“President Donald Trump declared that the GOP will now be the “party of health care…”

On March 26, 2017 I posted an obituary on REPEAL & REPLACE after  House Speaker Paul Ryan said his party “came up short” in a news conference minutes after pulling the GOP healthcare bill off the House floor, acknowledging that ObamaCare will stay in place “for the foreseeable future.””

Yet on December 20th, 2017 the INDIVIDUAL MANDARE was repealed. ““When the individual mandate is being repealed that means ObamaCare is being repealed,” Trump said…“We have essentially repealed ObamaCare, and we will come up with something much better…” (WRECK & REJOICE)

During the ten months between REPEAL & REPLACE and WRECK & REJOICE I posted over seventy updates. You can find links to this chronology further down on this post.

Now there is an opportunity to track four ongoing and competing health care strategies.

• Medicare for All
• Court challenges of the Affordable Care Act
• The new Democrats plan
• The next Republican plan

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What was once seen as a long-shot pitch from Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders during his 2016 presidential campaign is now a proposal that at least four of his Senate colleagues also vying for the party’s 2020 nomination supported during the last Congress. The issue is driving the national political health care debate…

Democrats are already contending with industry groups hoping to shift the focus back to strengthening the current system. Most drug companies, hospitals and insurers oppose Medicare for All, which undoubtedly complicates progressives’ efforts. The party’s left wing is pushing a bold, pricey plan carrying political risks that make Democratic leaders shudder. Despite all the inevitable political hurdles, getting a single-payer law enacted may look easy compared to implementing it…

A single-payer health care plan would significantly change every sector of the health care industry. Hospitals and doctors would need to adjust to a new payment system, the insurance industry would shrink to a fraction of its size, and the government would bring drug companies to the negotiating table to determine prices.

The 2010 health care law left in place most of the existing health care infrastructure in the U.S. Still, experts warn that the lessons from that more incremental transition show how dramatic it would be to shift to a single-payer system.

Supporters aren’t intimidated by the seismic nature of the change. The hope is not just to ensure that everyone has coverage, but also to take on health care companies seeking to maximize their profits, said Adam Green, a co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a political action committee that supports liberal candidates.

“Medicare for All boils down to two things,” Green said. “One is universal coverage. The other is corporate accountability.” (A)

“Here’s where the Democratic candidates stand on Medicare for All:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.)

Warren co-sponsored Sanders’s Medicare for All proposal in 2017. But she has said that the broader goal is “affordable health care for every American,” and that there are “different ways” to achieve that objective.

She has previously backed legislation that would allow people to buy into a Medicaid-based public option on state insurance markets.

Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.)

Booker co-sponsored Sanders’s Medicare for All legislation. But he has also rejected that private health insurance be eliminated under such a health care system and has also expressed support for a more incremental approach in which Medicare eligibility is expanded.

Booker has also signed on to legislation that would lower the Medicare eligibility age to 50, as well as a proposal to allow people to buy into a Medicaid option through state insurance marketplaces.

Sen. Kamala Harris (Calif.)

Harris is among a handful of 2020 Democrats who signed on to Sanders’s Medicare for All bill and has said that she would support eliminating private health insurance altogether.

Harris has also co-sponsored proposals that would lower the age of Medicare eligibility to 50 and create a Medicaid option on state insurance markets that people currently ineligible for the program could buy into.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)

Sanders has long been the most vocal advocate in the Senate for a Medicare for All system and helped popularize the concept during his insurgent bid for the White House in 2016.

He said in an interview on MSNBC on Tuesday night that he would not support any Democratic legislation on health care other than his own Medicare for All proposal. Sanders also reiterated his past assertion that lawmakers should “get rid of” private insurance under such a plan.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.)

Gillibrand supports a Medicare for All proposal and co-sponsored Sanders’s 2017 legislation seeking to implement such a plan.

She’s also signed on to measures lowering the age of eligibility for Medicare to 50 and creating a public health care option through Medicaid on individual state insurance marketplaces.

