18 Sunday Jun 2017
Posted in social media, US Senate
Tags
Roy Temple @roytemple
Live coverage of the public GOP Senate health care deliberations.
[….]
6:13 PM – 18 Jun 2017
Roy Temple wins the Internets today.
17 Saturday Jun 2017
Posted in Uncategorized
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the number of additional deaths that we can expect to see if the expanded insurance coverage offered by Obamacare is withdrawn.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.
30 Tuesday May 2017
Posted in Uncategorized
Maybe it’s just me, but Ann Wagner (R-2) seems a bit defensive about her “full-throated” support of the latest House health care abomination, the American Health Care Act (AHCA). In the latest, mostly anodyne, installment of Rep. Ann Wagner’s regular constituent email newsletter, she indulged in a little victory dance on what she evidently hopes will be one more shovelful of dirt on the grave of Obamacare:
Last week, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City announced that it is leaving the Obamacare exchange, leaving approximately 30,000 Missourians without health insurance. It is unacceptable that 25 counties will have no health insurance option next year. Additionally, the Department of Health and Human Services released a report showing that because of Obamacare, monthly insurance premiums for Missouri families have skyrocketed 145% since 2013.
Obamacare has failed Missouri families, and politicians who continue to defend this broken system are ignoring their needs. Washington created this nightmare, and the solution is not more government health insurance from Washington, D.C. The answer is to make the American Health Care Act law and give Missouri families—not Washington bureaucrats—freedom and control over their own healthcare decisions.
You can quibble with her figures. Other sources say that only 19,000 people in Missouri stand to lose BCBS coverage. – what’s a little GOP number fudging amount to in the Trump era after all – but Wagner’s right about the effect of insurers leaving the market. The situation for Obamacare isn’t good. But you already knew that. There are, however, a couple of points she and fellow GOP hustlers, such as Senator Roy Blunt, have neglected to mention.
… This whole dynamic shows that one of the leading GOP health care talking points is also complete nonsense. Paul Ryan loves to say that Republicans are performing a “rescue mission” by stepping in to save people from the allegedly collapsing ACA by replacing it, and that they don’t want any people to be hurt in the transition. As it is, their “rescue mission” would result in 23 million people losing insurance over 10 years, and in soaring premiums for sick people, with many priced out of the market. But that aside, if their own stated goal is to avoid hurting people during the transition, it’s unclear why they would not fund the CSRs, since the failure to do so is going to hurt untold numbers of them.
2. In The Atlantic Olga Khazan argues that “there is one thing Republicans usually leave out of their indictment of Obamacare, though: Insurers might have been less likely to exit if more states had expanded Medicaid under Obamacare.” The reasons behind this claim are complex and I suggest that if you’re interested, you should read the article which presents persuasive evidence that, as a Kaiser Family Foundation study on the subject asserts “state policy decisions – in particular, on Medicaid expansion and allowing transitional (“grandmothered”) plans to continue for a period of time – have had an effect on the risk pool in the private individual market.” Missouri, of course, was too ideologically blinkered or too spiteful towards President Obama to expand Medicaid. And the sins of the leaders are always visited on the citizens.
Given the dishonest pablum that we receive from elected representatives like Ann Wagner and the rest of the Missouri GOP contingent, somebody has to get the story out about what these heartless liars are up to. They don’t get to harm so many Americans without taking responsibility for what they are doing. In the words of Khazan, “Republicans might live to see the Obamacare “death spiral” they have long been prophesying. But insurance markets don’t just collapse on their own. Decisions by states, Congress, and the Trump administration can—and have—given them a hefty nudge.”
And maybe the day of reckoning will soon be coming for Wagner and her ilk:
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is also running six-second, non-skippable YouTube ads targeting 12 Republicans who voted for the House bill: West Virginia Reps. Alex Mooney and McKinley, Indiana Reps. Todd Rokita and Luke Messer, Missouri Reps. Ann Wagner and Vicky Hartzler, Pennsylvania Reps. Mike Kelly and Lou Barletta, Rep. Pat Tiberi (Ohio), Rep. Evan Jenkins (WV.), Rep. Kevin Cramer (N.D.) and Rep. Fred Upton (Mich.)
Couldn’t happen to better people. After years of trying to buoy up our Missouri Democrats to withstand such ads coming from conservative groups, it’ll be great fun to watch Wagner – and the equally reprehensible Hartzler – take some heat.
25 Thursday May 2017
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
AHCA, Betsy DeVos, College loan programs, Obamacae, Pre-existing conditions, Roy Blunt, Russia, Tele-Town hall, town halls, Trumpcare, VA Choice Program, Veterans Administration
Missouri GOP Senator Roy Blunt entertained about 5000 constituents today (5/23) at one of the tele-town hall events that have become de rigeur for GOPers who want to avoid the messy give-and-take with outraged constituents that unpopular Republican policies can generate. When asked why he hadn’t met with some of us in person during last week’s congressional recess, Blunt huffed and puffed and observed that he had held some 2000 town halls during his last term – more than just about anyone else, he said. Of course, that was in the BT (Before Trump) Era and back in the days when, thanks to a Democratic majority in the Senate and President Obama’s veto pen, the GOP never had to face the worst consequences of their horrible policies.
