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Tag Archives: AHCA

Ann Wagner – voice of the vulnerable?

18 Tuesday Jul 2017

Posted by willykay in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

AHCA, Ann Wagner, Backpage.com, Claire McCaskill, Obamacare, Sex ads, Sex trafficking, Trumpcare

Got the latest email newsletter from my congressional representative, Rep. Ann Wagner (R-2). And just about fell out of my chair laughing. First sentence: “Since I first came to Congress, I have dedicated myself to being a voice for the most vulnerable in our society.”

This, coming from the woman who giddily warbled “freedom” after she helped pass an Obamacare replacement that would throw over 20 million people off their health insurance, is too rich for words.

Coming from the woman whose main raison d’etre as a legislator has been to deprive elderly retirees of financial safeguards that would prevent unethical investment counselors from taking dishonest advantage, it’s nothing less than shameful. (Of course, she’s now got a $3 million campaign pot in large part thanks to grateful bankers, financiers and investment professionals so I guess duplicity is its own reward.)

What Wagner’s on about is her work to put a halt to advertising Website Backpage.com’s illegal sex ads and against its role in human trafficking – a worthwhile target for legislators. Wagner, along with the many Democratic and Republican lawmakers, notably Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill, who have worked on this issue, deserve credit for their efforts. Most recently, Wagner has written to the Justice Department to try and get them investigate potential criminal activity on the part of the Website. So has Claire McCaskill.

Of course, if you only read Wagner’s newsletters, you’d think she invented the struggle against sex trafficking. Is the only time GOPers use the word “bipartisan” when they want to attack Democrats for not being bipartisan enough? I can only attribute the self-applause to the fact that maybe Wagner thinks that if she doesn’t grandstand, her rare effort on behalf of the vulnerable might be overwhelmed by her more typical advocacy for the comfortable.

 

Promises, promises …

05 Wednesday Jul 2017

Posted by willykay in Uncategorized

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Tags

ACA, AHCA, Obamacare, Repeal and Replace, republicans, Trumpcare

At this point, Republicans have been reduced to trying to justify stripping healthcare from millions of Americans, including large numbers of working class Republicans, by claiming that they are helpless to do otherwise; they have to “repeal” and – maybe – “replace” Obamacare because they’ve spent the last seven years promising their base they would do away with all such remnants of that black Kenyan’s presidency.

As if the only voters that matter are the so-called base – voters who represent a largish segment of the smallish 30% of Americans who currently identify as Republicans. Anyway, it isn’t as if the members of the Grand Old Party have had any problem breaking other promises. They usually just figure out a way to reframe it or divert attention, and their compliant base mostly goes along.

It’s a fact that repealing Obamacare doesn’t fare well when the full range of actual public opinion is taken into account. Obamacare’s popularity has been growing since the election of Donald Trump put it in peril, until, finally, by March, one could safely say that Obamacare had become more popular than Donald Trump. By the end of June 51-53% of poll respondents said that Congress ought to leave Obamacare in place and/or fix its very fixable problems. Republicans are still negative, but their disapproval, ginned up as it was in the first place, by politicians seeking to sabotage an elected Democratic president, is showing signs that it may waver once the real repercussions are felt.

Replacing Obamacare, in the form of the various Trumpcare iterations produced by Congress, does even worse. In a poll produced at the end of June, just 12% of those polled supported the replacement plans. Other polls find approval ranging from the aforementioned 12% to 18%. Given those numbers, there have got to be lots of even “base” Republicans who don’t think that the GOP is going in the right direction in their efforts to replace the bill.

So much for repeal and replace and promises.

Yet the GOP is going full-throttle toward repealing an imperfect, but functional healthcare plan and replacing it with a widely loathed disaster because … they promised.

So what gives? Do Republicans have a political death wish?

Maybe not. Stop and think: just who plays the bills for Republicans in congress – who are the the people dropping million dollar campaign donations and funding secretive super PACs?

Maybe the promise that Republicans are so hot to keep has nothing to do with the easily manipulated read-meat base, but the people who, in these Post- Citizens United days, pay the bills, the Richie Riches, otherwise known as the oligarchy. The very people who will benefit from the tax cut that Trumpcare funds by slashing Medicaid, one of the most significant components of Trumpcare. The tax cut that many – including Trump – believe to the the first stepping stone to a tax code that only a billionaire can truly love.

