NOTE: Some actions you can take to oppose this disturbing new development are at the bottom of this column. YOU ONLY HAVE A FEW Days!
However, be aware that even if the AHCA bill is abandoned, it may still be too late to save OBAMACARE.
What THEN?
I have no answers.
~teresa
You may be expecting the Senate to write its own version of the disastrous GOP health care bill, as you were told it would. You may think the Senators will provide opportunity for expert and public input before its decision
In other words, you might assume the Senate would follow its own procedures.
If so, you'd be wrong.
While y’all were focused on something shiny, the little cabal of Republicans who’ve been conjuring up this thing of horror concocted a scheme so deceitful, so satanic, that Satan himself is thinking, “What the actual fuck?”
Even worse, their pretext for doing so is BASED ON SOMETHING THAT NEVER HAPPENED. The unfathomable dishonesty around the repeal of Obamacare has created a scenario where anything is possible. Some background may explain how we wound up in this mess.
LIES, DRIPPING OFF YOUR MOUTH LIKE DIRT (ROLLING STONES)
My Governor, Scott Walker, was the first in the US to express interest in the AHCA waivers. He announced this on May 5. In particular, he wanted to toss Maternity and Mental Health under the bus.
Then he went to Appleton to enjoy a baseball game, where he was cornered on his own podium by Democrat Thomas Nelson, Outagamie County Executive. In front of God and everybody, Nelson demanded Walker explain why people with health conditions should pay exponentially more for medical coverage.
Apparently, it turned into a public screaming match.
Three hours after his earlier announcement, Walker was at the microphones again, clarifying he'd had NO intention of preventing any Wisconsinites from getting insurance.
WOW. I DO NOT RECALL THAT.
Walker’s bullshit continued when he praised HiRSP, Wisconsin's old high-risk pool, which our own Paul Ryan has also gushed over. “A lot of people were disappointed HiRSP was discontinued under the ACA," Walker said.
Indeed. I'm sure they wept. My mother almost drowned in that very pool, after a bout with cancer in the 1980s. The pool has no shallow end.
The GOP's super-duper excited to have this awesome thing that will help the most ill. Which means they can't recall anything prior to 2009.
A reminder for them: Of the 26 state-run HRPs that existed before the ACA, 24 collapsed. Premiums were 150-400% higher, and deductibles were obscene. Some covered only the one condition. Some required a year-long waiting period. Some paid out at 60% or less. Many had caps so low they wouldn’t cover a full course of treatment.
But the biggest problem was that since HRPs defy the very logic of insurance, no state could withstand the financial burden. When funds were gone, that was it. The promise of protecting people with preexisting conditions with high-risk pools is a phantom.
Do you recall there was one last detail that persuaded the House to pass the AHCA bill? It was the $8 billion the GOP said it would provide to help states afford those pools.
Do you know how much of the cost it will cover? One percent.
Go ahead. Read it again. It will be just as crazy the second time.
GASLIGHTING -- THE FINEST TOOL FOR MINDFUCKERY
Much of the GOP's "strategery" to win on ACA/AHCA has revolved two methods -- lying outright, and Gaslighting.
For those unfamiliar, Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse -- many say the worst -- in which the perpetrator bends victims to their will by slowly convincing them they can't trust their own memories and perceptions.
Obamacare needed some fixes. That much is very true. But many who violently oppose it literally have false memories about things that never took place, many of which originated from the Right.
As recently as last February, Bill Atkins, a Republican Town Chairman in Florida, warned attendees of a Town Hall that their lives are in danger as long as ACA exists. Because of the "death panels." (Imagine! The Obama administration euthanized everyone over 64 for EIGHT YEARS and nobody
noticed.)
When the people objected, Atkins called them "children" and declared, "The board exists. Okay? And I have voted to repeal that board."
WON'T YOU DANCE WITH ME IN MY WORLD OF FANTASY (NOUVILLE VAGUE)
The belief that everything in life was better before Obama, or Obamacare, is so pervasive I recently had to debate a Trump supporter who detests Obamacare because "Autism treatment was FREE at every medical facility in the country! It was the law! Then Obama got involved and made it illegal!"
Wait, what?
Before the ACA, insurance didn't even COVER treatment for autism. The ACA required coverage for autism therapy for the first time ever.
He remained unconvinced. I Googled around and found original documents of decade studies by a national autism advocacy group, dated 1985 and 1995.
Both confirmed no coverage was available, community treatment exceedingly rare, and families were losing homes and going bankrupt with medical bills totalling $1 million or more.
I forwarded the long documents, with the copyrights and loopy design styles of the eras, within 10 minutes. He said I made them myself.
EURASIA HAS ALWAYS BEEN AT WAR WITH EASTASIA.
Welcome. You have entered into a magical realm where truth is fake, worse is better, and cheap is costly. And documentation, even video, is manufactured if it came from the media. In this dimension, it's easier not to ask questions and to accept the unacceptable, because things were SO much worse before.