My impression of the format? It worked. Blunt and his staff had total control; no matter what he said, there was no opportunity for pushback, no inconvenient follow-up questions. We often got to see hear him practice the fine art of political evasion. He did, to be honest, let us know where he stands on lots of issues – although, thanks to the controlled format, he was also able to leave lots unsaid. The highlights, as well as I can reconstruct them from my notes, including what was not said, follow below:
Trump Budget Proposal:
Biggest takeaway? Blunt really seems to want to distance himself from the Trump budget. When asked about specific cuts – in health care, jobs training programs and support for the new NGA headquarters slated for St. Louis – the latter two of which he promised to support vigorously – he noted that the budget was advisory only, and reminisced about the way GOPers had ignored Obama’s proposed budget. The implication was clear that they would do the same to Trump’s financial fiasco.
Veterans Administration:
Blunt did, without specifically pointing it out, endorse some key elements of the Trump Budget spending. He observed, for example, that he wanted to make it possible for veterans to get their treatment from private doctors by expanding the same “choice” option for which the Trump budget increases spending.
Left unsaid: Choice programs haven’t been an unequivocal success, partly because of hasty implementation, but also in terms of expense. They are opposed by some veterans groups that would prefer to see the funds used to bolster the VA hospital system instead.
Trumpcare: pre-existing conditions
When Blunt was asked about Trumpcare’s callous destruction of existing protections for pre-existing conditions, he first trotted out a somewhat garbled verson of the standard, but misleading GOP talking point about providing “access” to health care rather than insurance. He then, laudably, expressed sympathy for those who suffer from chronic illness. When, however, he said, and I paraphrase, that when one is healthy, one may have many problems, but when one is ill, there is only one problem and one focuses only on that illness, I got the impression that he wanted to suggest that pre-existing condition talk was somewhat beside the point. He then quickly shifted the emphasis to his past support for increased funds for medical research.
Left Unsaid: Blunt didn’t address how the six million chronically ill folks who may, under Trumpcare, be unable to afford insurance will get “access” to those new treatments that increased research funding may discover.
Obamacare
As part of what struck me as an implicit and awkward apology for Trumpcare, Blunt resorted to the GOP all-time go-to: Obamacare is failing. This is an attempt to deflect attention from Trumpcare that works only because it has become an article of faith for the GOP true believers, facts be damned. Insurers, Blunt claimed, are pulling out of the market, leaving a shambles where soon nobody will be able to get coverage.
Left Unsaid: Blunt did not point out that by refusing to either continue or deny CSRs (cost-sharing reductions), subsidies paid to insurers to help cover low-income individuals, President Trump is creating uncertainty that is causing insurers to consider leaving the Obamacare market and pushing them to steeply raise premiums . Insurer groups even wrote a letter to Trump imploring him to do something about the situation.
Trumpcare in the Senate
In response to a question about why Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell had said that he would not work with Democrats in fashioning the Senate Healthcare proposal, Blunt, after patting himself on the back for all his bipartisan initiatives, rather reasonably replied that Democrats weren’t willing to work with McConnell – which why would they? Obamacare is still superior to anything Republicans have proposed, after all.
Left Unsaid: Why is the Senate, all male, all Republican, working group so secretive about what they are planning – and why does it consist of some of the most rightwing, anti-Obamacare Senate members? Why aren’t Senators like Susan Collins (ME-R), who has proposed her own version of a replacement bill, included in the working group?
Student Debt
Blunt ignored the new Trump budget proposal as if it were really as irrelevant as he earlier indicated and boasted instead about current Pell grant funding increases and legislation that allowed students to use them year around. He said some nice words about how the federal government recognizes the desirability of creating a skilled citizenry, but, in so many words, said if you can’t pay back those huge educational loans, too bad, baby, you’re on your own.
Left Unsaid: What does he think of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ proposals to cut student loan funding, cut current debt forgiveness programs, cease government subsidies to pay student loan interest charges, and help students who fall behind in repayment?
Trump Russiagate scandal
Blunt is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and he was emphatic that Russian interference in U.S. elections needs to be investigated and all questions must be answered as a matter of national security. He stated, not surprisingly, that the best place for that to happen was the Intelligence Committee.
Left Unsaid: No mention was made of possible Trump campaign collusion with the Russians. Nor was any mention was made of the recently named Special Prosecutor, Robert Mueller, whose investigation, as far as Blunt’s presentation went, might not even exist.
Afternote
A gentleman asked about the “leakers” who so trouble Donald Trump. He observed that he could write a program himself and catch the miscreants, so why couldn’t the big-time government folks catch them and put them in jail where they belong? Blunt agreed that unsanctioned leaking was bad and might compromise security in some instances. To his credit, Blunt, unlike many of his GOP colleagues, did not minimize the RussiaGate scandal by suggesting that the real evil-doers were the whistleblowers.
Left unsaid: Blunt did not offer the questioner a job writing that program to catch the leakers. Wonder why.
*Typos corrected and format edited slightly (12.56 pm, 5/25/2017)
24 Wednesday May 2017
Posted in social media
Tags
4th Congressional District, ACA, AHCA, facebook, missouri, Obamacare, repeal, social media, Trumpcare, Vicky Hartzler
“…You and your Trump horrify me.”
Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) [2016 file photo].
Today via Facebook, from Representative Vicky Hartzler (r):
Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler
Today, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City announced they are pulling out of all ACA individual exchanges by the end of the year. This is a direct result of burdensome Obamacare mandates that made it nearly impossible for insurers to provide affordable plans. Requiring certain benefits from insurers, even if they were unnecessary and unwanted, is just one example of how the law made the health insurance business extremely expensive. Obamacare broke the healthcare system, and state by state, the system is collapsing.