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (Texas)

O’Rourke has said he backs “universal health care.” But unlike some of his more progressive challengers, he’s thrown his support behind a different kind of proposal, dubbed Medicare for America, that would allow Americans to join a public Medicare-based plan, while preserving the option to remain on employer-based insurance.

“It responds to the fact that so many Americans have said, ‘I like my employer-based insurance. I want to keep it. I like the network I’m in. I like the doctor that I see,’ ” O’Rourke told The Texas Tribune earlier this month.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.)

The Minnesota senator has refused to explicitly support Medicare for All, offering up a more incremental approach to health care reform that would involve creating a public, Medicaid-like option.

On Medicare for All, Klobuchar has said that it is “something we can look to for the future,” but that she wants “action now” — a nod to the likely challenges such a sweeping proposal would face.

(Also: Washington Gov. Jay Inslee; Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper; Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii);South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg; Former San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro; Andrew Yang; Marianne Williamson; Former Rep. John Delaney (Md.) (B)

“CMS Administrator Seema Verma wrote in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal that “Medicare for All” proposals would harm seniors’ access to care by bringing all Americans into a system created to support just older adults…

“The monetary cost of Medicare for All is surpassed by its moral cost,” she writes. “The plan would strip coverage from more than 180 million Americans and force them into government insurance. It will resemble the Veterans Administration, which has been plagued by unreasonable wait times, poor customer service, provider shortages and little accountability in the administration of care.”” (C)

“The Trump administration is siding with Obamacare opponents who argue that it is unconstitutional and should be scrapped entirely, initiating a new, more aggressive assault on the health care law that will assure the issue will be squarely at the forefront of the 2020 presidential campaign.

The Justice Department shifted its stance, after arguing last year that some parts of the 2010 law — but not all of it — should be struck down in a case brought by the state of Texas. A federal district judge voided the law in a December ruling that is now under appeal.

In a filing late Monday night, the Justice Department said that President Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement should be wiped out.

“The Department of Justice has determined that the district court’s comprehensive opinion came to the correct conclusion and will support it on appeal,” DOJ spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement.

The filing draws renewed attention to Trump’s and the Republican Party’s stance that Obamacare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act, should be eliminated. That would include subsidies for coverage and rules popular with voters such as preventing insurers from discriminating against those with pre-existing conditions, limits on coverage and coverage for preventative care.” (D)

“The Affordable Care Act was already in peril after a federal judge in Texas invalidated the entire law late last year. But the stakes ramped up again this week, when President Trump’s Justice Department announced it had changed its position and agreed with the judge that the entire law, not just three pieces of it, should be scrapped.

A coalition of states is appealing the ruling. If it is upheld, tens of millions more people would be affected than those who already rely on the nine-year-old law for health insurance. Also known as Obamacare, the law touches the lives of most Americans, from nursing mothers to people eating at chain restaurants.

Here are some potential consequences, based on estimates by various groups.

Of the 23 million people who either buy health insurance through the marketplaces set up by the law (11.4 million) or receive coverage through the expansion of Medicaid (12 million), about 21 million are most at risk if Obamacare is struck down. That includes 9.2 million who receive federal subsidies.

On average, the subsidies covered $525 of a $612 monthly premium for customers in the 39 states that use the federal marketplace, HealthCare.gov, according to a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services. If the marketplaces and subsidies go away, a comprehensive health plan would become unaffordable for most of those people and many of them would become uninsured.

States could not possibly replace the full amount of federal subsidies with state funds.

Medicaid, the government insurance program for the poor that is jointly funded by the federal government and the states, has been the workhorse of Obamacare. If the health law were struck down, more than 12 million low-income adults who have gained Medicaid coverage through the law’s expansion of the program could lose it.