Fine. But, please, could the rest of us stop treating the blather about promises and the Republican base as if it has anything to do with reality.

*First sentence in the penultimate paragraph slightly edited.

Talking about health care at Sen. Jerry Moran’s (r) office in Olathe, Kansas – June 28, 2017 – signs of the times

29 Thursday Jun 2017

Posted by Michael Bersin in Resist, US Senate

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

ACA, AHCA, Indivisible, Jerry Moran, Kansas, Obamacare, Olathe, Trumpcare

Yesterday at 4:00 p.m. one hundred fifty constituents showed up at the Olathe, Kansas office of Senator Jerry Moran (r) to express their opposition to the republican Senate Trumpcare bill. A few of the signs:

“Resist”

“Mean, heartless, deplorable”

“First, do no harm”

“We will not be silenced”

“Being a woman is not a pre-existing condition”

“Medicaid saves lives”

“Wrong!”

“Medicare for All”

“…because we are poor”

Those bundled campaign contributions make a difference.

Previously:

Talking about health care… (June 20, 2017)

Roy Blunt tells it like it isn’t (June 23, 2017)

Talking about health care at Sen. Roy Blunt’s (r) office in Kansas City – June 23, 2017 (June 23, 2017)

A Sen. Roy Blunt (r) health care story (June 23, 2017)

Talking about health care at Sen. Roy Blunt’s (r) office in Kansas City – June 23, 2017 – signs of the times (June 24, 2017)

Talking about health care at Sen. Jerry Moran’s (r) office in Olathe, Kansas – June 28, 2017 (June 28, 2017)

Talking about health care at Sen. Jerry Moran’s (r) office in Olathe, Kansas – June 28, 2017

28 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by Michael Bersin in Resist, US Senate

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

#resist, ACA, AHCA, Indivisible KC, Jerry Moran, Kansas, Obamacare, Olathe, repeal, Trumpcare

At 4:00 p.m. today close to one hundred fifty individuals showed up outside Senator Jerry Moran’s (r) Olathe, Kansas office on College Boulevard to express their opposition to the republican Senate Trumpcare bill.

“Repealing the ACA will kill Kansans”

“Love trumps money”

“Trump doesn’t care”

“Vote no on any version of Trumpcare”

“Heal Don’t Repeal”

“…the most efficient accessible healthcare”

“Trumpcare is fake healthcare”

As at previous Indivisible demonstrations individuals told their health care stories.

A health care story.

“…Trumpcare is bad for us!”

In the median on College Boulevard:

“Healthcare is a right, not a privilege”

“Single payer now…”

Indivisible organizer.

Previously:

Talking about health care… (June 20, 2017)

Roy Blunt tells it like it isn’t (June 23, 2017)

Talking about health care at Sen. Roy Blunt’s (r) office in Kansas City – June 23, 2017 (June 23, 2017)

A Sen. Roy Blunt (r) health care story (June 23, 2017)

Talking about health care at Sen. Roy Blunt’s (r) office in Kansas City – June 23, 2017 – signs of the times (June 24, 2017)

Talking about health care at Sen. Roy Blunt’s (r) office in Kansas City – June 23, 2017 – signs of the times

24 Saturday Jun 2017

Posted by Michael Bersin in Resist, US Senate

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

#resist, AHCA, Indivisible KC, Kansas City, missouri, Roy Blunt, Trumpcare

Yesterday at noon over fifty constituents showed up at the building entrance for Senator Roy Blunt’s (r) Kansas City office at Tenth and Walnut to express their opposition to the republican Senate Trumpcare bill. A few of the signs:

“Public Hearing”

“Save ACA”

“Oppose Trump Care”

“Affordable Healthcare is a Human Right”

“Quit Putin Party Over Country”

Watching – staff from Senator Roy Blunt’s (r) Kansas City office.

At Tenth and Walnut in Kansas City – June 23, 2017.

