Washington Post reporter Mike DeBonis got his hands on the Freedom Caucus demands for Trumpcare, and if you think Paul Ryan's vision is dystopian, get a load of this, per DeBonis's tweets. In addition to getting rid of the essential health benefits—the stuff that makes health insurance worth buying—they want to get rid of the "single risk pool" and allow insurers to create pools for sick people and healthy people. What happens when healthy people get sick, who knows. It's not like they’re actually making policy here, or something.
Further, it gets rid of rating restrictions from Obamacare, which allows insurance to be priced only by individual vs. family, age, area, tobacco use. They would get rid of the ban on annual and lifetime coverage limits—insurers could once again cut people off during, say, the middle of cancer treatment if they reach a spending cap. No out-of-pocket spending for preventive care, including mammograms? Gone. They'd get rid of the mandate for insurers to standardize their documentation, which makes it easier to compare plans (because they're all about the competition, don't you know) and they would get rid of the Medical Loss Ratio standards in Obamacare, which forces insurers to spend at least 85 percent of premiums on claims and rebate what's left over.
So, basically, all of Obamacare except allowing parents to keep adult children on their plans until age 26 and the ban on insurers from denying coverage based on preexisting conditions. Not that some Freedom Caucus types weren't trying to gut that, too, but it apparently wasn't in the formal ask. It's not clear if they're still pushing this agenda hard in meetings, but DeBonis reports that "At least 80 percent of the group voted Thursday afternoon to reject the latest offer from GOP leadership and the White House."
Let's make this failure complete. They're still moving toward a vote, probably Friday. Even if you already called your member of Congress, do it again by calling the Capitol Hill switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Jam the phone lines, urge them to vote NO.