In all, according to the Urban Institute, enrollment in the program would drop by more than 15 million, including roughly three million children who got Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program when their parents signed up for coverage…

As many as 133 million Americans — roughly half the population under the age of 65 — have pre-existing medical conditions that could disqualify them from buying a health insurance policy or cause them to pay significantly higher premiums if the health law were overturned, according to a government analysis done in 2017. An existing medical condition includes such common ailments as high blood pressure or asthma, any of which could require someone buying insurance on their own to pay much more for a policy, if they could get one at all…

The 156 million Americans who get coverage through an employer, as well as the roughly 15 million enrolled in Obamacare and other plans in the individual insurance market, are protected from caps that insurers and employers used to limit how much they had to pay out in coverage each year or over a lifetime. Before the A.C.A., people with conditions like cancer or hemophilia that were very expensive to treat often faced enormous out-of-pocket costs once their medical bills reached these caps.

While not all health coverage was capped, most companies had some sort of limit in place in 2009. A 2017 Brookings analysis estimated that 109 million people would face lifetime limits on their coverage without the health law, with some companies saying they would cover no more than $1 million in medical bills per employee. The vast majority of people never hit those limits, but some who did were forced into bankruptcy or went without treatment…” (E)

““President Donald Trump declared that the GOP will now be the “party of health care.” The problem? His party doesn’t have a health care plan. Congressional Republicans, who failed to repeal and replace Obamacare when they controlled both chambers, were completely blindsided this week by the Trump administration’s surprising decision to back a court ruling that would throw out the entire Affordable Care Act, including the popular protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

The move baffled many in the GOP, who believe the issue cost them the House in the last election. And Axios first reported that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), a Trump ally, even voiced his concerns over the administration’s decision directly with the president. Republicans from across the spectrum would prefer to focus on more narrow health care issues that are an easier lift, like lowering prescription drug prices.” (F)

“House Democrats are rolling out a plan to strengthen the Affordable Care Act that would expand federal insurance subsidies and reverse the Trump administration’s attacks on the health care law — but avoids the party’s internal fight about more ambitious proposals to extend health coverage…

The Democratic bill is a smorgasbord of provisions to expand health care and undo the Trump administration’s regulatory actions to weaken the ACA:

It expands the tax credits available under the law, both reducing costs for lower-income families and expanding eligibility so middle-class Americans can receive federal assistance.

It creates a national reinsurance program to offset high medical bills for insurers and thereby keep premium increases in check.

It rolls back Trump actions expanding skimpier health insurance plans, giving states the freedom to undermine the law’s benefits requirements, and cutting enrollment outreach funding…

The rest of the bill is a string of more technical provisions: creating a national reinsurance program, fixing the so-called “family glitch” that barred some families from accessing tax subsidies, and, importantly, reversing the Trump administration’s regulatory agenda. The Democratic bill rolls back or otherwise curtails Trump’s expansion of short-term insurance plans not required to meet the ACA’s protections for preexisting conditions. It also requires the administration to spend federal money on enrollment outreach, after Trump officials cut that budget dramatically over the past two years…

Notably missing from the Democratic bill is a public option or Medicare buy-in, the introduction of a government health care plan to compete with the private insurance offerings of the ACA’s marketplaces…

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has sounded skeptical notes about single-payer and urged Democrats to focus on strengthening Obamacare, their winning message in the midterms, so this new bill doesn’t come as a surprise. Leadership is taking a more deliberate approach to their party’s more ambitious health care ideas, where there is not yet a consensus within the ideologically diverse Democratic majority.” (G)

““Mitch McConnell has no intention of leading President Donald Trump’s campaign to transform the GOP into the “party of health care.”

“I look forward to seeing what the president is proposing and what he can work out with the speaker,” McConnell said in a brief interview Thursday, adding, “I am focusing on stopping the ‘Democrats’ Medicare for none’ scheme.”

The Senate majority leader spent untold weeks and months on the party’s health care quagmire in 2017, when the GOP controlled both the House and the Senate and still failed to repeal Obamacare. The episode caused endless headaches for Republicans as their replacement plan fell apart first, followed by the so-called “skinny” plan they slapped together at the last minute.

