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March 6: The legislation that House Republicans have unveiled to repeal and replace
ObamaCare would eliminate nearly all of the 2010 health law's taxes — with one
key exception.
March 24:House Republicans pull
health care bill. House Speaker Paul Ryan ... pulled his Obamacare
repeal bill from the floor Friday afternoon, a day after President Donald Trump
had threatened to walk away from health care reform if he didn't get a vote.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/24/politics/house-health-care-vote/index.html
April 26: The White House told lawmakers it will not cut off
federal subsidies that help low-income Americans pay for health insurance under
the Affordable Care Act, at least for now, an administration official and
congressional sources confirm to NPR.
April 26: ... the overwhelming backing from Freedom Caucus
conservatives means the future of the GOP's efforts to dismantle the Affordable
Care Act now rests with moderate House Republicans. But many of them seem slow
to embrace it.
"The concerns that I've had have not been addressed by the current proposals,"
Rep. Dan Donovan, R-N.Y., said Wednesday. Donovan is a member of the Tuesday
Group. "We have to help those people who were harmed by the Affordable Care Act,
but at the same time not harm the people who were helped by it."
http://tspr.org/post/easing-shutdown-worries-trump-relents-another-major-hurdle
April 28: House GOP leaders, despite a furious push
Thursday, were unable to wrangle the votes necessary to move forward on their
latest effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
The development short-circuits, yet again, the House effort to repeal the
cornerstone domestic achievement of President Barack Obama. It guarantees
President Donald Trump will be without a cornerstone legislative achievement
on his 100th day in office -- a symbolic moment that the White House has
focused on intently in recent days ...
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/25/politics/shutdown-border-wall-obamacare-congress/index.html
May 4: House Republicans pass healthcare
bill in first step toward replacing Obamacare ... Partisan approval with one
vote to spare sends American Health Care Act to uncertain fate in Senate, after
negotiations reveal cracks in Republican party
The bill passed 217 to 213, with 20 Republicans voting against and no
Democrats voting in favor. Republicans burst into applause when the bill
passed the 216-vote threshold, a feat that had seemed insurmountable just days
before.
May 4: The Obamacare repeal
bill
that passed the House Thursday moves next to the Senate where it faces
daunting challenges because of the same ideological splits between
conservative and moderate Republicans that nearly killed it in the House.
GOP leaders have set up a working group of senators across the ideological
spectrum to try search for compromises that could unite enough Republicans to
get the 51 votes needed for it to clear the chamber. ... Before the final
vote, the House unanimously passed a separate bill that will ensure members of
Congress and their staffs are subject to the rules of their new health care
measure. Originally, Republicans were under fire after it was reported that
they wouldn't be subject to the rules of their own bill. Republicans said that
they were required to include the exemption under Senate rules.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/04/politics/senate-health-care-bill/index.html
May 19: We'll all learn next week how the
Republican health care bill that passed the House in early May will affect the
number of uninsured and the deficit.
June 21: Senate health care bill similar to
House bill, with some changes ...
The bill largely mirrors the House measure that narrowly passed last month but
with some significant changes. While the House legislation pegged federal
insurance subsidies to age, the Senate bill would link them to income as the ACA
does. The Senate proposal cuts off Medicaid expansion more gradually than the
House bill, but would enact deeper long-term cuts to the health care program for
low-income Americans. It also removes language restricting federally-subsidized
health plans from covering abortions, which may have run afoul of complex budget
rules.
http://www.unionleader.com/health/Draft-Senate-health-care-bill-similar-to-House-bill-with-some-changes-06222017
June 24: Senate Republicans unveiled their
plan to repeal Obamacare — the Better Care Reconciliation Act — on Thursday. The
bill needs 50 votes to pass but lacks the support of Senate Democrats and
several Republican lawmakers.
According to
new analysis released last week by Oliver Wyman Health, an actuarial firm,
premiums could increase by 40 percent by 2018 under Obamacare.
June 24: The Senate bill would make sweeping
cuts to Medicaid, get rid of the individual mandate, and eliminate Obamacare's
taxes on the wealthy and insurers. It would also prevent federal funds from
reimbursing Planned Parenthood for any health services it provides.
