Thread: Trump on GOP health bill: 'I want it to be good for sick people'

Trump on GOP health bill: 'I want it to be good for sick people'

By Jessie Hellmann - 05/01/17 04:45 PM EDT

President Trump says the GOP health plan will protect people with preexisting conditions better than ObamaCare.

"I want it to be good for sick people. It's not in its final form right now," Trump said in a new interview with Bloomberg.

"It will be every bit as good on preexisting conditions as ObamaCare."

“And Obamacare just so you know, Obamacare’s terrible on preexisting conditions, you know why? Cause you’re not going to have it,” he added, predicting the end of the healthcare program. “It’s folding. It’s gone.”

A proposed GOP amendment to the American Health Care Act would allow states to undermine protections for people with preexisting conditions.

The amendment, authored by Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) and aimed at getting more conservative members on board, would allow states to apply for waivers to opt out of an ObamaCare provision that essentially bans insurers from charging people with preexisting conditions more for coverage.

While the AHCA maintains an ObamaCare provision banning insurers from denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions, allowing states to gut the community rating provision means those people could be charged much more to get coverage.

As a condition of waiving out of community rating, the state must have a high-risk pool, a separate pool for sick people.

But experts have noted that those pools haven't always been successful in the past -- several had high premiums, wait lists and caps on how much would be covered.

People with preexisting conditions who maintain continuous coverage would not face higher premiums.

But if they ever dropped their coverage for longer than 63 days, they could subsequently be charged more for insurance.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday that Congress is not ready to go ahead with a vote on the GOP's healthcare legislation yet. “We’re getting closer and closer every day, but we’re not there yet,” Spicer said when asked if there are enough votes in the House to put a bill on the floor.

Spicer said it’s up to Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and House GOP leadership to call a vote, but expressed confidence that vote-whipping efforts are going in the right direction.

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare...or-sick-people

I heard an interesting statistic on health care the other day on the news, that 50% of all health care costs are generated by 5% of the US population. I searched and found this article from 2012 which cites the same statistic.

5% of Americans Made Up 50% of U.S. Health Care Spending

Jordan Weissmann
Jan 13, 2012 Business

When it comes to America's spiraling health care costs, the country's problems begin with the 5%. In 2008 and 2009, 5% of Americans were responsible for nearly half of the country's medical spending.

Of course, health care has its own 1% crisis. In 2009, the top 1% of patients accounted for 21.8% of expenditures.

The figures are from a new study by the Department of Health and Human Services, which examined how different U.S. demographics contributed to medical costs. It looked at the $1.26 trillion spent by civilian, non-institutionalized Americans each year on health care.

The top 5% of spenders paid an annual average of $35,829 in doctors' bills. By comparison, the bottom half paid an average $232 and made up about 3% of total costs.

Aside from the fact that such a tiny fraction of the country was responsible for so much of our expenses, it also found that high spenders often repeated from year to year. Those chronically ill patients skewed white and old and were twice as likely to be on public health care as the general population.

The graph below looks at how many people remained in each tranche of health care spending in both 2008 and 2009. One fifth of the top 1% of health care spenders in 2008 also were in the top 1% a year later. More than a third of those in the top 5% stayed there both years.

According to this follow-up chart, elderly patients, aged 65 or older, made up 13.2% of the population in 2009. But they were 42.9 of the patients among the top 10% of spenders in both 2008 and 2009. Middle-aged Americans made up another 40.1% of that category.

America's health care spending crisis is a concentrated phenomenon. The challenge isn't just about making everybody's insurance cheaper (although that would be nice). It's about figuring out how to cut costs, wisely and fairly, for the disastrously ill and preventing diseases before they become chronic. This is America's 5% problem.

https://www.theatlantic.com/business...ending/251402/

White House seeks quick vote on healthcare overhaul but hurdles remain

Mon May 1, 2017 | 4:32pm EDT
By Yasmeen Abutaleb and Susan Heavey | WASHINGTON

Top aides to President Donald Trump on Monday predicted the House of Representatives would move this week to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system, but Republicans remained divided on how to protect sick Americans from insurance price hikes.