This time, the continued failure of Obamacare will personally impact thousands of people across the state.
Today, Obamacare’s collapse hits home. I urge the Senate to pass the AHCA as quickly as possible to remove the burdens that are forcing insurers out of the market. We need to get lower premiums, more insurers and better coverage to Missouri. Now.
That’s real chutzpah.
Some of the replies:
Too bad you won’t be around to fix it. You tried replacing it with something worse and you will be gone because of it. We will finally get a Congress person that will be able to do something other than distract and blame everyone else. You are pitiful and we all know it
I believe your statement is full of mistruths. It was sabotaged and continues to be by GOP.
You cannot actively advocate for the failure of a system and then lay blame for that failure elsewhere, Mrs. Hartzler. Society and the citizens of this state will remember your words and actions and history will not judge you kindly.
Too bad your plan will do none of the things you stated in your last sentence.`
Obamacare did NOT “break the healthcare system” Ms. Vicki Hartzler. I think you know that very well. So to say it, knowing it to be untrue is a lie you’re telling directly to your constituents iin order to manipulate them to your will. Is that your job? To manipulate the American people and lie to their faces? You should be ashamed of yourself. The problems with healthcare have been caused by greed and the entitlement of the rich. Explain to me how EVERY INDUSTRIALISED NATION is capable of providing universal healthcare to their people and we are not. Since I’m assuming you don’t give a rat’s hind end what I’m writing and will never respond (why would you right? I don’t have millions of dollars for you request for fundraising so I don’t matter right?) The answer is that people like you, politicians who care more about money than they do about representing the people who put them in office I mean, lie to us. Give us half truths. Play upon our fears and manipulate us into thinking the way you want. The way that puts the most money in your pocket (in a manner of speaking). Remember me Vicky Hartzler. I’ll be the one who is working against you in Nov 2018. I’ll be the one reminding everyone what a self serving liar you are. The American people deserve better than this Vicky. We deserve to be represented by people who aren’t liars and thieves. I wish I could believe you would even take the time to read this, but I know you won’t. I wish that you would have a conscience and stop being a coward! Stand up for the American people.
Obama did not “break” the healthcare system. The GOP’s unprecedented obstruction of anything Obama, “broke” the intentions of the ACA. Stop lining your pockets with big pharma and insurance company money, and do what is right for the American people. We want universal healthcare, we the PEOPLE voted for it. You had ample opportunities to “better” the ACA and create a bipartisan plan for all, but you voted along your party line and for the lobbyists rather than your constituents’ and community’s needs. When is your next town hall? I’d love to hear you answer to your US, YOUR PEOPLE.
Come explain to us how the AHCA is going to lower premiums and make healthcare more accessible for your constituents. Because all the evidence, including the CBO’s analysis, says otherwise. We are waiting for you to divulge the magic solution nobody else has shown [….]
As insurance companies are pulling in record profits?!?! GOP is fooling no one any longer!! It will be single payer within 10 years.
Yes, because it will be SOOO much easier for their Big Business when they don’t have to insure all of those sick people… That isn’t a bad program, it’s sick priorities.
heartless republican plutocrat
CBO score expected to be out for AHCA with in hours which will more than likely prove you are lying in your last sentence.
Too bad! To bad that healthcare is a business. Too bad you support the runaway train of exorbitant costs of healthcare, Insurance companies and big pharma. You are their voice for corruption . even though its legal, its unethical. And its a bigly too bad. Too bad you don’t see the link between their ceos making ungodly sums of money while your citizens are paying the price. You are the reason the costs go up, protecting the assets of trump, and his unfettered war machine. You have no merits in my view. Single payer countries work. But then their reps listen to the people. You don’t. You probably don’t even read these comments.
Let’s see the CBO report for the Wealthcare you voted on.
Give it up, Vicky. Nobody believes anything you say in so desperately trying to justify a health care bill that will deprive 24 million people of coverage.
Your callous disregard for people who need this in order to become functional members of society disgusts me. I am an abuse survivor with PTSD and dissociative disorder. After the ACA came into effect, and after they managed to work around Missouri representatives block of the subsidies for its people, I finally got treatment for the first time in over a decade. Now I’m staring down the barrel of going back to before I had that. I have two children who need me whole. I have a loving and devoted husband who will wear himself out caring for me on the bad days, which are less now thanks to the ACA. You and your Trump horrify me.
You lie, just like all the GOP. Can hardly wait until Nov 2018. Hope we all survive what you and your Repugnancy do between now and then.
No, it’s because all the uncertainty about what will happen plus delay in subsidy payments and other subversive activities taken by the current Congress (this means YOU) and administration have weakened the ACA probably beyond repair. Congratulations. Now you want to enact a measure which is horribly detrimental to your constituency. Feeling proud of yourself, are you?
Interesting to see companies making record profits from a piece of legislation they helped craft whine about it, but I guess when your greed is endless nothing is good enough
More lies
What incentive does any insurance company have for providing coverage when the administration has threatened to stop subsidies that help pay for it? If the GOP had worked with the program instead of doing everything it could to obstruct the bill resulting in the current program, things might be different. The no-work-with policy continues as the GOP worked privately and refused to consider amendments. The Republicans share the blame for tbe current system’s problems and carry the blame for the inadequacies of their new program.
You lie Vicky.
I lived and worked in Canada for a year. We can do better than the awful plan proposed by Republicans. Fix the ACA instead of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Much of the ACA works, I know from first hand experiences.