Previously:

Talking about health care… (June 20, 2017)

Roy Blunt tells it like it isn’t (June 23, 2017)

Talking about health care at Sen. Roy Blunt’s (r) office in Kansas City – June 23, 2017 (June 23, 2017)

A Sen. Roy Blunt (r) health care story (June 23, 2017)

A Sen. Roy Blunt (r) health care story

23 Friday Jun 2017

Posted by Michael Bersin in US Senate

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

ACA, AHCA, Hillary Shields, missouri, Roy Blunt, Trumpcare

We listened to Hillary Shields’ story this afternoon:

Hillary Shields: Okay, so my name is Hillary Shields. I’m an organizer with Indivisible KC. And back in January we started collecting people’s health care stories. We turned them into a hand made scrap book because we wanted to put a human face on how these changes to the health care law would affect people in Missouri.

So, last week I was in Washington, D.C. and I had a chance to share this with Senator [Roy] Blunt. I went to his constituent coffee and I put it right in front of him.

I told him about Izzy. Izzy is nine years old, she’s from Lee’s Summit, and she has cystic fibrosis. He was gonna hit her lifetime coverage cap when she was two years old. She was not going to be able to get any more care. I told, I told him about her because I wanted him to know what these changes would do to his constituents. He listened. He asked me a couple of questions about how Izzy was doing, but he basically walked away from me just as quick as he could. And it kind of said to me I don’t think he’s really paying attention to what’s gonna happen to people in Missouri.

Uh, I had a chance to talk to his, uh, health care, uh, counsel and his chief of staff. Um, I spent about an hour, actually, going through the health care scrap book with them and telling them about the stories in here. And also telling them about my own story.

Um, I have a family member who has serious mental problems. And I told them that when you’re hearing voices the idea that you’re going to maintain continuous insurance coverage the rest of your life is ridiculous. He bounces around from job to job, sometimes he’s insured, sometimes he’s not. But I want a system that will take care of him no matter what.

And I, I think sometimes those personal stories get through more than anything else that you can say. But I still worry that my senator is going to vote against the interests of me and my friends and my family.

So, I hope that looking at this book maybe made some impact on him. I don’t know that it did.

Previously:

Talking about health care… (June 20, 2017)

Roy Blunt tells it like it isn’t (June 23, 2017)

Talking about health care at Sen. Roy Blunt’s (r) office in Kansas City – June 23, 2017 (June 23, 2017)

Talking about health care at Sen. Roy Blunt’s (r) office in Kansas City – June 23, 2017

23 Friday Jun 2017

Posted by Michael Bersin in Resist, US Senate

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

#resist, AHCA, health care, Indivisible KC, Kansas City, Roy Blunt, Trumpcare

At noon today over fifty constituents showed up at the building entrance for Senator Roy Blunt’s (r) Kansas City office at Tenth and Walnut to express their opposition to the republican Senate Trumpcare bill.

Individuals in turn told their health insurance stories and the challenges they will face with repeal of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

“RIP Financial Security”

“AHCA = Tax Cuts for the Rich”

“Stop Lying”

“Health Care is a Right”

A staffer from Senator Blunt’s (r) office came to take notes.

Listening – staff (center) from Senator Roy Blunt’s (r) Kansas City office.

“RIP Essential Health Benefits”

“Medicaid saves lives”

Reflection

The action, sponsored by Indivisible KC, lasted an hour.

Previously:

Talking about health care… (June 20, 2017)

Roy Blunt tells it like it isn’t (June 23, 2017)

Roy Blunt tells it like it isn’t

23 Friday Jun 2017

Posted by willykay in Uncategorized

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

AHCA, missouri, Obamacare, Roy Blunt, Senate health care bill

The Senate yesterday released its version of Trumpcare – they hope to vote on it next week and some members of the House have already indicated that they’ll pass it “as is” without calling for reconciliation. If all goes according to plan, the idiot signing machine in the White House could have it on his desk by the end of next week. It is, needless to say, not just the truly bad piece of legislation that the secrecy surrounding its inception promised, but one with the potential to do real, actual, bodily harm to millions of Americans.

Those of us who hope to influence our senators to save us from this horror shouldn’t hope for too much. It does, although, go without saying that those of us in Missouri can count on our Democrat, Senator Claire McCaskill – an expectation that she has confirmed. But according to a whip count at The Hill, it seems that Senate GOP junior leadership figure, Senator Roy Blunt, is also living up to what were, admittedly, meagre expectations.