June 28: The
Senate bill introduced last week to replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA)
would dramatically increase the cost of health care for Americans 50 and older.
The Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) [the Senate bill] would allow insurers
to charge older people substantially more than younger ones, and states would
have the ability to erase important protections such as essential health
benefits ... You would have to pay more for insurance ... Your insurance might
not cover all the services you need to treat your illness ... You could lose
your (or your loved one’s) Medicaid coverage ... You may lose some Medicare
services ... Your employer might cap some of your current insurance benefits.
https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/advocacy/info-2017/effects-of-senate-health-care-bill.html
July 14: The big change in the new Senate
Republican health care proposal is, as expected, an amendment that has the
potential to undermine current protections for pre-existing conditions. Yes,
thats despite the promises Republican leaders have made, over and over, to treat
those protections as sacrosanct. The amendment, based on a proposal that Sen.
Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has been promoting and tweaking for weeks, would undermine
the rules ...
http://smcmarketingtips.com/blog/category/news/page/39/
July 16: John McCain’s absence from the
Senate as he recovers from surgery has led Republican leadership to postpone
consideration of the troubled
healthcare bill. Surgeons in Phoenix removed a blood clot from above
80-year-old McCain’s left eye on Friday.
July 17: Republicans should just REPEAL
failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a
clean slate. Dems will join in!
@realDonaldTrump
July 17:
Donald Trump’s most fervent supporters are less confident of his leadership
on health care (62%) even though they still overwhelmingly support him as
president (90%), the latest Bloomberg National Poll shows.
July 25: Senate Republicans on Tuesday
backed a motion that allows lawmakers to launch into debate over a
health-overhaul bill, a significant victory for Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell for President Donald Trump, who stepped in to pressure Republicans
after it appeared they were failing in their bid to repeal the Affordable Care
Act.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/senate-votes-to-begin-debate-on-health-care-bill-1501009650
July 25: Senate Republicans voted to advance
to floor debate on their efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare.
It is important to note that the Executive Order (EO) does not implement any new
laws or regulations, but instead directs various federal agencies to explore
options relating to association health plans, short term limited-duration
coverage (STLDI), and health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), within the next
60 to 120 days.
http://blog.ubabenefits.com/october-2017-executive-order-on-healthcare
October 17: President Trump said Tuesday
that a bipartisan plan announced by two senators is part of "short-term deal" to
preserve the health insurance subsidies he killed last week, with a bigger plan
to overhaul predecessor Barack Obama's entire health care law coming next year.
November 9: Jimmy Kimmel made waves on
Tuesday night when he came out in support of, ahem, "Trumpcare," urging his
viewers to visit Healthcare.gov and sign up. (That's right, everyone, head to
Healthcare.gov before December 15 and
sign up for Trumpcare if you really wanna stick it to those Democrats.)
Trumpcare, of course, doesn't exist, despite a lot of wasted effort from
Republicans. Kimmel is sending people to open enrollment for Obamacare, and he's
playing it surprisingly low-key for someone whose style is usually more hammy
than subtle.
https://www.gq.com/story/jimmy-kimmel-trumpcare
July 3: Badly Injured Woman Begs Passersby
Not To Call An Ambulance, Due To Cost
Welcome to America: Where the pain of crippling debt from medical bills exceeds
the visceral, searing pain of a literally crippling injury.
This stark epiphany brought to you by Maria Cramer, a reporter at the Boston
Globe. Last Friday, Cramer encountered a woman during her commute whose leg
slipped into the gap between the train and the platform, where it was pinned,
twisted and bloodied.
August 2: Does Health Insurance Cover
Transgender Health Care?
Even with ACA Section 1557, it's complicated
Equal rights for transgender Americans have been a long time coming, but the
Affordable Care Act (ACA) is making progress towards
equality in health care. Section 1557 of the ACA prohibits discrimination on
a wide variety of grounds for any "health program or activity" that receives any
sort of federal financial assistance.