I cannot believe you made that false statement. If you know what’s wrong with ACA, fix it, don’t support new legislation that has no intent of ensuring coverage for the majority of Americans. Your lack of understanding of health insurance and lack of empathy for those less fortunate is grossly astounding
True, so true, Vicky, my heart bleeds for companies who don’t make money insuring the sick, the poor, the marginalized. I feel deeply for the struggles and suffering of Blue Cross. Let’s all volunteer our time to make this profit generating company Great Again!
Uh, that be sarcasm?
Please be honest about this Ms. Hartzler. States that expanded Medicaid have much lower premium increases than those that didn’t. They also have less problems with insurer’s pulling out. The Republicans made things worse by refusing to expand Medicaid, a deliberate move to sabotage Obamacare. [….]
Fix the ACA, it’s easier than voting to pass a damaged and dangerous bill. AHCA is going to hurt rape victims, ptsd patients, pregnancies and anyone with a uterus. Is that really want you want for our nation? More money in the pockets of wealthy insurance companies while mothers are forced to choose dying of cancer or putting their family in debt for chemo so she can live? Is that what America is about? Taking away the opportunity of life?
I disagree with your analysis of the problems the ACA is having. Yes, the ACA requires insurers to provide specific coverage. The fact that the new Republican plan removes that requirement is what the insurers are reacting to. YOU are killing the ACA and we all know it. You had 8 years to help shape changes to make the ACA better – and you refused to do anything. As long as there are no protections for patients – insurance companies will continue to jack up premiums. Your new plan will not stop that. Stop the partisan bickering and do something positive for your constituents.
This is exactly what you wanted and what you worked to achieve. The GOP does NOT have the best interest of Missouri families.
After my son became ill and had multiple hospitalizations Obamacare was our salvation. He was given a choice of 6 plans all including deductible were affordable. I am very concerned about the future.
You should listen to what your constituents have to say and put what’s best for the people ahead of what is best for the Republican Party. Read what these people have to say while you still have a say in Washington and can make a positive difference for people here. You don’t want to continue to be known as Heartless Hartzler…or do you?
A rhetorical question.
When will you have a town hall to defend your vote to gut Medicaid($880B in cuts to fund $900B in tax cuts for top 5%), bring ban pre-existing condition discrimination, and make health care impossible for anyone born without a silverspoon to afford?
You voted to kill your constituents and you refuse to even look them in their eyes.
You are dishonest.
This is a direct result of your defunding of the ACA. Your party did everything possible to make the law fail, and did nothing to fix the things that you did to it. What did you exptect? If you had left it alone, it would be doing just fine.
Vicky, You’ve lost your credibility with me. It should be people first party second but you don’t act that way at all.
That’s rich, Vicky. Insurers are fleeing the market not because they have to provide real insurance, but because they have no idea what to charge since the leader of YOUR party keeps everyone in the dark about ACA subsidies. You broke it, you buy the consequences.
You’re so full of it Vicky Hartzler! If you actually believe your own words then you’re dumber than a box of rocks!
It’s a direct result of GOP failure to pay the premiums as promised. They have done everything they can to sabotage the program. And now say its a disaster, It seems all the GOP agenda is to hurt ordinary Americans as much as they can while giving more tax breaks to the wealthy. The GOP needs to GO. OUT. SOON!
Shame on you and this disingenuous post. The people you represent deserve better that a political mouthpiece only interested in herself and her party. You will be on the wrong side of history and we will not forget.
If you take peoples health insurance away I hope they take your job away. I know I’ll try.
Hey nice try Vicky. Judging by the tone of the replies here, I’d say your post blew up in your face! I hope you read all the comments posted here and maybe even take them to heart. I doubt that you will, but I’d gladly be pleasantly surprised.
“…Judging by the tone of the replies here, I’d say your post blew up in your face!…” You think?
Vicky you are a cruel horrible person, the reason insurance companies are pulling out is because Missouri would not extend Medicaid and the Federal Government pulled funds out of the ACA that would have subsidized the low income buyers of insurance. This is a classic Republican tactic of cutting funds from a program and then saying the program failed. Vicky how do you sleep at night? You bring harm and death to your constituents.
Ahhhh that’s is why you just spouted off all this. Tried to get a few minutes ahead of the CBO numbers of 23 million people being kicked off the roles. Honestly your politics game is so amateur.
They’re not buying it and they don’t sound happy.
Nope, definitely not, there won’t be any open public town halls.
Previously:
Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): Who’s that yonder, dressed in black? (May 4, 2017)
Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r) – Columbia District Office – May 10, 2017 (May 10, 2017)
09 Tuesday May 2017
Posted in social media, US Senate
Tags
ACA, AHCA, facebook, missouri, Roy Blunt, social media, town halls, Trumpcare
Roy Blunt (r) [2016 file photo].
Senator Roy Blunt on Facebook today:
Senator Roy Blunt — US Senator for Missouri
Discussed the widespread failures of Obamacare this morning on Fox News’ Happening Now. With less access and higher premiums, it’s clear the current system is just not serving Americans well and it has to be changed.
[….]
Some of the responses:
“Less access” should be on your business card, Mr. I-Don’t-Hold-Town-Halls / ignore email and snail mail from constituents/ unplugged my fax machine so I can forget that I’m about to ruin the lives of the people who voted me into this position… as a public servant, you’re an utter disgrace and I wouldn’t trust you to tie my shoe, let alone decide how we should structure 1/6th of the US Economy.
Single payer. Now. Let’s join the rest of the world on this, shall we?
