been cautiously echoed by Missouri’s always cautious Roy Blunt, a junior member of the Senate leadership group:

“Well, I haven’t had time to look at it in great depth yet, so we’ll see,” Blunt said of the plan on KMBZ local radio Tuesday. “What I don’t like is it may not be a plan that gets a majority votes and let’s us move on. Because, we can’t stay where we are with the plan we’ve got now.”

Blunt said any final plan would need to be negotiated.

“I think the nucleus of the plan is clearly there and the President says it’s negotiable and so do House members,” he said. “So, I’ll be interested to be a part of that negotiation as we work toward a majority in the House and Senate that puts a bill on the President’s desk.”

There are two things we can unpack from this statement that tells us a lot about Roy Blunt:

1. Blunt’s priority is, as usual, the political ramifications – he doesn’t really care too much about the bill itself. He just wants to get something done so that he and his fellow corporate shills can get back to doing their real work serving the interests of the folks who write the campaign checks. He knows, though, that Republicans need to check this rather tiresome box off – the GOP’ has demonized Obamacare and promised to repeal it for so long that they have to deliver something or eat some very public crow.

2. Blunt tells us that he believes that “the nucleus of the plan is clearly there” and we can’t stay “where we are with the plan we’ve got now.” But if Obamacare is really so bad, why preserve its structure, the nucleus, I presume, while making it less effective and hurting thousands of his constituents in the process? Could it be that he just doesn’t care what it does or doesn’t do for Missourians?

Roy wants to be part of the process, the “negotiation,” going forward. And that fact should scare us. We know who Blunt is in congress to serve. And it isn’t those folks who finally got insurance under Obamacare. If the new dump and dupe plan is bad, its next iterations will probably be even worse, and we’ll have Roy Blunt and his cronies to thank for it.

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): before that Russian thing happened today

02 Thursday Mar 2017

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Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) [2016 file photo].

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) [2016 file photo].

This morning, from Representative Vicky Hartzler (r), via Twitter:

vickyhartzler030217

Rep. Vicky Hartzler‏ @RepHartzler
Obamacare has failed Americans. We must do better. I’m looking forward to making healthcare more affordable for ALL Americans. #BetterWay
10:03 AM – 2 Mar 2017

Much hilarity ensued. Some of the responses:

@RepHartzler why don’t you start with meeting your constituents? They have concerns.

I appreciate how @RepHartzler talks about ALL Americans, when she really means “ALL the wealthy Americans impacted by its taxes”

@RepHartzler @HouseGOP If you reall’y want to make healthcare affordable for all Americans you’d pass single payer healthcare #PartyOfDeath

@RepHartzler @HouseGOP there are a lot of people who would not be alive today if it were not for Obamacare. You’re wrong #PartyOfDeath

@RepHartzler @HouseGOP Congressional Rs have failed Americans. And have reveled in doing so.

@RepHartzler @HouseGOP Obamacare was undermined at every turn by the #PartyOfDeath the #GOP Killing Obamacare kills American citizens

@RepHartzler @HouseGOP When are you going to make yours public so we can make fun of it?

@RepHartzler @HouseGOP give us your health care plan!

@RepHartzler @HouseGOP the only thing failing the American people are the Republicans. Get it together. #investigaterussia #impeachtrump

@RepHartzler @HouseGOP Let me know when you have figured it out. So far the Rep’s have nothing. Fix and repair.

All they got was potentially life saving coverage they’d been previously denied, what a failure! Only millions got insured! @RepHartzler

@RepHartzler no it hasn’t. Maybe if u attended a town hall mtg you’d know better! My wife & I are both insured ONLY bc of #ACA

@RepHartzler Keep the Affordable Care Act.

@RepHartzler Obamacare has SAVED many American LIVES and helped many receive adequate medical care. IMPROVE, don’t DESTROY.

@RepHartzler HOW????

@RepHartzler @HouseGOP Awesome! Now can we get a few details about the new plan? PLEASE

@RepHartzler you have failed me. I voted for you. Bet i won’t repeat that mistake. We will remember you did NOTHING about #TrumpRussia

@RepHartzler @HouseGOP and Republicans are failing US!

