The Congressional Budget Office’s Trumpcare score has been all over the headlines in recent days, so by now, you know the basics: The winners are America’s wealthiest citizens, who will pocket a nice tax cut, and the losers are folks on the end of the economic spectrum, who will likely lose their Medicaid coverage or find that private insurance is now too expensive to afford. Hey, freedom isn’t free, people.
So who is supporting and who is not?
Congresswoman Martha McSally (R-AZ02) is on the fence. McSally District Director C.J. Karamargin didn’t respond to our specific questions about the much-criticized cuts in Medicaid for low-income Arizonans, but he did send along a generic statement that has been shared with various nosy news organizations that are wondering where McSally stands:
Congresswoman McSally is encouraged that the American Health Care Act includes provisions she fought for: It keeps in place coverage of pre-existing conditions, allows young adults to remain on their parents’ insurance until age 26 and maintains the prohibition of putting lifetime caps on benefits. The congresswoman is carefully reading the 123-page bill, listening to local stakeholders and in the days ahead will work with House leadership for a viable solution to the healthcare challenges facing Southern Arizonans and all Americans.
BTW, there’s another protest against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act outside of McSally’s Tucson offices at 4400 E. Broadway at 2 p.m. Wednesday, March 15. Organizers—including Indivisible Southern Arizona, McSally Take a Stand and the East Side Bad Hombres and Nasty Women—are calling it an “open mic” where you can share your story about the ACA.
Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ03) compares Trumpcare to the scandal-plagued Trump U:
CBO confirmed this week that the Republican plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with “TrumpCare” is nothing more than an attack on the poor and elderly. Twenty-four million people will lose coverage if the GOP manages to force this bill through Congress. Many will choose to forgo health insurance because this bill incentivizes young, healthy people without coverage to remain uninsured. That means higher premiums for everyone else, and particularly the elderly who will no longer be protected from price gouging the way they currently are under the ACA.
The only winners under the GOP’s healthcare repeal are wealthy Americans who stand to pocket a $600 billion windfall in tax breaks. Those cuts, and the meager deficit reduction in this scheme, come at a heavy price for working families and people on Medicaid. For millions of Americans, “TrumpCare” will go down in history as the healthcare equivalent of Trump University – that is to say, a complete and utter sham.
Congressman Tom O’Halleran wants to find a bipartisan agreement to improve the Affordable Care Act:
Congress should be focused on finding real solutions that protect access to coverage; not playing partisan politics with the health and wellbeing of millions of Americans,. With hundreds of thousands of Arizonans expected to lose coverage, it is past time for Congress to work together on a bipartisan solution.
This new legislation does nothing to slow or reduce the rising cost of health insurance. Older Arizonans will face higher premiums for less coverage and care, and it will be more difficult for rural hospitals to provide adequate health care. I urge my colleagues to work together to protect the investments we have made in recent years and find a solution that gives our families and seniors relief.
Gov. Doug Ducey is “thrilled” by what he’s seen so far, according to spokesman Patrick Ptak:
The governor is thrilled to see repeal of Obamacare on its way, and he is glad to have a seat at the table in the discussion about replacement. The current bill is a moving target, and as it works through the process, it’s likely to see changes. We are tracking those and advocating for increased state flexibility as well as Arizona’s specific needs.
Politico reports that Ducey was a bit more critical during a recent radio interview:
“Flexibility” has become a buzzword among governors critical of the bill. Baker, Snyder,Doug Ducey of Arizona, Bill Haslam of Tennessee, Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Brian Sandoval of Nevada say there is work to be done on the bill to ensure it grants states the flexibility they need.
“The plan that was released doesn’t reflect what the governors want, which is flexibility,” Ducey told a local radio station in Phoenix. “I want flexibility at the state level to improve our health care system, to make these reforms. This is still prescriptive from Washington, D.C.”
Talking Points Memo caught up with Sen. John McCain:
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) joined in on the bashing of the CBO, saying they were “wildly wrong on the initial estimates of Obamacare.” But McCain admitted to reporters that he has some concerns, especially because Arizona is one of the states that took federal funding to expand Medicaid to hundreds of thousands of people. Under the bill, hundreds of billions of dollars are cut from Medicaid over time.
“I’m very worried about what the House bill would do to Arizona,” he said.
TPM also tried to catch up with Sen. Jeff Flake:
“I’m still looking at it,” said Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), dashing for the nearest elevator. “I just got off a flight. I haven’t had time to study it.”
This article appears in Mar 9-15, 2017.
Even though the CBO has never been accurate, it’s all we have right? How often should the government punish the rich for the plight of the poor?
Has it pulled anybody out of poverty, or just bought votes? Be honest.
And the “Eastside Bad Hombres?” Are they still sharing a Prius?
Please.
Socialized medicine saved my life and pulled me out of poverty.
The Federal government needs to get out of “gee, it would be nice” activities and stick to what is mandated in the constitution. ACA by any name will not work in the long run when its customer base is those with bad health. Single payer is the only way it will work, and that has not been made clear in selling this mess to the people.
Turk, ACA would work fine if we got everyone on the program. Right now, it was cheaper for the young to take the tax penalty instead of insurance. So, some insurers lost money and left the program.
Trumpcare keeps all the goodies (pre-existing coverage, etc.) with no way to pay for them. Then adds tax breaks for millionaires, and kicks 24 million people off insurance completely with no plan on how to pay for their care when they show up at the emergency room. It removes the subsidy for older people and throws them on the “mercies” of the market.
It does nothing to rein in costs. Nothing.
Expect healthcare costs to continue to rise.
For months McSally has been saying she was working with leaders in Congress on this bill. Now she is “on the fence?”
Socialized medicine saved my life, too. And I went from being “the working poor” to being comfortably middle class. I am not an anomaly, these programs HELP.
