# Trumpcare **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 7, 2017, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumpcare/781625 "2017-03-07T15:57:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumpcare/781625/101 "2017-03-09T17:53:51Z")
I predict it will pass. They will pressure reluctant GOP Senators to vote for it. They will rush it through. Dolt 45 will sign it. It will fail, people will lose coverage, pay more, and people will die. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumpcare/781625/102 "2017-03-09T18:12:19Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > I strongly suspect that Republicans don’t see this as a problem. For them, it’s more of a feature than a bug. Indeed. I think they hope to use this as a wedge to get California to change the law. Living in California, I can say that ain’t gonna happen. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumpcare/781625/103 "2017-03-09T18:24:16Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I predict it will pass. They will pressure reluctant GOP Senators to vote for it. They will rush it through. Dolt 45 will sign it. It will fail, people will lose coverage, pay more, and people will die. And the Republican base will still praise them to the heavens. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumpcare/781625/104 "2017-03-09T18:30:12Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > And the Republican base will still praise them to the heavens. The Republican base is like a flock of chickens kneeling before a statue of Colonel Sanders. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumpcare/781625/105 "2017-03-09T18:47:17Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > The Republican base is like a flock of chickens kneeling before a statue of Colonel Sanders. Who they’re about to be: [QUOTE=Adrian Bott] ‘I never thought leopards would eat MY face,’ sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumpcare/781625/106 "2017-03-09T19:00:36Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > The problem with the idea of lowering Medicare eligibility is that the trust fund is already near insolvency. [Except it isn’t.](http://www.cbpp.org/research/health/medicare-is-not-bankrupt) > [@](#): > > The 2016 report of Medicare’s trustees finds that Medicare’s Hospital Insurance (HI) trust fund will remain solvent — that is, able to pay 100 percent of the costs of the hospital insurance coverage that Medicare provides — through 2028. Even in 2028, when the HI trust fund is projected for exhaustion, incoming payroll taxes and other revenue will still be sufficient to pay 87 percent of Medicare hospital insurance costs. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumpcare/781625/107 "2017-03-09T19:18:38Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > The Republicans goal with this bill is not to have a bill that passes, it’s to have a bill that fails that they can blame on someone else (hopefully Democrats) and use to win reelection; if you want to repeal Obamacare, we need more Republicans elected. Or: “We tried to pass a bill that would replace Obamacare with something better, but they blocked us, and now (insert administrative/regulatory sabotage of Obamacare here) Obamacare is imploding, just like we said it would! So totally NOT OUR FAULT!” ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumpcare/781625/108 "2017-03-09T19:24:24Z")
Paul Ryan doesn’t understand [how insurance works.](https://mic.com/articles/170748/paul-ryan-s-slideshow-on-gop-health-care-plan-suggests-he-has-no-idea-how-insurance-works) > [@](#): > > House Speaker Paul Ryan rolled up his shirtsleeves Thursday to deliver a presentation about the House Republicans’ health care plan and explain why it will fix all the problems he said the Affordable Care Act wrought. > > But in the process, Ryan seemed to lack a fundamental understanding of how insurance works, leading to him getting mercilessly dragged on social media. > > “The fatal conceit of Obamacare is that we’re just going to make everybody buy our health insurance at the federal government level, young and healthy people are going to go into the market and pay for the older sicker people,” Ryan said at his daily press briefing on Capitol Hill. > > “So the young, healthy person is going to be made to buy health care, they’re going to pay for the person who gets breast cancer in her 40s, or who gets heart disease in his 50s,” he continued. When Ryan rolls up his sleeves, a poor person gets fisted. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumpcare/781625/109 "2017-03-09T19:42:18Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Or: “We tried to pass a bill that would replace Obamacare with something better, but they blocked us, and now (insert administrative/regulatory sabotage of Obamacare here) Obamacare is imploding, just like we said it would! So totally NOT OUR FAULT!” I’m not going to carry water for my party on stupid talking points. The bill they are trying to pass is garbage. Whether it’s garbage because the combination of ideology and campaign donors made it impossible to write a good bill or it’s garbage because they never really wanted a bill to pass, it’s a total failure of leadership. However, ACA actually does have real problems and assuming no changes actually pass, it’s death will come from its poor design. The Democrats wrote a better bill than the Republicans, but that doesn’t mean it was a good bill. According to a recent poll, 51% of Americans want ACA fixed and only 7% want it to stay as it is(the rest want repeal and replace or just repeal). So there’s a huge potential political win in fixing ACA, and there are ways to do that with conservative means. It’s time to find out how smart Paul Ryan actually is, because he should be thinking a move or two ahead. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumpcare/781625/110 "2017-03-09T19:45:20Z")
[Kellyanne says, don’t call it Trumpcare.](https://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/watch-kellyanne-conway-desperately-tries-to-stop-fox-host-from-calling-gop-health-plan-trumpcare/) ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumpcare/781625/111 "2017-03-09T19:48:43Z")
Any lay person who managed to read that bill has my admiration. I only managed a few pages, so many were the referrals to previous bills changing this to that. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumpcare/781625/112 "2017-03-09T19:53:01Z")