Now in divided government, with the Senate majority up for grabs next year and McConnell himself running for reelection, another divisive debate over health care is the last thing McConnell needs. But that’s exactly where Trump is taking Republicans after his administration endorsed a wholesale obliteration of the law in the courts earlier this week.

So the Kentucky Republican and his members are putting the onus on the president to figure out the next steps.

McConnell’s clear reluctance toward trying to draft a sweeping health care bill in the Senate reflects his political instincts: that it’s better to focus on perceived Democratic weaknesses — the left’s push on “Medicare for All” — than to struggle to unify his own party on a plan almost certain to be rebuffed by Senate Democrats and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “ (H)

“The White House is quietly working on a healthcare policy proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the matter.

While it is not clear how far along the process is, work on a proposal has been going on for months. The effort appears to belie criticism that Trump’s decision to restart the debate on healthcare, an issue Democrats used to their advantage in the 2018 midterms, was an error committed without forethought.

“The White House, mainly through the National Economic Council, has been engaged on thinking about health care reform for a while now, and they have been engaged with a group of center-right health policy groups to talk about various proposals and ideas,” a conservative health policy analyst told the Washington Examiner.

The analyst said the administration has been “having conversations” on healthcare policy and has reached out to numerous think tanks, including the Heritage Foundation, the Mercatus Center, and the Hoover Institute…

Policy leaders at several conservative think tanks confirmed to the Examiner that a healthcare plan is indeed the works. They said a proposal would take concepts from the Graham-Cassidy bill, by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and the Health Care Choices proposal, which was signed by many conservative policy leaders, including the Heritage Foundation and former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Penn. One analyst said a White House proposal would most likely be brought up in the Senate first.

Heritage Foundation Director of Domestic Policy Studies Marie Fishpaw noted that the president has already included concepts from the Health Care Choices proposal in his 2020 budget.

The proposal, according to Fishpaw, “would lower premiums by up to a third, lowering costs while also protecting people with pre-existing conditions.” It would replace federal payments to insurance companies with grants for each state, giving individual states more leeway to determine how to use the money.

One conservative policy analyst said that although the White House is definitely “exploring” the healthcare issue, it does not seem ready to unveil a proposal…

Trump has already asked a group of Senate Republicans, including John Barrasso of Wyoming, Rick Scott of Florida and Cassidy to come up with a replacement for Obamacare. But other Senate Republicans, including Sens. Roy Blunt of Missouri, John Kennedy of Louisiana and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have indicated an unwillingness to get moving on the issue until Trump puts forth his own proposal.

“I’m anxious to see what the White House is going to recommend in terms of a healthcare delivery system that looks like somebody designed the damn thing on purpose,” Kennedy said.” (I)

“President Donald Trump on Monday night backed away from his push for a vote on an Obamacare replacement until after the 2020 elections, bowing to the political reality that major health care legislation cannot pass in the current Congress.

Trump’s statements come a week after his administration announced that it now agreed with a judge’s ruling that the entire Affordable Care Act should be scrapped. The opinion was a dramatic reversal from the administration’s previous stance that only portions of the act could not be defended.

Trump’s latest move allows him to wait on the issue as legal challenges against the health care law, also known as Obamacare, make their way through the federal court system. If it’s ultimately overturned, Trump can claim he made good on a campaign promise in time for his 2020 re-election campaign — though he would then face the prospect of an estimated 20 million Americans losing their health insurance on his watch, with no Republican replacement in the legislative pipeline. If it’s upheld — as it has been in previous Supreme Court challenges — he can rail against a “liberal” court system…

Trump unsettled Republican lawmakers last week by putting the spotlight back on the thorny issue of repealing and replacing Obamacare, vowing that his party would turn to replacing the health care law as his administration backed a federal court ruling striking down the law in its entirety. Republican congressional leaders quickly sought to distance themselves from Trump’s latest drive, mindful that passing such a proposal would be virtually impossible in a divided Congress…

Trump said Thursday he’s asked Republican senators to work on a replacement to the Affordable Care Act, but no such group appears to exist. Multiple Republican senators who Trump name-checked said they were not a part of a working group, but had spoken with the President about health care recently.