@RepHartzler @HouseGOP the pain you all cause sick people nationwide daily is enormous #PartyOfDeath is this really who you want to be?

@RepHartzler @HouseGOP Obamacare has saved millions of Americans. Get back to work.

@RepHartzler Actually you and Republicans have failed to fix Obamacare to make it work. #TherewasaBetterWay

@RepHartzler you refuse to recognize the portions of the Affordable Care Act that are working because you’re playing partisan games

@RepHartzler please stop with the partial truths. There are portions of the ACA that are working well. why do you refuse to recognize that?

@RepHartzler Lying under oath also fails Americans – are you concerned about that? Or is it your typical #partybeforecountry?

@RepHartzler @HouseGOP My daughter will likely go to an early grave if the #PartyOfDeath repeals Obamacare.

@RepHartzler @HouseGOP Except if you have pre existing condition or older and don’t have a lot of money.

@RepHartzler @HouseGOP yeah, work on indictment against @jeffsessions, we must enforce existing laws #Sessions #indictsessions #Trumprussia

@RepHartzler @SpeakerRyan Actually #Obamacare saved my life : spreading Lies Vicky : We’ll hold you to word, cheaper would be free

@RepHartzler @HouseGOP didn’t fail my son who has a brain tumor, didn’t fail my mother who suffers from HEP C and had pre existing condition

@RepHartzler @HouseGOP Obamacare is not 100% failed..Obamacare give a health insurance care for American,Obamacare is good..Don’t repeal it.

@RepHartzler @SpeakerRyan Has it? It’s worked well for a member of my family. Perhaps you both should listen to ur constituents.

@RepHartzler @SpeakerRyan True but i can’t get enough of this Affordable Care Act, its working great.

Ah, sarcasm. I think.

@RepHartzler @SpeakerRyan it worked for me. stop lying

@RepHartzler @SpeakerRyan How in the hf has it failed Americans? You know what’s failed Americans? The goddam GOP.

@RepHartzler @SpeakerRyan keep talking healthcare while your POTUS admin implodes. This #russiagate is taking your legislative time away

@RepHartzler @SpeakerRyan Ahhh…Lyin Ryan has a new shill working for him…Don’t believe him, don’t believe you. Mid class gets hurt again

@RepHartzler @SpeakerRyan Same stale comments from R’s without any hint of an actual solution or plan. You’ve had years and have nothing!

@RepHartzler @SpeakerRyan – and your plan? Yeah…crickets. Sad!

@RepHartzler @SpeakerRyan you guys have no idea what you’re doing. Your ship is sinking. Speak out against #russiagate #FireSessions do it

@RepHartzler @SpeakerRyan Both of you have failed the wkg class. Yet you are yanking healthcare from the less fortunate for personal gain.

@RepHartzler @SpeakerRyan @HouseGOP @GOP
All talk, for 7 years, and have no plan & now understand that it’s complicated. Y’all are incapable

@RepHartzler @SpeakerRyan Aren’t you ashamed to be repeating a LIE? Oh, wait lying is a major Republican tool, they lie about EVERYTHING!

@RepHartzler @SpeakerRyan Well so far every plan you guys have floated will cause the deaths of thousands. #BloodOnYourHands #KeepTrying

@RepHartzler @SpeakerRyan well you had seven years to come up with it so let’s see it. That’s right, nothing!! you have nothing!!#LIAR

@RepHartzler @SpeakerRyan #ACA saved my life. Got free check-up, boom, cancer found. Had not been able to get insurance for 5 yrs prior.

@RepHartzler @SpeakerRyan What you really mean is tax cuts for the rich can’t be done unless you remove the ACA subsidy…which will force millions to lose healthcare

@RepHartzler @SpeakerRyan a secret way that no one can read yet?

