by Pamela Williams
If President Trump’s replacement for ObamaCare does not pass, it is my opinion after my research, Americans will regret it. ObamaCare is imploding as we speak There are Americans who have paid for ObamaCare, but the deductibles have been so high they have never actually used it. Others have just paid the penalty, but do not have insurance to show for that money spent. Insurance companies are opting out every day. It is a mess that has damaged so many American lives, it is hard to put into words.
President Trump had a meeting with many Americans from around the Country at the White House, and I would advise every American to watch this video if you truly want to understand the state of healthcare in our Country.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMVj1IQXjr4
Published on Mar 13, 2017
Repeal & Replace
For those of you who are opposed to Trump’s and Ryan’s replacement for ObamaCare, you are probably going to be happy to learn things are not progressing as Trump and Ryan had hoped. The Republican plan to replace Obamacare — backed vehemently by President Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan — continued to bleed support from moderate House members Thursday morning just hours before an expected vote.
However, the true opposition comes from the members of the hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus, a bloc of about three dozen Republicans who have long threatened to tank the bill because of what they say are inadequate measures to repeal Obamacare and reduce health care premiums for constituents. “If this goes down, we’re all screwed,” said one Republican lawmaker who requested anonymity. If it does not go down, in my opinion, we are all screwed.
However, for small business leaders this ObamaCare replacement will allow them to at last be able to manage insurance matters between their own needs and the needs of their employees. It is what they have prayed for. Randy Bradley, owner of Burger Kings in Iowa and Missouri for the past 27 years, said he is rooting for the House Republicans proposal to replace Obamacare, especially the Trump-endorsed American Health Care Act’s (AHCA) plan to eliminate Obamacare’s employee mandate provision.
According to Bradley, who employs more than 80 people, Obamacare’s employee mandate – which requires that all businesses with 50 or more full-time equivalent employees provide health insurance to at least 95% of staff and dependents up to age 26, or pay a fee – caused some of his workers to receive worse insurance than they previously had and other employees to experience up to a 20 percent reduction in wages.
“Basically, the government interfered and told me I couldn’t provide my managers with that premium level of coverage anymore and my only option was to provide them with Obamacare,” Bradley told FOX Business. “Furthermore, even if I wanted to reimburse my managers for the premiums they paid for purchasing their own insurance on the open marketplace, I couldn’t without facing major fines.”
Prior to Obamacare, Bradley said he provided his managers with a competitive group health care insurance policy, in which he contributed 75% of the premium and half of the deductible. However, a non-discrimination clause in Obamacare prevented Bradley from providing this plan to his managers if he didn’t also provide the same plan to his hourly-wage employees, which he said would have bankrupt his business within three to four months.
Implemented under Obamacare, according to Section 4980D of the Internal Revenue Code, if business owners reimburse employees the premiums they paid for purchasing their own insurance on the open marketplace, they are subject to a $100 penalty, per day, per employee — or $36,500 per employee annually.
As for Bradley’s non-managerial, hourly-wage staff, he said a majority experienced a loss in wages due to Obamacare, and many still didn’t qualify for employer-based coverage while many of those who did chose not to take it.
A full-time employee, which must be provided insurance under the Obamacare employer mandate, is categorized as someone that works 30 hours or more per week. Therefore, Bradley said his employees who were working anywhere from 31-40 hours per week had their hours cut down to below 30, thereby not receiving insurance as intended by Obamacare, but actually losing hours, thus wages. For Bradley’s other hourly-wage employees that kept their full-time, 30-plus hour schedule, Bradley was required to offer them Obamacare, in which he would pay 90.5% of the premium and they would contribute 9.5%.
“Ironically, most of my full-time crew that I offered Obamacare to, didn’t take it, as they felt the penalty they would have to pay for not having it was actually less than they would have to spend on the premium to have the insurance,” said Bradley. Only 4 out of Bradley’s 40 full-time, hourly-wage employees opted for him to provide them with Obamacare.
So for small businesses they are finding exactly what they need in the ObamaCare replacement. What about the elderly? They are saying…”not so much.” The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) opposes the House plan, arguing that it would shorten the life of Medicare, hike costs for those who can least afford higher insurance premiums, risk seniors’ ability to live independently, and give tax breaks to big drug and health insurance companies.