And on Wednesday, Marc Short, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff and the former White House legislative affairs director, claimed on CNN that “the President will be putting forward plans this year” to replace Obamacare through Congress.

White House officials were quick to tell CNN that Short had gotten ahead of White House deliberations.

The White House has yet to decide whether it will take the lead on crafting an Obamacare replacement, they said, or whether the President will punt to Republican lawmakers.” (J)

• How ‘Medicare for All’ went from pipe dream to mainstream, https://www.rollcall.com/news/campaigns/medicare-for-all-2020-election
• Medicare for All: Where 2020 Dems stand, by Max Greenwood, https://www.rollcall.com/news/campaigns/medicare-for-all-2020-election
• Verma: ‘Medicare for All means hope for none’, by Morgan Haefner, https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/payer-issues/verma-medicare-for-all-means-hope-for-none.html
• Trump Administration’s Move to Gut Obamacare Raises Risks for 2020, by Sahil Kapur  and Andrew M Harris, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-26/trump-asks-courts-to-erase-obamacare-in-risky-2020-election-move
• What Happens if Obamacare Is Struck Down?, by Reed Abelson, Abby Goodnough and Robert Pear, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/26/health/obamacare-trump-health.html
• GOP UNDER PRESSURE TO HATCH HEALTH CARE PLAN, by MELANIE ZANONA,  https://www.politico.com/newsletters/huddle/2019/03/28/gop-under-pressure-to-hatch-health-care-plan-mueller-report-wont-be-released-by-next-week-progressives-slam-party-over-new-primary-policy-michael-grimm-wants-to-make-a-comeback-again-417237
• House Democrats’ new plan to strengthen Obamacare, explained, by Dylan Scott, https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/3/26/18282103/aca-obamacare-news-house-democrats-legislation-doj
• McConnell to Trump: Health care’s all yours, by BURGESS EVERETT, https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/28/mcconnell-health-care-trump-1242865
• White House working on secret healthcare plan with three conservative think tanks, by Emily Ward, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house-working-on-secret-healthcare-plan-with-three-conservative-think-tanks?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202019-04-01%20Healthcare%20Dive%20%5Bissue:20170%5D&utm_term=Healthcare%20Dive
• Trump punts on health care until after the 2020 election, by Jeremy Diamond and Kyle Feldscher, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house-working-on-secret-healthcare-plan-with-three-conservative-think-tanks?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202019-04-01%20Healthcare%20Dive%20%5Bissue:20170%5D&utm_term=Healthcare%20Dive

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From REPEAL & REPLACE to WRECK & REJOICE (from Obamacare to Trumpcare)

OBAMACARE/ TRUMPCARE CHRONOLOGY

March 26, 2017

LESSONS LEARNED: TrumpRyanCare Obits

March 29, 2017

Let’s prohibit Congressmen from insurance reimbursement for Prostate Screening and Treatment

May 6, 2017

Repeal and DESTROY Obamacare

May 24, 2017

Hard to believe a congressman said NOBODY DIES BECAUSE THEY DON’T HAVE ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE

June 16, 2017

REVISE and RECALIBRATE Obamacare. Prevent Republican’s “mean” plan.

June 23, 2017

Is there more “heart” in the Senate health care bill? Or is it “meaner” than the House bill?

June 29, 2017

Perry Como sang “There’s no place like home for the holiday”….except for Republican Senators with their TrumpCare albatross

July 4, 2017

REPEAL NOW/ REPLACE LATER: “Nothing like rolling a hand grenade into ongoing negotiations…”

July 6, 2017

Cruz health care bill amendment – “….healthy people could get coverage although that coverage might not protect them if they got sick and sick people would have to pay an unaffordable amount for coverage.”

July 9, 2017

SLOW DOWN & START OVER (policy) versus REPEAL & REPLACE (politics)

July 12, 2017

What would Albert Einstein have said about TrumpCare? “The definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result.”