@RepHartzler @SpeakerRyan 7 years. Times up!! Let’s see your great plan that doesn’t leave millions without health insurance. Waiting……

@RepHartzler @GOP has had years and years to come up with something. All they did was vote over 60 times to repeal ACA-unsuccessfully.

@RepHartzler @HouseGOP ALL Americans, except for women. They’re just pre-existing conditions. Or ‘hosts’.

@RepHartzler You have an AG who just lied under oath and you’re doing jack. *YOU* have failed Americans. Can we repeal you? Greedy, no-good hack. #GTFO

@RepHartzler YOUR PARTY IS FAILING AMERICANS. It’s an embarrassment and a complete perversion of American decency. #goodbye

@RepHartzler Saying it over and over doesn’t make it true. Everyone I know has been helped by Obamacare. Stop forcing it to fail.

@RepHartzler @SpeakerRyan Your plan must be crap or you wouldn’t be hiding it from the American people!

@RepHartzler @SpeakerRyan in all seriousness please tell me how the ACA has failed Americans. Especially those with pre-existing condition

@RepHartzler @SpeakerRyan It’s worked pretty well for me.

@RepHartzler @SpeakerRyan I’m looking forward to the day Repub actually do something for average Americans, whats ur plan genius?

An optimist.

Previously:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): just checking (February 20, 2017)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): Well, you asked. (February 21, 2017)

You think Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) has been smiling a lot this week? (February 23, 2017)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): just a slight indication of what an open public town hall in the district would be like (February 26, 2017)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): just a slight indication of what an open public town hall in the district would be like

26 Sunday Feb 2017

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Only a slight indication.

Friday, via Twitter, from Representative Vicky Hartzler (r):

vickyhartzler022417

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler
We want every American to have access to affordable, quality health insurance that meets their needs. [….]
9:05 AM – 24 Feb 2017

The Faux News Channel? Really, republicans are still beating that dead horse?

A significant (and representative) chunk of the responses:

@RepHartzler 3 generations making America great. Marchers we’re not a “pornographic fringe.” You’re embarrassing.

@RepHartzler I have a question about the “pornographic signs” at Women’s March & other demonstrations. Were they more offensive than this? [Donald Trump audio quote]

@RepHartzler “Having access to” doesn’t mean “having” #healthcare – nice buzzwords, though.#GOPFail #SaveACA #DoYourJob #Resistance

@RepHartzler and you claim this with a giant Fox News logo? Seriously? How about finding out what your Constituents really want?

@RepHartzler do your job! Represent the people not special interests! Investigate AND impeach the Putin puppet. or are you in on coverup?

@RepHartzler You care so much about healthcare that you didn’t show up at the Healthcare #Townhall constituents invited you to. #WheresVicky

@RepHartzler Why don’t you actually talk to your constituents about health care instead of calling us names?

@RepHartzler Why not fix the problems with the system and move on? #affordablecareact #norepeal

@RepHartzler the radical fringe is Bannon-45 & you!

@RepHartzler as soon as you mention Fox News , you are disqualified from having any credibility. ps. DO YOUR JOB HOLD TOWNHALL MEETINGS!

@RepHartzler Are you with your people at CPAC today and waving your Russian Trump flag?

@RepHartzler so glad to hear you will protect Americans’ rights to affordable health care and keep the ACA in place! Thank you.

That may have been sarcasm. These days it can be difficult to tell the difference.

@RepHartzler Then repair ACA and leave it alone.

@RepHartzler “What’s not been reported” is your delusion. @womensmarch signs varied. Some cheeky, some provocative, ALL you should read.

@RepHartzler instead of doing a town hall and facing your constituents you write an opinion piece? Horrendous. More to follow.

@RepHartzler Key word being access. Still trying to reach your office with my concerns but your mail full now for 3 days. Do your job!

Yeah, funny that.

@RepHartzler called ur office EVERY DAY 4 2 weeks no answer on why no town hall & now banned press…I vow to see u OUT OF OFFICE

@RepHartzler IF that were true you would demand a better plan than Better Way which only benefits insurance companies & others.

We can’t wait for the next open public town hall in the district. If something like that will ever happen again.