If the Republicans wants to repeal something, how about the the constitutionality of mandating the purchase of health insurance, and the financial penalities being supervised by the IRS. That’s scary.
As I supposed many here do not understand the definition of …pulled out of poverty, working poor, comfortable middle class and “saved my life.”
Too much drama and too few facts. Just what is poverty level in Pima County? And if you were pulled out of poverty, how much money is sent to you each month, to maintain your post poverty status?
Will Ballton:
Longhand for ASS.
Deborah, if you were to find out about these things instead of just read Twitter, you’d know that it is a tax on participating in the United States obligation to provide emergent care to EVERYone.
To simplify for you:
We have decided, as a country, that being poor shouldn’t mean that you die at the ER door if you come into trouble. So, if you are indigent, we all pay for it. Everyone who has either a bank account that can afford care, or insurance to cover such a situation, gets out of paying the tax to cover the poor and the ion-covered. Those who work and have an income and do not have those things, are required to pay a tax for participation.
None of this is unreasonable, and it certainly is not unconstitutional. And until the Republican Party can stomach the idea of a single payer program, this is the best that we, as a country, will be able to do. If you have an office better suited to deal with a tax than the IRS, please, submit your ideas. I am sure that they will be reasonable and thoroughly researched.
Martha McSally isn’t “on the fence” about anything. fivethirtyeight.com reports that McSally is in the top 10 most partisan of House members by voting ONE HUNDRED PERCENT with Trump’s agenda while coming from a congressional district that is split 50-50 and one of the most “purple” districts in the country.
Just one example from 538’s report: McSally, who comes from a district where our former representative was shot in the head by a crazy person, just voted (with Trump) to take away federal screening of the mentally ill as a prerequisite for gun purchases.
Indivisible:
Maybe you don’t understand the greedy mindset of the typical conservative RWNJ.
They couldn’t give less of a shit if they actually had to watch you fall deep into poverty and then watch you die…as long as it helps fill their already ample pockets. As sad as that may seem, it has been proven over and over again that this is the truth.
Personally, I’m glad socialized medicine has helped you out of a tight spot. Don’t expect much, or any, love from the know nothing trolls that infect these comment sections though.
Helping their fellow man doesn’t mean Jack shit to them.
And the irony of it is…a lot of them consider themselves to be Christians!
It’s a laugh.
A really pathetic laugh, but they laugh at you and then they laugh all the way to the bank.
Martha McSally is not “on the fence” about anything.
Fivethirtyeight.com reports that McSally is in the top 10 of all 435 Representatives in the House as a partisan in favor of Trump. They report she has voted One Hundred Percent with Trump’s agenda, despite the fact that CD 2 is one of the most “purple” districts in the country.
Just one example from 538’s report: McSally, despite being from a district where our former Representative was shot in the head by a crazy person, just voted to prevent federal background checks on the mentally ill before they can buy a gun.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congr…
Please note: the White House’s own analysis says the CBO report is wrong:
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/03/white-house-says-cbo-wrong-ahca-would-actually-make-26-million-people-uninsured
Not a surprise Matt, based on what happened january 30 of 2010.
Yesterday day #224 of the ObamaCare Cost-Estimate Watch President Obama told House Republicans:
You cant structure a bill where suddenly 30 million people have coverage and it costs nothing.
And just like that, the president admitted that the official Congressional Budget Office estimates of his health care plan do not reflect its full costs.
The CBO has a history of being just about as accurate as the weather forecasters. I would prefer to bring doctors together without the AMA to begin to draft solutions. There has been talk of having printed price lists for services offered, that are posted in their waiting rooms.
It is very easy not to care about costs when you aren’t the one paying the bill.
And that is exactly what got us into this mess. Do it, but do it right.
To be consistent and save voters a lot of trouble, Republicans should just repeal the generations old US law that says hospitals and ERs can’t just kick people to the street to die.
Their current plan is opposed by all Doctor, Nurse and Hospital associations due to the simple reason that it is sheer idiocy that will impose huge costs on the health care system while causing an extra 50,000 deaths a year and increasing the number of uninsured beyond what it was before the ACA passed.
Oh, but the mega-rich will get most of $1 Trillion in tax breaks.
Trumpcare: “Just Die Quickly”
40 to 50 percent of what we pay for health care goes towards the salaries of CEO’s and the profits of investors. It is time to transition to a non profit health care system. The longer we wait, the more painful it will be.
About half of the industrialized nations in the world have privatized non-profit health care while the other half have nationalized non-profit health care. We are the only ones with a private and public FOR profit system. It is disgusting that in a nation where the majority claim to be Christian that amoral and unethical businesses profit off of peoples health care needs…
Josh Leonard; Do you Understand we had policies in place to handle Jared Loughner.
We had warnings in the High School those slipped by. We had warnings with the Pima College Police who went to Jared Loughner’s home. At his home he was told not to come back to College because threats this happened twice? So to sum it up all the bells and whistles went off that we had a problem walking around.
This is a hard concept for some to grasp no amount of laws or monies can cure complacency and apathy. To validate we had a sheriff that blamed of all things Talk Radio. And now people are dead while the previous sheriff kids are doing property destruction and Nanos was running cover for it.
I can see why people would be afraid and want a gun
Rep. McSally has said repeatedly, including at her town hall in Sahuarita, that the Republican health care plan would give us the “same outcome” as the ACA, but just get there in a different way. We now know, based on the CBO analysis, that this bill would not give us anywhere near the same outcome; instead it would result in 24 million (or more) losing their insurance coverage. Knowing that, why does McSally say she needs to pore over every line in the bill? It doesn’t come close to doing what she said it would. She can’t vote for it without going back on her word.
No one should get rich because you became ill. As long as health care is a for profit business, nothing is going to change.