VOTE NO! Do not repeal ACA until there is something better than what is offered now!
#TrumpNoCare
And your plan of taking away insurance from the poor so you can give a tax break to the rich is better how? Why don’t you have a townhall so we can discuss. Worthless POS.
Blunt is a paid by insurance companies to raise our premiums !
We need a public option. #SinglePayerHealthcare
The current system has saved many lives already. If you’re truly pro-life, you will admit that Obamacare saves lives. And the bill from the House will cause the loss of many lives.
explain and give examples who in Missouri has less care under the ACA then before? As to the cost who had cost go up on the same policy in excess of inflation. Stories I heard the old policy was in name only. The “policy” did not cover much, no preventive care/ immunizations, lab test, any outpatient.
Blunt needs to be voted out. He votes strictly by party lines and cares nada for Missouri constituents.
We’ll have to wait until 2022.
Your new plan has even less access and even higher premiums! Repeal suddenly became Repeal/Replace after the election. Stop lying Senator Blunt. I urge all Missourians to vote against him in the future if he votes for this plan in any form.
Again, we’ll have to wait until 2022.
Way to twist things to fit your agenda Senator. You & your party help spread the uncertainy & fear of failure until you make it a reality. We all see right through your lies & deception. You should be ashamed of yourself Mr Blunt.
Universal health care is the answer.
There are very real and life ENDING/altering consequences for this! Look in your heart, examine your holy book, think! What would your religion ask of you when confronted with a child who’s life could be saved except that he can’t pay for medicine? What would you heart tell you to do if you saw someone being beaten by their spouse? Is your first thought to check their pockets for cash when you find someone who is weak, sick, poor? Then why in the name of everything good can you not see that YOU saying ANYTHING positive about this makes you culpable for it?
Smh….. You can talk to Fox but can’t answer phone, fax, or e-mail.
Or hold open public town halls in Missouri.
Single payer. Not tax cuts for the rich.
I have medical insurance! I won’t have if you decimate the ACA. I’m a small business owner. I want to stay in business. Stop doing this!
Please don’t be in a hurry to dismantle what has done so much for so many! Just fix it. Unfortunately, it could have been done years ago if the Republicans hadn’t been so stubborn!
This message is brought to you by the people who payed for it…multi-national insurance conglomerates
There are problems but those were and are recognized. A giant tax cut isn’t the solution for providing low income health care efficiently
#alternativefacts
The present ACA with a few changes would work well for the majority of Americans.The trump/Ryan version is a disaster.So very disappointed with your views on this crucial issue.It seems that you and many of your peers have no interest or intention of doing what would benefit the majority of Americans.
Clearly the ACA served the majority of people who follow you on Facebook pretty well. When will you tell our stories? Here’s mine: I got great coverage for $75 a month when I lived in Columbia. That would have been impossible ten years ago. We are calling you and we are angry, listen to us or lose your job! Blindly following your party’s line to your constituents’ detriment goes against everything this country was founded for!
Easy thing to say when you don’t participate in the system and you’re too big of a coward to face your constituents.
Single payer.
Congress and insurance companies have spent all their effort to make it fail. Then act surprised or proud of themselves that they broke it.
Congress withheld money from the high risk pool which forced insurance companies to absorb more cost which forced them to drop out.
But some how there’s a lot more money for Trump’s high risk pools.
Except the way y’all are taking it looks like it’ll get worse
How you continue to be re-elected is beyond me.
It’s working better now than before there was a law, and with the tax break you want to give to your billionaire buddies will bankrupt us all!!!!!!!
How are you not hearing the American public who is crying out not to repeal and replace?? How are you going to sleep at night knowing how many people you are denying healthcare to?
I eagerly await your corporate talking points.
Interesting that you call ACA Obamacare. I called your office in Springfield yesterday, and when I called it Obamacare, they corrected me and said ACA.
Minor point to be sure, the major issue is that yes there are things about ACA that needs some fixing, however the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) numbers don’t support your claim that the ACHA would provide greater access and lower premiums BEFORE the Amendment that was tacked on and then pushed through on the House Bill. It’s clear that said amendment will decrease even further access to insurance as well as increase the cost, especially to those with pre-existing conditions as well as older American’s and lower income American’s.
Your constituants, as well as the entire nation will be watching what changes the Senate makes to the bill. Your office assured me they were rewriting. Whether the Senate version will be a good thing or not is yet to be seen. But be sure, you and the GOP will be judged on what the all male (where are the women?) committee comes up with.
Your years of obstruction, coupled with lack of cooperation by insurance companies are finally achieving your sick goal of killing ACA, regardless of who may be harmed. Instead of trying to help your constituents by improving the workable existing plan you continue to pursue the partisan goal of erasing any and all Obama legacy. And after all these years you don’t even have a skeleton of a workable plan? You are beneath contempt, unworthy even of the time I just spent writing this.
More like the widespread failure of Missouri to implement all the changes. I have Blue Cross insurance through my work (Tennessee) and the rates are less than half of what I was paying for the exact same Blue Cross plan here in Missouri. The difference is Tennessee did Obamacare the way it was supposed to be.
The simple, effective solution is to open Medicare to anyone, then set premiums and the existing tax to cover costs. Why not try to do the right thing for people, not just big corporations?
You lie. People will die!!!
ObamaCare is doing some really good things, though. I’m happy with several things in it.
The AHCA/TrumpCare, on the other hand, isn’t good at all. It doesn’t help people. And it’s going to harm many, many people. Including friends and family.