Previously:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): just checking (February 20, 2017)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): Well, you asked. (February 21, 2017)

You think Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) has been smiling a lot this week? (February 23, 2017)

What does Governor Greitens have in common with the Liar-in-Chief?

04 Saturday Feb 2017

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Did the title give it away? Do you think the commonality shared by Jefferson City’s GOP Boy Wonder and the Orange Buffoon might have something to do with a willingness to exploit the reptilian brain of the base by presenting made-up stories to explain unpleasant facts? Stories that shift blame by exploiting carefully nurtured negative, emotionally evocative connotations? Stories like the one Governor Greitens told when he claimed Missouri’s budget shortfall is due to Obamacare?

There’s no rightwing buzzword with greater negative emotive impact for the red meat base than “Obamacare” – or at least that’s been true in the past. Now that it might disappear, however, lots of folks are experiencing a newfound appreciation for the ACA, a.k.a. Obamacare. Which is why GOPers are also desperate to paint the by-and-large successful initiative as a dead-on failure – that, they hope, will make it easer when they do repeal with no meaningful replace, and the masses, including their prone-to-snarl base, lose their insurance and start dropping like the flies they might as well be when it comes to the consideration they can expect from members of the Great Orange Pumpkin party.

These facts likely explain why our novice Governor tried to blame Missouri’s budget shortfall and the very nasty cuts he’s made on Obamacare. But they don’t make his lie right. Either Baby Big Chief hopes to pull the wool over our eyes, or he isn’t quite as smart as he’s cracked up to be. Despite the bushwa he’s trying to sell, Obamacare had nothing to do with the two cost factors he, or at least his spokespeople, cite:

1. Increases in Medcaid caseload: It’s likely that publicity for Obamacare resulted in more Medicaid applications, but it seems to me that the guilty party here is really the Missouri Republican party, not Obamacare:

  • The Missouri GOP legislature refused the federal (Obamacare) Medicaid expansion.
  • Medicaid expansion would have saved the state $100 million a year.
  • Medicaid expansion would have accommodated even more growth than the increase – mostly needy children – that the state is now struggling to cover

2. Soaring pharmaceutical prices: Here we have two villains only peripherally related to Obamacare –greedy Big Pharma and the Republicans who enabled them by throwing hissy fits about not including pharmaceutical cost controls back when Obamacare was being formulated and there was still some foolish hope that a few GOPers would come on board:

  • Obamacare at its inception failed to build in regulation of prescription drug prices, and proposals to use Medicare’s clout to bargain down drug prices were mooted thanks to persisitent aforesaid GOP vapors over “big gubment” intrusion.
  • Unregulated Big Pharma decided to milk the market for all its worth.
  • Many new drugs have come onto the market with sky-high and higher prices
  •  P.S. It’s a problem that could be fixed were saner minds ever to prevail.

And guess what? Both of these problems will continue to get worse if Obamacare goes away. Greitens just doesn’t seem to understand or refuses to acknowledge the real problem behind his budget troubles:

These budget cuts are a big deal. Tax cuts have been a disaster – one that Greitens threatens to make worse. State spending had been pared down to the bone before we ever heard of Eric Greitens. If he goes ahead and returns value for dollars to all those dark-money and upfront donors who funded his campaign and cuts taxes even more, it’s gonna be hello to that raggedy-ass Kansas state of being. If you think today’s cuts are bad, just wait. Greiten’s wealthy donors will make out big and the rest of us will bear the costs. And worst of all for Governor Baby Boy, he may not have a fanciful Obamacare crutch to lean on .

There is that one small detail

13 Friday Jan 2017

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Jason Kander (D) [2016 file photo].

Jason Kander (D) [2016 file photo].

This evening, via Twitter:

kander011317

Jason Kander ‏@JasonKander
Once you acknowledge repealing ACA instead of improving it will cause some Americans to lose their lives, what more is there to argue about?
7:13 PM – 13 Jan 2017

We already know the answer to that.

Previously:

If you get sick, just die already. (January 11, 2017)