“Older Americans want affordable health care – including less expensive prescription drugs and continued protections for the most vulnerable,” AARP Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond said in a statement released this week. “When Americans over age 50 look at the details of the House health care reform plan, they don’t like what they see. They don’t want big insurance and drug companies to reap massive profits at their expense.”
This truly is my one objection as far as I can see. We cannot hurt our elderly in the Country. If they feel the replacement will be something they cannot live with, we must look again at what we are doing with the replacement to ObamaCare.
However, there are some very positive aspects of the President Trump’s American Health Care Act. He is planning on keeping the good things in ObamaCare. There will still be the clause that pre-existing conditions cannot be held against you. To me, this is extremely crucial to the needs of Americans, and I was glad to see this in ObamaCare.
There will be NO PENALITIES with Trump’s new plan, and praise God for that. Many Americans have paid penalties but had not health insurance to show for that money. What a travesty this is!
UPDATE: “We have not cut the deal yet,” said House Rules Committee Chairman Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, as reported by FOX News. At press time, it was still unclear whether the full House vote would happen Thursday, as originally was expected.
Republican leaders canceled a vote in the House on the plan to replace ObamaCare Thursday, after leadership’s attempts to lobby enough votes apparently failed — a major setback for House Speaker Paul Ryan and President Trump.
Trump and Republican leaders had spent much of the day scrambling to get both moderates and conservatives on board with the increasingly unpopular legislation.
Ryan postponed his press conference twice as he worked with House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy R-Calif., Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and Chief Deputy Whip Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., to get enough votes to get the American Healthcare Act through the House on the seventh anniversary of ObamaCare’s passage.
Meanwhile, Trump met inside the Cabinet room with the House Freedom caucus to try and rally conservatives to the cause. He also tweeted, urging supporters to call their representatives to back the bill.
A senior administration official told Fox News after the meeting with Trump and the conservative group that there was a deal in the works, but that it was not yet finalized. A source from the Freedom Caucus said there wasn’t yet a deal.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., had warned it would be a “Herculean task” to resolve their differences quickly. Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., said, “Any package of insurance regs that the president offers us that bends the cost curve down, I’m a yes. It’s that simple.”
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said at his press briefing Thursday afternoon that the White House was still confident of a vote, and also that it was confident the legislation would pass..
“It’s going to pass. That’s it,” he said.
Spicer also noted that Trump had been making calls past 11 p.m. Wednesday night to try and bring members on board.
Sources later told Fox News that the White House was anticipating a vote after midnight, but that was before the vote was canceled.
House Republicans were due to meet about the around 7 p.m. ET, but there appeared no clear path to pass the bill.
Now we will wait and see. Pray America, because WE THE PEOPLE need help with our healthcare.
www.nationofchange.org/2017/03/23/koch-brothers-bribe-gop-politicians-vote-no-health-care-bill/
The Koch brothers, via their conservative donor network, have vowed to set up a fund for the 2018 reelection race for GOP politicians that vote against the new American Health Care Act.
The fund, which is rumored to be seven-figures is designed to both protect bill opponents from political harm and act as a threat to those that vote for the new health care bill.
The Koch brothers believe that the bill does not do enough to roll back the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) which they were huge opponents of. They spent millions of dollars back in 2013 for an Obamacare misinformation campaign.
The Koch-funded groups behind the fund are Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Partners. They will spend money on paid media, direct mail and grass-roots canvassing
www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article140266218.html
Many lawmakers continued expressed serious concerns with the legislation even as they said they hoped to eventually support it. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., who has the fourth highest number of marketplace enrollees in the country, said he’s worried about older people obtaining insurance.
“That population is not being dealt with yet in a way that is giving me a lot of comfort,” Diaz-Balart said. “I am still working on trying to get a bill that I feel comfortable with.”
He dismissed a New York Times report that he would trade support for a harder Trump administration stance on Cuba as “absolutely, categorically false.” But accommodations were being made: Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Pa., became a definite yes, after Trump and Ryan assured him that his idea to deny health care tax credits for undocumented immigrants will receive consideration next month.
Most of the Republican opposition came from the most conservative wing of the party, with the Freedom Caucus saying it could provide as many as 24 votes in opposition. Trump warned them that a “no” vote could risk their majority, but a bevy of conservative groups offered cover to lawmakers who opposed the legislation. The Heritage Foundation, Freedom Works, Club for Growth, Americans for Prosperity and Americans for Limited Government all criticized the legislation for leaving too many Obamacare elements in place and urged Republicans to keep working on the measure.