How about this novel idea….healthcare for everyone regardless of income…
Improving the House bill is gov speak for bigger giveaways to corporations and the rich. He knows where his campaign bribes come from.
How about you and your family stop taking so much lobby money and work for us for a change.
So far, it is serving me just fine. I get access to health care on my own despite my type 1 diabetes. Do you actually talk to people about their experience with the ACA or do you just assume that its a failure because Obama and the Democrats enacted it? Here’s a thought, talk to consumers, doctors, nurses, people who have chronic illnesses, those who might be able to educate you about something instead of pretending you know it all.
IS THIS A JOKE?! People are going to die because of this. In my opinion, any support for DONTcare (as a friend so aptly named it) makes you an accessory to murder. You should be ashamed!
Nah, Senator Blunt (r) isn’t going to be holding any public town halls in Missouri…ever.
Previously:
Where’s Roy Blunt (r)? (April 6, 2017)
Don’t count on Senators like Roy Blunt to do the right thing about healthcare (May 6, 2017)
09 Tuesday May 2017
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
4th Congressional District, ACA, AHCA, health care, missouri, town halls, Trumpcare, Vicky Hartzler
Someone in Missouri’s 4th Congressional District has started an online fundraising campaign to pay Rep. Vick Hartzler (r) to actually have open public town halls in the district:
Rep. Hartzler’s AHCA Town Hall!
Vicky Hartzler represents almost 800,000 Missourians in 26 counties. But she hasn’t shown her face at a single town hall meeting. Maybe it’s because she keeps making big, unpopular decisions for Missouri, like voting for the AHCA, and she prefers to keep ignoring us. Here’s what the AHCA is predicted to accomplish:
– Increase premiums for older Americans by up to 5x.
– Cut nearly a trillion dollars from Medicaid over 10 years.
– Allow states to opt out of the most basic types of coverage.
– Cut taxes for the rich by $900 billion.
– Increase the costs of a healthy pregnancy to $17,600 while insured.
– Make healthcare inaccessible for 24 million people.For more information about the affects of the AHCA, read the bipartison Congressional Budget Office’s analysis and Vox’s analysis.
[….]
We are hoping to raise $17,600 for Representative Hartzler – the cost of a healthy pregnancy under the AHCA – to get her back in her district for in-person town hall meetings in at least three cities or towns in the next two months. Perhaps she can use this money to support the health of newborn babies, a constituency about which she is vocally passionate (see above). This is a unique opportunity for her to hear from her constituents.
We are tired of the lies that this legislation will somehow lower costs while keeping healthcare accessible. This is not true. The premise of health insurance is that everyone pays a little bit for the greater good. They make it work in every other developed country – why not ours?
Vicky, join us for a town hall and justify your choices – we’ll even pay you!
[….]
That would be a probability of zero.
Previously:
Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): about that town hall (March 28, 2017)
Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): making it easy (April 18, 2017)
Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): Who’s that yonder, dressed in black? (May 4, 2017)
08 Monday May 2017
Posted in US Senate
Tags
ACA, agriculture, AHCA, Claire McCaskill, Donald Trump, education, missouri, town hall, trade, Trumpcare
“…People need to know, all the major policies that have been announced so far by the Trump administration, all of them disadvantage rural Missouri…”
Senator Claire McCaskill (D) continued her face to face contact with constituents in Missouri on Saturday with several events in Kansas City.
The Greater Kansas City Women’s Political Caucus hosted a forum with Senator McCaskill midday. Close to one hundred fifty individuals attended. The Senator spoke for about twenty minutes then took questions for about an hour.
Senator Claire McCaskill (D) – May 6, 2017.
One of the questions was on Donald Trump’s (r) policies and agriculture in Missouri:
Senator Claire McCaskill (D): [….]
….People need to know, all the major policies that have been announced so far by the Trump administration, all of them disadvantage rural Missouri. [voice: “Yes.”]
Um, the health insurance plan, um, a, a farmer in Ralls County that makes thirty thousand dollars a year and is sixty years old, his premiums would go from about twenty-five hundred a year to about twelve thousand dollars a year under the plan that was passed by the House. That’s because he’s older and because he lives in a rural area. And those two things are a double whammy on their plan.
The second thing that hurts rural Missouri is education. Um, what they don’t, they haven’t figured out, [Secretary of Education] Betsy DeVos hasn’t figured out that the vast majority of my state there is no choice. [voices: “That’s right.”][applause] I mean, most people out in rural Missouri, there’s not a lot of private schools to pick from. There’s a public school system. Period. It’s the beating heart of those communities. And when you cream, when you skim the cream and money from public school it is directly hurting rural school districts so that private schools in the cities can get more money. Um, so that’s the second thing he’s done to rural Missouri.
The third thing he’s done to rural Missouri is his infrastructure plan. His infrastructure plan that we have seen, the only one we’ve seen, depends on private investment. Now I got news for you. Nobody wants to build a road and put toll on it between Chillicothe and Albany. [laughter] Nobody wants to fix a bridge down in Shannon County because there’s not enough traffic on it for it to make money for a private business. And when you do private infrastructure what you’re saying is we’re gonna toll roads and toll bridges. ‘Cause no private business invest in a road unless they’re gonna get their money back. [voice: “Right.”] They have to have a source of revenue.
Now I’m not, Missouri doesn’t have any tolling, and if other states want to toll, that’s fine. But I think we’ve got to make sure that the White House understands that for rural Missouri, for all of Missouri, we need to make sure there’s public money in the infrastructure bill so the needs can be met even if they’re not in highly trafficked areas. Okay.