Because I have pre-existing conditions, I would still have "access" to insurance -- there's no doubt about that! -- I'd simply have to pay a surcharge to get coverage.
What sort of surcharge? Under ACA, I pay about $200 a month -- affordable even on Disability. But it's possible that under AHCA, my premium could increase to $1,700.
A month.
More than my income.
If only I hadn't bought that fucking iPhone.
If anyone on Obamacare saw their premium go from $200 to $1,700, I'd like to know about it --
since steep premium increases are one of the things we need “rescuing” from. An increase of even part of that amount would mean I'd no longer have coverage for the conditions that put me on Disability in the first place. Or for ANY condition, EVER. The bill's been designed to be virtually impossible to repeal, and Medicaid (and possibly Medicare) aren't long for this world.
Even though I worked for 35 years, my life no longer has intrinsic value for my nation.
Yet listen to any Conservative talk show, read an article, or keep your eyes on the news. The GOP still maintains its plan is affordable for people like me, and better than Obamacare was. The newest claim (I have a column coming on this very soon) is that only 4% of Americans will be affected because of the change in Preexisting Conditions policy. And their explanation is astounding.
So, "children," we see the willingness to deceive, the rewriting of history, and the narrative that Obama's responsible for every bad thing since Pompeii. Now for the meat: 1) an exaggeration, 2) an outright lie, and 3) the hellhole of hypocrisy happening now because of them.
I LIKED HIM. BUT I COULDN'T KEEP HIM. YOU BASTARD.
You might remember hearing the most Machiavellian lie ever told in American politics.
It may have been the greatest lie EVER told, by ANYONE, ANYWHERE. When Peter denied Christ
thrice, saying, "I know not the man," that was small potatoes.
Of course, I’m referring to "If you like your doctor, you can keep him." Our gay Muslim Kenyan "President" promised this while promoting his Communist health plan.
Half the nation suffers from PTSD because of it: they can think of nothing else. On social media, every complaint about the AHCA gets a response referring to it.
Obama did err in promising something outside his purview. But it's not as if switching doctors is cruel and unusual punishment. HMOs switch clients’ doctors all the time, and most people survive the trauma. Before ACA, my carrier changed my doctor 4 times in one year. Plus, even doctors drop dead.
You may have been promised a rose garden, but nobody promised you a physician for life.
On the other hand, Trump's promises for a cheaper, better health system for everybody, which wouldn't withhold care from the poor and wouldn't charge extra for PECs, were NOT lies. They were just … words. And he has the best words.
In fact, Trump continued these promises until the very day the bill was passed. This led to speculation he never even read the goddamn thing. (Speculation? He won't read a brief unless it's bulleted and no longer than one page.) (For real.)
THE PASSAGE OF OBAMACARE WAS KINDA LIKE A RAPE.
We've been hearing for eight looooonnnng years about Obamacare being "rammed through" in secret, without knowledge or even consent of the helpless GOP. (“Rammed” or “jammed” is always the terminology.)
Perhaps he did it alone, in the woods, under a full midnight moon. It may have involved incantations, a bonfire, and possibly nudity.
You'll see the True Facts™ about that at the bottom of this column. The important thing is that this alleged bad faith by Obama is the GOP’s JUSTIFICATION for what it has just done. (When people find out about it, that is. First lie, then justify.)
“(Our process is very different) from when the Democrats did it. Everybody can read (the bill), and it’s going to go through what they call ‘regular order.*’* We’re not jamming this down anybody’s throat."
~ White House Press Secretary Sean SpiceR
“(The AHCA Bill was so difficult to get done) because we didn’t go out there and do this in the way (the Democrats) did. We did it in a transparent and truthful way, and that made the process a lot more arduous in the end.”
~Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.)
"You know, both parties can get together and do real health care, that's the best thing. Obamacare was rammed down everyone's throat, 100 percent Democrat. And I think having bipartisan would be a big, big improvement."
~ President Donald Trump
Remember June 8?
That was the day former FBI Director James Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee about his firing and #TrumpPutin. Good times.
Twenty million Americans tuned in. It was like when Luke and Laura got married on “General Hospital” in 1981.
But there were 13 men who did not watch. They were the Republicans who have been hiding for months as they draw up the GOP health bill.
It's been an incredible sacrifice. They're virtually blind from the dark rooms, their skin is ghostly pale, they have rickets, and they've lost a total of 973 pounds because they can't tell Duccini’s where to deliver the pizza.
THE FIRST RULE ABOUT THE HEALTH CARE BILL IS
DON’T TALK ABOUT THE HEALTH CARE BILL
And this is what happened at this secret meeting:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell invoked Senate Rule 14.
What the hell is Rule 14?
I'm glad you asked.
It allows a bill to bypass Committee and go straight to the Senate floor. It prevents
- Hearings.
- Debates.
- Expert testimony.
- Filibusters.
