Whither Obamacare?

[LaCroix]

the cheapest option re premiums on the marketplace was like $180/month or around there, with a $7000 deductible. $66 per month 

You are obviously not looking very hard if I could find a plan less than half the cost with $2000 less deductible in about ten minutes! 

that's not an available plan. I have no idea what you think you found

[LaCroix]

it was a weird post to pick to grind your axe

I'm going to take a stab in the dark and guess you were the star debater on your tiny rural North Dakota school's team, which is where you learned that when you have no position you should play offense and accuse your interlocutor of grinding axes, misconstruing, or talking around each other.

I think any debate rules went out the window when you accused me of intellectual bankruptcy because you misinterpreted a non-serious post as a serious assertion

[Admiral Yi]

I think any debate rules went out the window when you accused me of intellectual bankruptcy because you misinterpreted a non-serious post as a serious assertion

I'll make an effort to never repeat that mistake.

[LaCroix]

you are forgiven this time

[grumbler]

that's not an available plan. I have no idea what you think you found

Right!    That's an available plan

I have enormous incentive to make up facts, you have none. 

https://www.agilehealthinsurance.com/?partners=1&utm_source=vantage&utm_medium=ppc&utm_term=ef1c47c3-0ce8-46cb-bc25-4292e2e8cfed&utm_campaign=H1T41EK2N9

[Agelastus]

that's not an available plan. I have no idea what you think you found

Right!    That's an available plan

I have enormous incentive to make up facts, you have none. 

https://www.agilehealthinsurance.com/?partners=1&utm_source=vantage&utm_medium=ppc&utm_term=ef1c47c3-0ce8-46cb-bc25-4292e2e8cfed&utm_campaign=H1T41EK2N9

I may be misunderstanding something here, but doesn't that site offer short term medical insurance (1-11 months) which is not "Obamacare" and which does not qualify you for an exemption from the affordable care tax?

In other words - is this a case of apples and oranges?

[grumbler]

that's not an available plan. I have no idea what you think you found

Right!    That's an available plan

I have enormous incentive to make up facts, you have none. 

https://www.agilehealthinsurance.com/?partners=1&utm_source=vantage&utm_medium=ppc&utm_term=ef1c47c3-0ce8-46cb-bc25-4292e2e8cfed&utm_campaign=H1T41EK2N9

I may be misunderstanding something here, but doesn't that site offer short term medical insurance (1-11 months) which is not "Obamacare" and which does not qualify you for an exemption from the affordable care tax?

In other words - is this a case of apples and oranges?

You only have to be covered year-to-year.  This is coverage like LaCrock described - starting now (with change-of-status = marriage).

[LaCroix]

what

coverage I described was obamacare

[jimmy olsen]

I don't see how the Freedom Caucus would ever agree with this, and the Dems don't really have any incentive to bail Ryan and the rest of the GOP out if they go in that direction, so it doesn't look like to me that anything will get done.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/john-boehner-obamacare-republicans-235303

Boehner: Republicans won't repeal and replace Obamacare

'They're basically going to fix the flaws and put a more conservative box around it,' Boehner said.

By Darius Tahir
  | 02/23/17 11:04 AM EST
  |  Updated 02/23/17 06:06 PM EST


Former House Speaker John Boehner predicted on Thursday that a full repeal and replace of Obamacare is "not what's going to happen" and that Republicans will instead just make some fixes to the health care law.

Boehner, who retired in 2015 amid unrest among conservatives, said at an Orlando healthcare conference that GOP lawmakers were too optimistic in their talk of quickly repealing and then replacing Obamacare.

"They'll fix Obamacare, and I shouldn't have called it repeal and replace because that's not what's going to happen. They're basically going to fix the flaws and put a more conservative box around it," Boehner said.

The former speaker's frank comments capture the conundrum that many Republicans find themselves in as they try to deliver on pledges to axe Obamacare but struggle to coalesce around an alternative.

Republican lawmakers across the country this week are facing angry constituents at town halls worried that Obamacare will be yanked away without a suitable replacement.

President Donald Trump has said in recent days that he will release a plan by early to mid-March on how the administration plans to move forward on repeal-and-replace.

But so far, no clear path has emerged.

Earlier in the panel discussion, Boehner said he "started laughing" when Republicans started talking about moving lightning fast on repeal and then coming up with an alternative.

"In the 25 years that I served in the United States Congress, Republicans never, ever, one time agreed on what a health care proposal should look like. Not once," Boehner said. "And all this happy talk that went on in November and December and January about repeal, repeal, repeal—yeah, we'll do replace, replace—I started laughing, because if you pass repeal without replace, first, anything that happens is your fault. You broke it."

Boehner added that he has told Republican leaders that unless a repeal is packaged with a replacement, GOP lawmakers would not likely reach a consensus about an alternative to Obamacare.

"And secondly, as I told some of the Republican leaders when they asked, I said, if you pass repeal without replace you'll never pass replace, because they will never ever agree on what the bill should be. Perfect always becomes the enemy of the good," Boehner said.

Boehner said what Republicans ultimately come up with could share a lot of the same qualities with Obamacare.

"Most of the Affordable Care Act, in the framework, is going to stay there: coverage for kids up to age 26, covering those with preexisting conditions. All of that's going to be there. Subsidies for those who can't afford it, who aren't on Medicaid, who I call the working poor, subsidies for them will be there," Boehner said.

"What will be different is that CMS will not dictate to every single state how the plan's going to run. And if the state wants to run an exchange, the state can run an exchange. The states will control the policies that are offered like they control every other insurance product offered in their states," he added.

[Valmy]

It had all kinds of problems with it that have since come out and Congress should have been tinkering with it all along.

[CountDeMoney]

They keep acting like the insurance companies don't have a say in this.  They are going to determine the ACA's life expectancy, not Congress.

[Valmy]

They keep acting like the insurance companies don't have a say in this.  They are going to determine the ACA's life expectancy, not Congress.

Because the Democrats required such iron party discipline to pass thing thing, the insurance companies pretty much got to write it. Of course even if the thing had overwhelming bipartisan support that probably would have happened anyway.

The Insurance industry as a whole, not just the health insurance part, is really getting rotten these days. They keep charging more, offering less, and coming up with new and creative ways to get out of not even covering their shrinking obligations.

[CountDeMoney]

Well, in their defense, insurance companies are in the business to collect premiums, not to pay out claims.

[11B4V]

Arent you suppose to be at work...contractor. 

[CountDeMoney]

What I do in the privacy of a bathroom stall on my iProduct is my business.

Besides, it's Friday--all the GS monkeys are "working from home."