The fourth thing, and the thing Kay was referring to, is trade. When you do bilateral trade deals and you cut countries off from multilateral trade deals. That causes retaliation. Okay. There is like, okay, you’re gonna do this to us, we’re gonna do this to you. There’s, for every action in the trade area there is a reaction. So, it’s not as simple as going that’s a bad deal we’re getting out of it. It’s what can we get in that will protect our agricultural economy in Missouri. And the, the scary thing about his back and forth on NAFTA in the last week, first of all, not only does that dramatically affect our corn growers and our bean growers ‘cause their number one export is Canada, their number two export is Mexico, their number three export is China, not only is it dramatically affect them it also affects companies like Kansas City Southern, the railroad, the big building downtown with lots of employees. Their stock went down five percent just when he said we’re gonna withdraw from NAFTA. Now, then he went back and reversed it. You know, he said, never mind the day. [laughter] But, this uncertainty with our agricultural economy in Missouri , and that has ripple effect all the way to the very, very heart of both Kansas City and St. Louis.
So, Mexico doesn’t have to buy corn from us. They can buy corn from Brazil. Um, China can, is, they’re about to open up foreign ownership in Brazil, China can buy a bunch of land in Brazil and grow cotton there and bring it back to China.
So, we’ve got to be really careful and there’s no question that our corn growers and our bean growers are in jeopardy with some of the trade policies that President Trump is talking about….
[….]
And yet, a majority in Missouri voted for him. Anyone think they’ll figure it out?
Previously:
What a difference eight years makes (April 13, 2017)
If only Roy Blunt (r) could give him something to do at one of his open town halls in Missouri (April 13, 2017)
This ain’t 2009 and right wingnut billionaires ain’t paying to rile up teabaggers (April 13, 2017)
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, 2017)
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D): on Trump and Russia – May 6, 2017 (May 7, 2017)
07 Sunday May 2017
Posted in US Senate
Tags
ACA, AHCA, Claire McCaskill, Kansas City, missouri, town hall, Trumpcare
“…It is very simple. They are cutting eight hundred and forty billion dollars from the Medicaid program, okay, in order to give a tax break of over a trillion to wealthy people and corporations. That’s it…”
Senator Claire McCaskill (D) continued her face to face contact with constituents in Missouri yesterday with several events in Kansas City.
The Greater Kansas City Women’s Political Caucus hosted a forum with Senator McCaskill midday. Close to one hundred fifty individuals attended. The Senator spoke for about twenty minutes then took questions for about an hour.
Senator Claire McCaskill (D) – May 6, 2017.
Senator McCaskill’s (D) remarks on the republican controlled House of Representatives attempting to resurrect Zombie Trumpcare:
Senator Claire McCaskill (D): [….]
….I think that the House of Representatives made a grave error this week. [voices: “Yes.”] I think that they have, um, under the umbrella of thinking they needed to have a, the president wanted to have a quote, unquote, win they have passed a piece of legislation that is, um, frankly stunning if you really understand what it is. Now, I will admit, like the people who voted for it, I have not reviewed it, uh. [laughter] I have not had a chance to go through it line by line, but I certainly will. But my staff has had an opportunity to look at it and, um, let me make sure you understand what it is so you can go out and tell all of your friends and neighbors. It is very simple.
They are cutting eight hundred and forty billion dollars from the Medicaid program, okay, in order to give a tax break of over a trillion to wealthy people and corporations. [hand slaps] [voice: “That’s horrible.”]That’s it.
It is the contraction of health care services in order to give a tax break. This is a tax break bill. It’s not a health care bill. Now, you can, people, they, they would argue and they would say, well we can’t afford Medicaid program expansion, we can’t afford all the money we’re spending on Medicaid, we have to cut Medicaid.
And here’s what everybody needs to understand – in this country when you show up at the doors of Truman Medical Center and you are sick we take care of you. [voice: “Yes, that’s correct.”] Right? [voice: “Yes.”] I always tell the story of a twenty-seven year old man that lives down in Cole County. And he can, he’s finally making enough money at work, they don’t have insurance at work, that he can either buy insurance or a Harley. Well, guess what he buys? [voices: “Harley”] Buys the Harley. Gets out on the highway, somebody cuts him off, puts it on the pavement, he has traumatic brain injuries, he gets Life flighted to St. Lukes, or VJC or Truman, and we give him millions of dollars of health care. Right? [voices: “Right.”] Because we don’t stop ‘em at the door and say, I’m sorry, you bought the Harley and not insurance, we’re gonna let you die. [voice: “That’s right.”] We bring ‘em in and we them the best medical care in the world. And, by the way, he may have such a debilitating brain injury that we have to, he has to go to rehab and then he has to have help the rest of his life, is on disability. And I ask all of you, who pays that bill? [voices: “We do.”] Of course we do.