The Hill has Blunt leaning “yes” on the legislation, the “leaning” inferred from Blunt’s wiggle-room statement to the effect that he’s “still reviewing the bill.” Yeah. Sure. More likely waiting to see if potential public outcry causes the sky to fall and the earth to crumble beneath him, the only two events that would keep Blunt from kissing up to the senior GOP leadership.

Blunt’s intentions are clear when, according to The Hill, he states, despite not having yet “reviewed” the bill, that it “preserves access to care for people with pre-existing conditions, strengthens Medicaid and does not change Medicare, gives people more health insurance choices, and allows people to stay on their family health insurance plan until they are 26.”

And almost every part of that statement is pure BS. Almost. It is true that the Senate bill, like the House bill, preserves the Obamacare provision that allows those under 26 years old to stay on their parents healthcare. As for the the rest of his claims, perhaps we should take a closer look:

Blunt says that the Senate bill “preserves access to care for people with pre-existing conditions.” Well, no. The Senate bill allows states to define what “essential” services must be covered by insurance – potentially allowing states to strip out problematic illnesses. The reinstatement of lifetime and annual caps will also curtail treatment options for those with chronic, expensive illnesses such as cancer – and will, because of the way the law is written, affect those who get employer-based insurance as well as those in the individual market served by the Obamacare exchanges. Nobody’s safe when these guys get their hands on the legislative meat-cleaver.

Blunt says that the Senate bill “strengthens Medicaid.” Tricky, tricky. It’s true that Medicaid will probably cost less in the long run. That’s because it will serve millions fewer people. The Obamacare Medicaid expansion, responsible for giving more than 11 million people healthcare coverage, will begin to be rolled back in 2021 and be terminated by 2023. Traditional Medicaid will receive increasingly smaller and smaller amounts of federal funding. That means throwing large numbers of poor children, seniors in nursing homes, and the disabled, people who in large numbers now depend on Medicaid, out into the uninsured cold.

If the reason for denying health care to so many vulnerable Americans were to strengthen the program, the money that is saved would be plowed back into the Medicaid program. But guess what? Republicans are going to use the cuts to give those in the top brackets a great big tax cut. Roy Blunt, essentially, wants us to believe that when rich folks pay lower taxes, Medicaid is strengthened.

Blunt says that the Senate bill “does not change Medicare.” This must be why the AARP has already issued a statement denouncing the bill , declaring that, “the Senate bill also cuts funding for Medicare which weakens the programs ability to pay benefits and leaves the door wide open to benefit cuts and Medicare vouchers.” The AARP release also notes that the Senate bill institutes what it calls an “Age Tax, which would allow insurance companies to charge older Americans five times more for coverage than everyone else while reducing tax credits that help make insurance more affordable.”

Finally, Blunt says that the Senate bill “gives people more health insurance choices.” If by more choices Blunt means greater availability of poorer coverage at an higher price, he may be correct. But maybe not. Since the Senate bill, like the House bill before it, does away with mandates, on individuals as well as business with more than 50 employees, reduces insurer subsidies, reduces benchmark plans to an actuarial value of 58% as opposed to the 70% mandated by Obamacare, and increases deductibles and copays, it is likely to destabilize and weaken, if not outright destroy, the individual market. And – poof – there go your choices, even the bad choices Blunt thinks will do for the hoi polloi.

Slippery Senator Blunt: What I hear loud and clear is Senator Blunt saying that, sure, he’s going to vote with the leadership to take health care away from millions of Americans in order to give a big tax cut to his wealthy campaign donors. But he’s going to be very careful about how he talks about the legislation and what it does and doesn’t do. No flies on this guy – he’s read his Orwell. You’ll always be able to count on GOP aparatchiks like Roy Blunt to tell it like it isn’t.

Talking about health care…

20 Tuesday Jun 2017

Posted by Michael Bersin in US Senate

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

ACA, AHCA, Claire McCaskill, Constituents, health care, Indivisible KC, Kanss City, missouri, Trumpcare

At noon a dozen constituents stopped by Senator Claire McCaskill’s (D) Kansas City office (in Westport) to share their concerns about Trumpcare with the senator’s staff.

“Dissent is patriotic” – gathering in front of Senator Claire McCaskill’s Kansas City office.