- Pesky public scrutiny. +
+ Because if you're writing a bill trading the lives of millions -- especially children, the disabled and the poor -- for trillions of dollars in tax breaks for some of the most wealthy people on the planet, the last thing you want is people crying and yelling and calling you nasty names. It ruins the mood.
Rule 14 puts the process into warp speed. And speed’s vital here, because they want to use the Budget Reconciliation Process (DOES ANYONE REMEMBER I WARNED ABOUT THIS LAST CHRISTMAS?).
Among other helpful things, Reconciliation
- Lowers the required number of votes from 60 to 51 (lower's better for a shitty bill!)
- Allows the public less than one day to see the bill before the vote -- too late for any changes to be made (why tempt the fates?)
But Sept. 30 is this year’s deadline for Reconciliation, and the Senate can't vote on a bill before the CBO scores it. To make the timing work, they want to vote on the bill by July 4, just as Congress is leaving for its August recess -- when there won't be any discussion about anything.
The House actually has been working on a bill, but apparently it's pretty much exactly like the Senate one. These folks have no imagination.
The cabal has withheld information even from the rest of the GOP. However, we do know not much has changed since the first two bills: it protects no more patients, it saves no more lives.
You probably recall that both bills were fucking awful -- not better, or cheaper, or for all. Yet when polled last week, 40% of Senate Republicans said the bill fulfilled at least some of Trump’s promises. Make you feel better?
After the bill passed the House, it was revealed that most Reps hadn't read it. That's not extremely unusual -- our own Sen. Russ Feingold, famously, was the ONLY member of Congress who read The US PATRIOT Act.
But … you know? Theoretically, the people we elect (and pay) are supposed to protect us. Or at least, not kill us.
And that's what they're doing with this bill. I have seen two Representatives actually cry over its contents, but ultimately vote in favor.
The one truthful statement of this entire process was blurted to the press by an aide:
“We aren't stupid.”
BUT WHAT ABOUT OBAMA AND ALL
THE RAMMING AND THE JAMMING?
Ah, yes. If only Obama wouldn't have been so secretive and allowed the GOP to be part of the process, none of this would be happening. Here’s just HOW one-sided the ACA process was:
■ The House held 79 bipartisan hearings and markups on the health reform bill over an entire year.
■ House members spent nearly 100 hours in hearings, listening to 181 witnesses from both parties. They considered 239 amendments, both Democratic and Republican, and accepted 121.
■ The HELP Committee, in charge of the process, held 14 bipartisan roundtables, 13 bipartisan hearings, and 20 bipartisan walkthroughs.
■ The HELP Committee considered nearly 300 amendments, and accepted more than 160 from Republicans.
■ The Finance Committee held 17 roundtables, summits, and hearings. It also held 13 member meetings and walkthroughs and 38 meetings and negotiations.
■ The Committee also held a 7-day markup of the bill -- its longest markup in in 22 years, resulting in a bipartisan 14-9 to approve.
■ That markup resulted in 41 amendments to revise the bill, including 18 by unanimous consent or without objection.
■ The Senate spent 25 consecutive days in session discussing the ACA. This was the second longest consecutive session in American history. In total, the Senate spent more than 160 hours considering the legislation.
So you can see why the GOP was so angry. And what's good for the goose is good for the gander.
Until I wrote this, I thought Obama had used Reconciliation to get the ACA passed Seems that was a Fake Fact as well.
The Affordable Care Act passed in the Senate, 60-39,
under **regular order, on Dec. 24, 2009.
~ Teresa Bryan Peneguy
IS THERE ANYBODY I CAN BITCH AT ABOUT THIS?
First, if you’re interested, here are the very male, very reform white Senators who make up the AHCA cabal:
Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, John Thine, John Barrasso, Lamar Alexander, Mike Enzi, Orrin Hatch, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Tom Cotton, Corry Gardner, Rob Portman, Pat Toomey
Here's a resource guide on this very issue from the awesome Indivisible
Hey! I wish I would have found this before today!
This is the health care section of The Resistance Manual, a collaborative knowledge base to help people cope with Trump-related issues like immigration, the Muslim ban, executive orders, etc.
Click on "Recent Updates" for information about Reconciliation, Rule 14 and McConnelling.
The manual also includes also list of crisis hotlines for problems...
-
hate crimes
-
violence against trans/gay folks
-
domestic abuse
-
mental health issues
-
suicide
... which, oddly, seem to be growing under this President.
Thanks, Evangelicals! :)
This may help:
And don’t forget to slather everything you write online in hashtags. At least you'll know you’re not alone!
#YouHad8Years
#McConnelling
#ACHAlypse
#ShowUsTheBill
#MakeAmericaSickAgain
#SaveMedicaid
#IAmAPreexistingCondition
#GOPPricks
#NoCare
#GoodEnough4Us
#StopAHCA
#NoTrumpcare
#ProtectOurCare
#GOPpsychopaths
#ThinningTheHerd
#Indivisible
#TheResistance