Long term, I think the GOP is in bigger trouble if this thing passes than if it fails. Failure would be embarrassing, but success might be catastrophic.
I’m not interested in testing this with the lives of millions of vulnerable people.
JSG,
I phoned my so-called representative Pearce (R-NM). He is voting in favor of the so-called health bill. He has no position paper on the bill but I am told he will make a statement after the vote. The lady who answered the phone seemed a bit beleaguered. Said she was getting a lot of calls.
Now I am watching Trump proclaim involvement of religious organizations in US politics. The greatest danger we face as a nation is politicization of religion. Trump is institutionalizing it!
Crane
At this point, there is literally no degree of stupidity I would put past the GOP. “Sure, he took our health care, and Granny and Jim-Bob died cuz of it, but hey, look, he’s not one of those filthy liberals.” I fundamentally reject the idea that republicans get to be called decent people. Either word.
There are a non-trivial number of people who believed pre-ACA that they had comprehensive health insurance for $150 a month. (If they had fallen ill or been injured they would have quickly discovered that their policies didn’t cover anything or would have been rescinded.) Depending on the countours of any repeal you might see those sorts of policies proliferate again and lull this non-trivial number of people into thinking it all worked out OK in the end. Fact of the matter is that there’s a surprisingly large number of people who have little or no contact with the health care system at all in any given year.
For sick people or those who like me are uninsurable for pre-existing conditions, it’s pretty goddamn horrifying.
Yep. We have a severe health insurance literacy problem in the US. People don’t understand what it does, and far too many people don’t care to learn. Instead, they use talking points with no understanding at all.
Thanks for calling him. An engaged electorate is the only way to win in the long run.
Me either, but that might be an experiment that the GOP is willing to run.
Yeah, it’s looking that way.
I’m wearing my angry shirt, which is fitting.
They can pass it with 50 (51?) votes due to reconcilliation (Pence would gladly break ties). The current whipping point is “No need for CBO scoring; vote NOW; the Senate will fix it.” 
Which is silly, because the Senate realizes this will sink them in 2018. If the entire situation wasn’t so dire 
it’d be funny to see how the upper house navigates the rocky shoals of pre-existing conditions and an updated CBO score.
Did my part to let my sheep of a Congressman (Bill Huizenga MI-2) know I don’t support his rubber-stamped “yes” vote. Emailed yesterday, called today. Plan on going to as many west Michigan healthcare rallies as my wife and kids will allow.
This shit is personal for me. We’ve been using ACA insurance since it was made available January 1, 2014. This year, my employer offered me SHOP Marketplace insurance (ACA insurance for small businesses). My wife and I decided, once the last attempt at repeal failed and Trump et al were telling us Obamacare was the law of the land for the foreseeable future, I quit my job to focus on our small business because we figured we’d be able to stay on the ACA Marketplace going forward. Now…well, just praying the Senate has some decency.
Color me enraged, but due to my spouse’s recent illness and death I’ve been out of the loop lately, and I’m sure other people can use the same help I’m about to ask for:
Can you (or anyone) point me to a site that concisely outlines the high(low) points of this bills? Although my rep is a Democrat and not voting for this crock of crap one of my senators is a Pence-clone and I’d like to be able to send him a “vote no” message in terms he might be able to understand.
Thanks in advance.
It’s personal for me too. I expect if ACA goes away I’ll be in a world of trouble.
My rep is a Dem and certain to vote against this bill.
So there is supposedly a $8 billion of support for those with preexisting conditions…spread out over a five year period, which makes it about $1.6 billion a year. The population is approximately $326 million, which gives each American approximately 13 bucks a year for preexisting conditions.
Here is a pretty good primer. In general, Sarah Kliff is a very good person to follow on health care.
I’m happy to explain anything that is confusing, but this is a good start.
And here is another good source from the NYTimes.
The vote should be happening in a few minutes. Here is a site with live tallies.
To require more support would put those tax cuts in jeopardy. Sad!
Best outcome: Ryan fails at counting votes and it goes down.
2nd Best outcome: Passes house and dies in the Senate.
3rd Best outcome: Becomes law and leads to Democratic sweeps in 2018 and 2020.
Nightmare: Passes and Republicans sell the benefits as “See! We stopped forcing insurance companies from giving money to Muslims and illegals with pre-existing conditions!” The base eats it up and they successfully polish the turd.
In Nancy Pelosi’s words, it’s a fifth of a pittance.
Matt Fuller is one of the best vote-counters around and his Twitter feedis probably the go-to place to keep up on what’s happening. He seems to think it will be tight but the bill will pass. Which is truly astonishing given the limited debate, lack of a new CBO score and the massive stakes involved.
While it will be difficult for this to pass the Senate, it would be foolish to rely on Republican “moderates” to stop something the rest of the party wants. The Democrats will have to mobilize all the energy they can muster to stop this in the Senate and if that fails they need to make sure this becomes the defining issue of the next two election cycles and indeed something that will be remembered for decades as a GOP-made disaster.