Its Time to Worry about Health Care in the Senate

[flamingdem]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/opinion/health-care-bill-senate.html?_r=0

David Leonhardt MAY 23, 2017

While the rest of the country has been transfixed by Trumpian chaos, members of the Senate have spent the last two weeks talking about taking health insurance from millions of Americans.

There is an alarmingly large chance that they’ll decide to do so. But if they do, they will almost certainly rely on a political sleight of hand to disguise their bill’s damage. Understanding that sleight of hand — and calling attention to it — offers the best hope for defeating the bill.

The effort to take health insurance from the middle class and poor and funnel the savings into tax cuts for the rich is a little like mold. It grows best in the dark.

That’s why Republican leaders in the House handled their bill as they did. They did not hold a single hearing, because they knew that attention would have been devastating.

Just imagine a hearing featuring the leaders of these groups, every one of which opposes the House bill: the American Medical Association, American Nurses Association, American Hospital Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association, American Lung Association, March of Dimes and AARP.

The House also passed its final bill without waiting for the Congressional Budget Office to estimate how many Americans would lose insurance. The C.B.O. will release that analysis tomorrow afternoon. There is no precedent, outside of wartime, for passing a bill this important in such haste.

After the House did, many observers assumed the bill was too flawed to have much chance in the Senate. Republican senators, aware of the bill’s unpopularity, were careful to say publicly that they would start fresh. But the early signs suggest that Mitch McConnell and his Republican caucus are actually mimicking the House approach.

more at link

[democratisphere]

1. The masses will not allow this healthcare bill to pass.

redumbliCONs are about to end their careers.

[murielm99]

2. I don't believe the masses can do anything about

its passage. If it does pass, then it will be time to step up the protests and vote repukes out of office. That is all that is left to us now.

[democratisphere]

4. This is different. Now it actually is a matter of life and death.

[flamingdem]

3. I keep thinking that - but they got such crapola through the house

and if this one is toned down the rethugs might be willing to spin it.

They have to pay off their donors somehow..

[democratisphere]

5. Drumpf's donors were too stupid to realize their healthcare was going to be

taken away. Healthcare is one issue many redumbliCONs will join forces with Democrats to maintain.

[drmeow]

6. Not sure what I can do

my Senators are Flake and McCain - I've given up on McCain and just keep hoping he'll die (preferably painfully) and I'm already fighting Flake tooth and nail.

[progressoid]

7. I know the feeling.

I've got Grassley and Ernst.

[mwooldri]

9. Burr and Tillis.

The former has his hands full with Russia.

[notdarkyet]

10. I'm in az with you. Feel your pain.

[BigmanPigman]

8. You can call any and all repub senators (it doesn't matter if he/she is your rep or not).

I have. In fact I've called all 100 senators three separate times (2 for the ACA and once for his tax returns). I just get the address with the zip code and phone number with area code of any public library in any city in the state that the senator or congressman is from. The staffers never check it out. It takes 2 min. to Google it. It's easier to do the Senate since it can be any city in the state. The House is more time consuming since you have to get their particular district and there are so many more. All the numbers for the 115 congress are at [phone]. I encourage everyone to call all the Repub one ASAP! RESIST!

[flamingdem]

13. This is great, make a separate post on this if you can

because they're trying to get away with passing this without pushback since people are focused on Russia. Russiagate will work itself out, this should be the focus once again

[SergeStorms]

11. Isn't it amazing.......

what good, honest, truthful information can do for the American people? People are now educated on this issue, and to me that means they can be educated on OTHER issues as well. And where did they get this information? From Trump? From the GOP? From FOX News? NO! They got it from Democratic Congress-critters, and the so called "liberal" media. I guess the truth DOES have a distinct liberal bias! We can do this for many other issues as well. We have to be patient, wait until middle America is good and pissed off, and then TELL THEM THE TRUTH. With the correct information people in this country WILL MAKE THE CORRECT DECISIONS!

[flamingdem]

14. Sadly they're often willing to listen to lies

paid for by the Koch Bros etc

[voteearlyvoteoften]

12. Kick