https://www.cnn.com/...care-plan/index.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/...m_term=.88b08e1a377d

http://www.crfb.org/...mps-health-care-plan

https://www.healthcareitnews.com/...oint-plan-healthcare

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Damn, who knew healthcare could be covered in 7 bullet points. None of which address pre-existing conditions.

She might be referring to the American Healthcare Act of 2017. Which you're probably referencing as "congressional plans". But it was branded as "Trumpcare" by some at the time. And even "Obamacare" was largely created by Congress.

But to your point, after that vote failed, healthcare has pretty much dropped completely off the radar. Though Trump did just sign some prescription drug legislation, which got ovewhelmed in coverage by the caravan, the #MAGAbomber and the mass shooting.

I get it. Heath care is hard. And everyone but Trump knew that.

The GOP is entrenched in not having government funded universal care or anything that looks like it. That leaves you with choosing between a pay as you go model, self-funded health insurance, or employer funded insurance. No one liked pay as you go because you get nailed so we came up with insurance. Employers like attracting employees so they came up with it as a benefit. Congress likes being elected so they decided to not tax that as income.

So unless you change the tax laws, which will go against the whole GOP won't raise your taxes meme, or outlaw insurance as an employment benefit, which is pretty much a non-starter, the GOP is left trying to fix the current model. Which we have a couple decades of evidence that it doesn't work very well.

The ACA was always a mess. It put the government in the middle of private health insurance and made sure the insurance companies still made all of their money. And instead of being a stepping stone to single payer universal care as its opponents tried to claim it would be I think it has made single payer much harder to get through, as the mess of the ACA will always hang out there now as what happens when the government gets into health care.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

So unless you change the tax laws, which will go against the whole GOP won't raise your taxes meme, or outlaw insurance as an employment benefit, which is pretty much a non-starter, the GOP is left trying to fix the current model. Which we have a couple decades of evidence that it doesn't work very well.



That's the main issue. The GOP take a stand that they don't want to increase taxes and don't want to have government healthcare but they simply don't, or can't, come up with a reasonable alternative. The problem is that when they aren't in control, they go after any plan the Democrats come up with and when they are in control, don't do anything about it. They are the party of obstruction when it comes to healthcare and you can bet that if the Dems win in 2020, the first thing you will hear from Congress is how they have to bring down the debt and how healthcare has to change. And repeat.



The Dems did not provide a good alternative but at least they were out there trying something, only to be met by obstruction at every turn. It's now on the GOP to deal with healthcare and the growing debt and from where I sit, it doesn't look like much is being done. That's why it seems it would be difficult to know how to vote.

Not signed, but proposed - so it's a long way from getting passed. Good luck with the Drug Lobby - the proposal would put caps on what price could be charged by the drug companies (based on the price they charge in foreign countries). Telling private companies what they can price things at,,,, if this was proposed by a democrat, he tweet a storm about government interference.

Thanks for the clarification. Like I said, it got swamped!

Hey, don't blame GOP congress, it was all John McCain's fault. 100% him.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

That's a killer summary. Whenever healthcare comes up my blood just about boils. I have experience from a socialist country (grew up in Eastern Europe) as well as the US system (been here about 15 years now). I also happen to be in the biz as a finance director in a health system. Audited insurance companies in a former life so I'm not just talking out of my ass (like certain optometrists or random MD's who became senators are, when they talk about the finance side of healthcare).

I see this as a branding problem. The Republicans have won this game with massive margins. I'd attribute it to their control of a mainstream news org that's willing to spread complete nonsense on their behalf with zero dissent. So you've got half the population solidly convinced that government can't do this effectively. Nevermind that the rest of the planet is doing just fine.

Even more maddening is the dissonance between the general "conservative" platform promises of freedom, small government and other vague bs and specific attitudes. You ask people (including republican voters) specific questions and you get answers that would suggest their support for a universal system. Like: Do you think the government should do more to help people like you? Do you think everyone should be treated when they go to the hospital? Do you like Medicare? (which covers comparatively sicker people, cannot negotiate drug prices, AND RUNS WITH LOWER ADMIN COSTS THAN PRIVATE INSURANCE)...

If you end up answering a lot of yes's and still rail AGAINST it...I've only got one conclusion.

Hey, but at least he's learning. I mean, just think what he will be able to accomplish once he learns the basics.



My administration is committed to delivering a healthcare system that takes care of American people — of the American people, and like they haven’t been taken care of before. And we can do that. It’s a very difficult subject, it’s a very complex subject, but we’ve all gotten to understand it very well. And the strides we’ve made are rather amazing.
We want to take advantage of those strides now, and we want to let them be known to the American people, as we make additional headway. We’ve already made that progress. In certain way we’re lowering, and we will continue to lower, healthcare costs. We approved a record number of generic drugs over the past two years. If you look at what we’ve done — and we’re going to be putting out a list at the end of the week — the number of generic drugs, which brings down the pricing. They’re just as good as the name drug. In fact, one of things that amazed me — I was asking a few of the people, including Scott — I was saying that, “What’s the difference between the generic and a big-name drug where you pay much more money?” And they said, “Absolutely no difference.” Do you still agree with that? I mean, Secretary, do you still —
SECRETARY AZAR: Absolutely.
THE PRESIDENT: So, somebody is going to have to explain, why are they paying for the brand? Will somebody explain that please? Because they literally say there’s absolutely no difference. Identical. And you’ll pay four, five, six times more money for something that comes in a container that you’re more familiar with. So we’ve expanded that greatly — a lot of generic drugs.

Now that Trump is up to speed then problem solved.

Marketing of drugs is not necessary for our betterment. Years ago cigarettes were banned from the broadcast media, that legislation and other efforts helped to almost kill the killer.

For generics to gain equal footing, there must be a similar ban to the advertising of brand name drugs. You think Mr. Azra will be in support?? I know Trump, as the world's premier marketer and brander, would not be in support. Mr Azra was the CEO of Eli Lily, so I guess that is a no there as well. But then there is Congress, they will come to our rescue. Sorry, PhRMA dollars to key PACs puts the kabash on that.

Guess I agree with Trump, health care fixin is hard.

Not merely "no", but WTF!?!

Did any of you catch this article, or similar, in relation to the description of an incident between Trump and Ryan in the forthcoming book by former WH aide Cliff Sims?

https://edition.cnn.com/...liff-sims/index.html

Essentially, Ryan was trying to explain a Republican health care proposal to Trump - i.e., Trump's most important policy platform other than the wall that Mexico would pay for.

Trump's eyes glazed over almost immediately. After about 15 minutes he just got up and wandered into another room and turned on the TV. Pence had to go and ask him to please come back. To try, without success, to actually pay attention.

Trump is so far from having policy. He is constitutionally incapable of spending a quarter hour towards the goal of even working on a policy.

Forget that possibly the US' most important domestic policy issue was at stake. Just imagine you are talking to a friend, or a work colleague, about something of some importance to you (and him). And he just gets up without a word and goes to watch TV. Have you ever known any person, in any context, who was that dysfunctional?

And yet the repubs still support him and 30%+/- of the country thinks he is doing a great job and sticking up for them ...

drn92

Cue list of 1001 Trump accomplishments..

Which includes thing like “employment for blacks at all time high” but doesn’t say what, if anything, Trump did to accomplish this.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Ehhh it would be more like you are telling you boss important details of a contract you guys are proposing. Or a coach walking away from a team during a time out because he Is bored.