When you don’t expand Medicaid, when you cut the Medicaid program it just ups the number of people without insurance. [voice: “That’s right.”] And that is just shorthand for your premiums go up. Because when uninsured care goes up at Truman Medical Center there isn’t somebody magically who shows up and says, we’re gonna pay the bill. Here’s what happens – uninsured care goes up, they can’t balance the books, Truman Medical center calls the insurance companies, they call Blue Cross Blue Shield over here and they say, we’re gonna have to charge you more for labor and delivery, and we’re gonna have to charge you more for an angioplasty because we have too much uninsured care so our prices have to go up. And then that insurance company calls your employer and says, I got news for you, your premiums next year for your group policy are gonna go up ten percent. So, you are paying eight per cent more in your insurance premiums in Missouri just because Missouri legislature won’t expand Medicaid. [vice: “Why can’t the Republicans get that?”] I don’t know. [voices: “Why?”] I don’t know. [….] [voice: “Are they that stupid?”] I, I, I don’t know. I don’t know. [voices: “They are.”] I,I, just, I think it’s really important that we stay focused that this is cutting Medicaid to give a tax break to wealthy people. [voices: “yeah.”] That’s what this is. And, and along the way they’ve decided to make it five times more expensive for seniors than younger people, they’ve decided to make it more expensive for rural people, they’ve decided also that if states want to they can avoid, uh, the requirement of certain benefits and even the requirement of, of having to be fair to people who have the nerve to be sick before.
So, um, I do not think this bill will ever become law. Uh, I can’t imagine that my Senate colleagues on the other side of the aisle are going to be excited about voting for this, especially once the CBO [Congressional Budget Office] score comes out. Everybody says, why would they do it before the CBO score came out? Well, it’s very simple. They knew they couldn’t pass it once the CBO score comes out. So, the CBO score will come out and that will make it even more difficult for this bill to have any kind of traction in the Senate. So, I don’t think the bill will pass the Senate. I don’t know what they will come up with in the Senate. They’re struggling. Uh, it’s hard. It’s hard to cover people with preexisting conditions if you don’t have a mechanism to make sure healthy people pay into it, too. Uh, that’s what insurance is, right? [voice: “Amen, amen.”] Insurance is healthy people paying the bills for sick people. [voice: “That’s right.”] That’s what insurance is. And you kind of signed up for the bargain in that process. [….]
So, the bottom line is, the reason that we don’t have single payer, the reason we don’t have, uh, a public option is because there hasn’t been enough political support for it. Um, that’s why other countries have it, is because their people have, um, decided that the, there’s enough support for it out in the community. Um, and I do think having some kind of quasi public option for people in [inaudible] where there are not choices for your insurance policy makes perfect sense and is a solution that we’re working on trying to get into whatever they’re doing. I, my idea is if you’re in a county where there’s only one insurance company on the exchange or whether there’s none, that you ought to be able to buy into the federal system. [voices: “Yeah.” “Right.”] Uh, that federal employees have. Or buy into Medicare or Medicaid. [applause] So, that’s what we’re going to try to get done.
Uh, and, and so, I hope you guys spread the word on this health care bill because I do think it’s a mechanism by which we can keep people engaged and involved.
[….]
A clear day in Kansas City, from the twenty-second floor:
Previously:
What a difference eight years makes (April 13, 2017)
If only Roy Blunt (r) could give him something to do at one of his open town halls in Missouri (April 13, 2017)
This ain’t 2009 and right wingnut billionaires ain’t paying to rile up teabaggers (April 13, 2017)
Senator Claire McCaskill (D): press availability – Parkville, Missouri – April 13, 2017 (April 14, 2017)
06 Saturday May 2017
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
ACA, AHCA, Obamacare, Repeal and Replace, Roy Blunt, Trumpcare, U.S. Senate
Lots of progressive commentators are consoling themselves for last week’s congressional healthcare disaster by telling us that the Trumpcare abomination won’t fly in the Senate where GOP “moderate” senators will prevail. Or whatever. It is true that the GOP-majority Senate has, as an entity, turned up its collective nose when confronted with the stench of the House bill and has committed to producing its very own version of Trumpcare (a.k.a. Dump & Dupe). In order to keep the Dump & Dupe momentum going , House Speaker Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) sicced a working group on the topic right away.
But before we get too optimistic about the final Senate product, consider that Missouri Republican Senator Roy Blunt is part of the working group. This is the same Roy Blunt who was charged in 2009 to come up with the Republican alternative to Obamacare. Remember that plan? I bet you don’t. The four page document Blunt produced was that bad. As a Kansas City Star editorial pointed out, it was short on details and long on opinion-based talking points. Nor had Blunt bothered bothered to suss out the costs of his proposals and the number of uninsured Americans it would cover. It was a sort of abbreviated GOP la-la land fantasy.
Details aren’t important to folks like Blunt whose only language is right-wing power – let the real-world consequences be damned. And he’s what passes for a Republican moderate these days. He’s already signaled that he was fine with many of the provisions of the earlier, terrible iterations of Trumpcare, asserting that ““the nucleus of the plan is clearly there.” The only part of the earlier bills he objected to was the fact “it may not be a plan that gets a majority of votes and lets us move on.”
Nor is Roy Blunt a lone ranger in the Senate. Still feeling optimistic about the Senate’s take on Dump & Dupe?
When Blunt offered his four-page outline back in 2009, the House Speaker, Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), averred that “we have to be careful not to impede what works in the current system,” adding that “we take the current health care system and make it better for all Americans.” If it strikes you that this might be a good idea today – take what works in Obamacare – which is a lot – and make it better, perhaps you should phone old Roy and let him know that this is what you’d like to see come out of the Senate. Republicans can always save face by calling it Trumpcare.
Of course, that particular course of action would require that Blunt and his Senate GOP cronies actually cared about their constituents.
So maybe you should also let Senator Blunt know that you’ll remember whose fault it is if he helps Freedom yodelers like Ann Wagner do our healthcare in. He won’t be up for election for several years, but it isn’t only elephants who don’t forget.