July 13, 2017

Is the new Senate health proposal a responsible bill or just “stuff” to get 50 votes?

July 15, 2017

Republican Talking Points on the new Senate Health Care Bill. Democratic Party response – “Senate Republicans spent the past two weeks putting lipstick on a pig”

July 16, 2017

Last week Senator McCain said the “Senate healthcare deal could be reached by Friday ‘if pigs fly’” (A). Now he has a deciding vote on the Republican “junk insurance” bill!

July 17, 2017

“Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.” (Otto von Bismarck). Or not made…two conservative Republican Senators kill TrumpCare….for now

July 18, 2017

After another day of Republican health care bill fiascos: “President Trump: ‘Let Obamacare Fail…I’m Not Going to Own It’

July 19, 2017

Are Republicans going to LET Obamacare die or MAKE it die? How can the individual market exchanges be stabilized?

July 20, 2017

“The vote is a reward to the ultras who sabotaged repeal and replace by allowing them to posture one more time as purists who have not forsaken the true faith.”

July 21, 2017

“McConnell is still planning votes on health-care legislation next week. But many things have to go right for his strategy to succeed, and not all of them are within his control.”

July 22, 2017

“….. the parliamentarian has taken an already very difficult process for enacting health care legislation in the Senate and made it nearly impossible….”

July 23, 2017

New York Daily News editorial: Senate Republican vote –“An embarrassment wrapped in cruelty wrapped in political disaster.”

July 24, 2017

Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) suggested….that he’d like to duel with female senators he blames for the Senate’s failure to repeal and replace ObamaCare

July 25, 2017

“These are the moments legislatively when you get creative. We’re getting creative.”

July 26, 2017

“It is clear that Mr. McConnell does not much care which of these proposals the Senate passes…. — he just wants to get a bill out of the Senate.”

July 27, 2017

Senator Graham said he could not support a “half-assed” plan that he called “politically” the “dumbest thing in history.”

July 28, 2017

The House and Senate played “dodgeball” not wanting to be held accountable when twenty million people, their constituents, would lose access to affordable care.

July 29, 2017

What Congress, President Trump and Former President Obama are saying about healthcare

August 6th

“.. here’s the first thing I thought about: feel better, Hillary Clinton could be president..” (Senator McConnell) (A) “McCain Voted Against Health Care Bill…Because it Would ‘Screw’ Arizona.” (B)

August 10, 2017

“In politics you can tell your friends from your enemies, your friends are the ones who stab you in the front”.* Look at what the Republicans are saying about each other now about health care

August 16, 2017 |

The Trump administration “blinks”; provides Obamacare funding

August 23, 2017

For 17 years I was President and CEO of a safety net hospital. TrumpCare will “disinsure” twenty million+ people and devastate the hospitals we all depend on.

August 23, 2017

Trump told a GOP senator she could only ride on Air Force One if she voted for the healthcare bill.

September 3, 2017

TrumpCare. “If you don’t know (`or care`) where you’re going, any road will get you there.” – Lewis Carroll

September 8, 2017

“Republican plans to replace Obamacare are fading fast, but that doesn’t mean Congress is done with health care.

September 16, 2017

“Senators on the health committee are working over the weekend to try to reach an agreement on a stabilization bill for Obamacare…”

September 19, 2017

President Trump would sign the Graham-Cassidy bill if the legislation to repeal Obamacare makes it to his desk…. IT JUST MIGHT MAKE IT THERE!

September 20, 2017

TRUMPCARE. “This is the choice for America, Mr. Graham said on Tuesday: “Socialism or federalism when it comes to your health care.””

September 21, 2017

President Trump tweeted he ”.. would not sign Graham-Cassidy if it did not include coverage of pre-existing conditions. It does! A great Bill. Repeal & Replace.” IT DOESN’T!

September 22, 2017

“It ain’t over till it’s over.” (Yogi Berra). But, John McCain said he “cannot in good conscience vote for the Graham Cassidy proposal.”