Oh, and I can’t forget to mention our Glorious Leader, who has completely left the drafting of this bill to Congress without even so much as setting real goals he expected to be met. Without Presidential leadership, bills will tend to be whatever campaign donors and ideological extremists want. President Obama did not submit a bill to Congress either, but he did set clear goals. I think that a John Kasich or Jeb Bush would have made this effort work. Trump has no idea how to do this part of the job of President and Mike Pence isn’t any good at this either, being an ideological extremist himself. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumpcare/781625/113 "2017-03-09T20:01:45Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > … So there’s a huge potential political win in fixing ACA, and there are ways to do that with conservative means… Which would be what, perzackly? Have you forwarded a copy of the **adaher** Plan to the Powers That Think They Are? Because doesn’t seem to me that anything currently under consideration meets that criteria. Fill in some substance, here. “…(T)here are ways to do that with conservative means…” is a mite thin. (ellipses deployed because that’s how smart folks do it) ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumpcare/781625/114 "2017-03-09T20:04:39Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Oh, and I can’t forget to mention our Glorious Leader… being an ideological extremist himself. Golf claps for baby steps as \*\*addy \*\*stumbles away from the path of Political Error. He’s smart, we’re right, sooner or later, he’s ours. (… for same reason as before…) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumpcare/781625/115 "2017-03-09T20:06:16Z")
Come to the left side of The Force-We have cookies! ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumpcare/781625/116 "2017-03-09T20:09:26Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I predict it will pass. They will pressure reluctant GOP Senators to vote for it. They will rush it through. Dolt 45 will sign it. It will fail, people will lose coverage, pay more, and people will die. And Trump and his merry band of Trumpsters will promptly [blame Obama and/or Democrats](http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/08/politics/donald-trump-conservative-leaders/index.html) for the failure of the new law. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumpcare/781625/117 "2017-03-09T20:12:15Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Which would be what, perzackly? Have you forwarded a copy of the **adaher** Plan to the Powers That Think They Are? Because doesn’t seem to me that anything currently under consideration meets that criteria. > > Fill in some substance, here. “…(T)here are ways to do that with conservative means…” is a mite thin. > > (ellipses deployed because that’s how smart folks do it) There’s no comprehensive health care bill that satisfies Republican ideology and the desires of Republican campaign donors, this is true, and always the big problem with repeal and replace. But small changes to ACA can be done that are consistent with what Republicans can actually sell to their base: 1. The individual mandate part of the bill is half baked, but can be formed into something that can work. Strict enrollment periods and continuous coverage can work better than an individual mandate, especially one as poorly enforced as the current one. 2. The coverage requirements can be reduced. Why do certain things need to be free? that just increases the cost of premiums and co-pays for non-free services. That was a Democratic political decision, primarily to woo female voters. Undo it, insurance gets a little cheaper for everyone, luring more healthy people into the markets and giving them more choices. 3. Changes to the way its funded. Democrats opened the door to Medicare “savings”. Republicans can kick that door open and cut Medicare more while eliminating many of the more odious taxes. 4. Let people buy insurance from any state exchange they want. Yes, it’s the old “sell health insurance across state lines” thing, but it’s worth doing, and it now needs doing since some states have only one insurer now. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumpcare/781625/118 "2017-03-09T20:15:36Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Come to the left side of The Force-We have cookies! I’m not a lefty. That’s just not how I think. Parties, on the other hand, are malleable and I could see myself becoming a Democrat if the DLC wing returned to dominance. That’s simply a matter of numbers. If Reagan Democrats and disgruntled neocons move back to the Democrats, then that changes the party, and I’ll happily jump on that bandwagon if it comes rolling my way. ---
**Author:** ![Airbeck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/airbeck/32/6574_2.png) [@Airbeck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airbeck)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumpcare/781625/119 "2017-03-09T20:22:02Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > 1. Let people buy insurance from any state exchange they want. Yes, it’s the old “sell health insurance across state lines” thing, but it’s worth doing, and it now needs doing since some states have only one insurer now. How then would you prevent every health insurance company from moving its headquarters to the state with the least amount of regulations? Isn’t this just inviting a race to the bottom, where every insurance plan in the country would be negatively effected and real choice would be eliminated since everyone will have to get insurance from whatever state is most profitable to the insurance companies? How do you prevent that from happening? Or is that actually the point? ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumpcare/781625/120 "2017-03-09T20:23:39Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Paul Ryan doesn’t understand [how insurance works.](https://mic.com/articles/170748/paul-ryan-s-slideshow-on-gop-health-care-plan-suggests-he-has-no-idea-how-insurance-works) > > When Ryan rolls up his sleeves, a poor person gets fisted. This is a stupid article and it’s conclusion is wrong. Here it is quoting Ryan: > [@](#): > > “The fatal conceit of Obamacare is that we’re just going to \*\*make everybody buy \*\*our health insurance at the federal government level, young and healthy people are going to go into the market and pay for the older sicker people,” Ryan said at his daily press briefing on Capitol Hill. (my bold) Then further from the article: > [@](#): > > What Ryan described is how all insurance works No, it’s not. Not even close and this criticism is an utter failure. The key difference is the mandate - the make everyone buy part. All other insurance **is not** like that, people have a choice whether they want to buy it or not. > [@](#): > > Keeping bad drivers out of car insurance pools or healthy people out of health insurance would defeat the purpose of insurance at all. At that point, it would be so expensive to buy insurance, the need for insurance would evaporate altogether. And here, I think they have a typo or something. Keeping bad drivers out of car insurance pools would make the insurance cheaper, not more expensive for the people remaining in the pool. It would make it more expensive for those forced out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumpcare/781625.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumpcare/781625.md?page=7)