Republicans in the Senate are at loggerheads and House Republicans are refusing to admit that they broke a basic promise to their voters over one thing in Trumpcare: the loss of protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
Here is what we're talking about from the CBO score that is causing all the turmoil. Zombie Trumpcare passed the House after having been pulled from the floor once after it was sweetened to appeal to the Freedom Caucus with an amendment to allow states to waive the regulations in Obamacare that protect people with pre-existing conditions, among other protections like providing essential health benefits and getting rid of annual and lifetime caps on what an insurance company would spend to keep you alive.
Some Republicans insist that those protections are there in the bill. Popular vote loser Donald Trump, known for his veracity, said in his uniquely inarticulate way: "Preexisting conditions are in the bill. […] I mandate it. I said, 'Has to be.'" Paul Ryan, a slicker liar, says "no matter what, you cannot be denied coverage if you have a preexisting condition." Rep. Tom MacArthur, the New Jersey "moderate" who brokered the deal with the maniacs with this amendment said "We need to protect the most vulnerable people. "These are people with preexisting conditions. We want to make sure they are protected." So they crafted language that in theory says insurers can't deny coverage to anyone based on health history. But theory and practice, particularly among health insurers, is not the same. The CBO exposed that.
In states that choose to waive certain insurance coverage mandates as allowed under the GOP bill, the report stated, “people who are less healthy (including those with preexisting or newly acquired medical conditions) would ultimately be unable to purchase comprehensive nongroup health insurance at premiums comparable to those under current law, if they could purchase it at all.”
The scorekeepers added: “[L]ess healthy people would face extremely high premiums, despite the additional funding that would be available under [the AHCA] to help reduce premiums. Over time, it would become more difficult for less healthy people (including people with preexisting medical conditions) in those states to purchase insurance because their premiums would continue to increase rapidly.”
The analysis undermines not only the claims made by GOP leaders, but also shows that their bill could, by undoing what is perhaps the Affordable Care Act’s single most popular provision, throw consumers back into insurance markets where their ability to purchase affordable insurance would depend on their health.
Ah, but Republicans will tell you (when they're not saying that the CBO is stupid) the access to health insurance is still there and if people can't afford their premiums, there's always the high-risk pools which waiver states would have to implement. Except, no. Trumpcare provides $128 billion for the next 9 years to run the high-risk pools. Creating the least expensive, least generous, most skimpy high-risk pools would cost the government $359 billion over 10 years, if all the states set them up. At least that's what health policy experts at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have found.
Think the House would be willing to almost triple their expenditures to make their claims about everyone still having access to health care true? Me either.