September 23, 2017

TrumpGrahamCassidy. “Perhaps one of the biggest challenges for the bill will come next week when the Senate parliamentarian — an umpire of sorts for the chamber’s rules — takes a look at the bill…”

September 24, 2017

White House Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short is defending the proposed Graham-Cassidy bill — – by countering criticism that the bill does not provide coverage for those with pre-existing conditions.

September 25, 2017

TRUMP/ GRAHAM/ CASSIDY. “If there’s a billion more going to Maine … that’s a heck of a lot,” Cassidy said.

September 26, 2017

“I personally think it’s time for the American people to see what the Democrats have done to them on health care,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah).

September 27, 2017

Last minute Sunday night Graham Cassidy revisions included.. a pretty sweet deal for the state of Lo uisiana, home of one of the bill’s sponsors Sen. Bill Cassidy.

September 28, 2017

LINDSEY GRAHAM ON OBAMACARE REPEAL: I HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS DOING

September 29, 2017

“Senate Republicans Commence Health Care Blame Game” – pointing fingers at each other. (But..Is a bipartisan deal next?)

October 1, 2017

Senator Cassidy a candidate for Health and Human Services Secretary?

October 2, 2017

Access to health care….should be considered “privileges” for those who can afford them

October 8, 2017

Trump: “I want to focus on North Korea not ‘fixing somebody’s back’,…Let the states do that.” As “synthetic repeal” of ObamaCare is underway.

October 12, 2017

Trump’s Executive Order: “By siphoning off healthy individuals, these junk plans could cannibalize the insurance exchanges.”

October 15, 2017

Trump vows to rip apart Obamacare piece by piece

October 18, 2017

“… President Donald Trump on Wednesday backed away from a bipartisan deal on healthcare reached by two senators…

October 31, 2017

Ending the subsidy for copays/ deductibles would increase the subsidy for premiums ..and ObamaCare enrollment would grow

November 9, 2017

President Trump and Republican congressional leaders falsely claim that Obamacare… is in a “death spiral.”

November 14, 2017

Senate Republicans include repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate in the tax bill

November 20, 2017

The Republican deal with itself: repeal the Obamacare individual mandate and stabilize the individual health insurance market?

November 26, 2017

“The White House is trying kill Obamacare. Americans are throwing it a lifeline.”

November 30, 2017 | Edit

“The Senate tax bill is really a health care bill with major implications for more than 100 million Americans…..

December 2, 2017 |

“..Conference Committee “may not change a provision on which both houses agree, nor may they add anything that is not in one version or the other,”…

December 6, 2017

“…House and Senate Republicans will likely scrap Obamacare’s individual mandate in their final tax bill.”

December 8, 2017

..congressional Republicans aim to reduce spending on federal health care programs to reduce America’s deficit

December 10, 2017

Note to Sen Collins: Look Around the Poker Table- If You Can’t See the Patsy, You’re It! *

December 14, 2017

“..the compromise tax bill from House and Senate negotiators will end the health law’s requirement that all individuals buy insurance or pay a fine….”

December 17, 2017

“ the move is a winner for Republicans, who.. would otherwise have little to show for 7 years of…repeated efforts to kill Obamacare..”

December 19, 2017

“….57 % of Americans now approve of Obamacare. Only 29 % approve of the GOP’s tax cuts.”

December 20, 2017

By ending the Individual Mandate Republicans are “showing they have no clue how insurance works.”…or don’tcare…

December 21, 2017

President Trump: “When the individual mandate is being repealed that means ObamaCare is being repealed”

December 23, 2017

“It leaves us with two laws… Call the first one Obamacare… Call the second one Trumpcare”

January 10, 2018

“wreck and rejoice” – has consequences. BTW, there is a congressional exemption from ObamaCare

January 24, 2018

GOP Rep. Blames Obamacare For Sexual Harassment Allegations

April 25, 2018

From REPEAL & REPLACE to WRECK & REJOICE (from Obamacare to Trumpcare)