The group was organized by Indivisible KC. At noon they were ushered into a conference room with Brook Balantine, Senator Mccaskill’s Deputy Regonal Director, who took notes and answered questions. The meeting lasted an hour.

Brook Balantine, Deputy Regional Director for Senator Claire McCaskill (D).

Individuals offered their personal health care stories and shared their concerns about Trumpcare and the Trumpcare iteration still working its way secretly through the republican controlled U.S. Senate.

They told Senator McCaskill’s staff that they expect and trust that she will actively oppose Trumpcare and its devastating impact on the health care and health care access for millions of Americans.

Previously:Senator Claire McCaskill (D): press availability – Parkville, Missouri – April 13, 2017 (April 14, 2017)

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D): on Zombie Trumpcare – May 6, 2017 (May 7, 2018)

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D): on Trump’s policies and Missouri – May 6, 2017 (May 8, 2017)

Does telling the truth get Republicans killed?

17 Saturday Jun 2017

Posted by willykay in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

AHCA, Mike Bost, Obamacare, Trumpcare

Today on a local St. Louis NPR program, “St. Louis on the Air,” Illinois GOP Rep. Mike Bost decried the violent rhetoric that likely contributed to the deadly shooting in Washington D.C. yesterday where Louisiana Republican, Rep. Scalise, was critically injured. Quite appropriately. However, Bost’s approach to that rhetoric was, as we have come to expect from Republicans, a bit skewed and more than a little self serving.

When asked about the contributions of Donald Trump to the hateful political environment, he brushed off the carefully phrased question although he magnanimously claimed that “both sides” are guilty. His most telling example of hateful rhetoric: The fact that progressives have truthfully pointed out that should anything like the American Health Care Act (AHCA) become law, it will kill people – a line I suspect we’ll hear freqently over the next few days as Republicans cynically attempt to use yesterday’s Washington gun violence to evade responsibility for their AHCA vote.

Never mind that the person responsible for the carnage was a deranged and angry individual who, thanks to NRA-inspired gun laws, was easily able to acquire powerful and deadly weapons. If the shooting has anything at all to do with open acknowledgment of the realities of the AHCA, then perhaps Republicans should try to figure out why their effort to throw people out into the uninsured cold excites such intense anger. It might not just be the fault of the rhetoric.

I’ll admit freely that I’ve said that the AHCA as it now stands will kill people. And I’m going to keep on saying it. It’s true.

Last February, Vox did an analysis of the various studies that have attempted to determine the number of additional deaths that we can expect to see if the expanded insurance coverage offered by Obamacare is withdrawn. The authors concluded that 24,000 extra people will die yearly, more “than are killed by firearm homicides, HIV and skin cancer each year.” If anything remotely like the House’s version of the AHCA comes out of the Senate, more people will be without coverage than before we had Obamacare. So yes, the GOP’s mean-minded fiddling with health care will likely kill people.

Before we start apologizing for speaking the brutal truth about the brutal consequences of depriving millions of Americans of healthcare, we need self-righteous lawmakers like Mike Bost to tell us just which facts are in dispute, or, alternatively, why we should tiptoe around the facts. Just because Republicans don’t want to have to deal with the angry fallout of passing deadly legislation is no justification for silence.

I suspect that Bost couldn’t give us a satisfactory answer if asked to defend the AHCA. When asked by Vox reporters, it turned out that eight Republican Senators couldn’t “answer simple and critical questions about the health care bill they’re crafting in secret. Some still can’t say what it’s trying to do — other than garner enough votes to pass the Senate — or how they believe it will improve the American health care system.”

But incoherent little fools like Mike Bost are willing to say that telling the truth about what he and his Republican House colleagues propose to do amounts to hateful rhetoric and that that rhetoric is responsible for the fact that Rep. Scalise in in critical condition in a hospital. Insult to injury: Bost makes this claim while evading any effort to assign any blame to the GOP-cultivated gun culture.

People, left, right and center, are very willing to decry the lack of civility in current politics. But I fail to understand how civility could withstand the excesses of a GOP determined to serve the demands of the top 20% of Americans at the expense of the rest of us. Civility is the least of it. Let us be honest about what’s happening to us. Despair breeds anger. That’s the way it is.

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