The White House is eager to move forward on legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare, to make good on a key campaign promise. Republicans tried but failed to pass a replacement bill in March in an embarrassing setback for the Trump administration.

Now lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow states to opt out of Obamacare protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions - provisions that force insurers to charge sick people and healthy people the same rates. It was unclear when or if a vote would be scheduled.

Trump insisted on Monday that the new bill would maintain the protections.

"I want it to be good for sick people. It’s not in its final form right now," he told Bloomberg News in an interview.

"It will be every bit as good on pre-existing conditions as Obamacare."

Republican lawmakers have struggled to unite around legislation, with moderates and conservatives within the caucus divided over key provisions.

Even if a plan did pass the Republican-controlled House, it would face a tough fight in the Senate, where Republicans have a narrower majority and where some party senators have expressed misgivings about the House bill.

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and White House economic adviser Gary Cohn on Monday said in separate interviews with CBS's "This Morning" that they thought there were enough votes to pass the bill this week.

House Republican leaders were more cautious. As of Monday afternoon, no vote had been scheduled and backers of the healthcare proposal had not released legislative language.

Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chair of the House Republican conference, said Republican members needed time to understand new tweaks to the bill.

"We are having those member-to-members conversations right now," McMorris Rodgers told Fox News.

The House is slated to break for a week starting on Thursday, but may leave town even earlier because Republicans appeared unlikely to have enough support to pass the healthcare bill, a Democratic congressional aide said on Monday afternoon.

MODERATES CONCERNED

The conservative House Freedom Caucus, which brought down the previous effort to pass a healthcare bill, has endorsed the new measure.

"This bill doesn’t get all the way there but it’s a good step and is ... the best we can get out of the House right now," said Representative Jim Jordan, chairman of the voting bloc, on CNN.

But several moderate Republicans were either undecided or opposed the bill for fear that it would not protect those with pre-existing conditions and cause millions to lose health insurance.

Representative Charlie Dent, a moderate Republican from Pennsylvania, said he still had problems with the latest plan and suspected there were not enough votes to pass it.

"Too many Americans are going to be without coverage," Dent told MSNBC, adding that the plan could make things even worse for vulnerable Americans.

"Nothing has changed as far as I know," said one moderate GOP aide. "Our sense is we're not seeing a lot of moderates who are looking at this."

Support from moderates will likely be needed to get the 216 votes in the House of Representatives Republicans need for passage.

(Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu and Mark Hosenball; Writing by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Caren Bohan and Leslie Adler)

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-us...-idUSKBN17X1Q2

I wish all Republicans would come together and support this bill unanimously in the House and get it over to the US Senate. Senate is going to fiddle with it, too, so just get it out of your chamber and into the next one. If it's not good, Trump will veto it and send it back. JUST DO SOMETHING besides run around like a bunch of nicken-poopes getting nothing done. Trump needs the health care bill so he can move on to corporate and business tax cuts, so he can move on to fixing our economy, so he can create jobs and put Americans back to work and off of welfare.

Jimmy Kimmel’s Emotional Monologue About His Son’s Heart Surgery Also Slams Donald Trump’s Healthcare Agenda

Posted on May 2, 2017, at 1:40 a.m

"No parent should ever have to decide if they can afford to save their child's life," the late night host said while holding back tears on Monday night's Jimmy Kimmel Live. "It just shouldn't happen. Not here."

Jimmy Kimmel opened his late night show on Monday with an emotional speech revealing that his son — born just 10 days ago — had a heart defect. He then slammed Donald Trump for attempting to cut funding to the National Institute of Health.

During the nearly 15 minute monologue, Kimmel couldn’t contain his tears at moments as he described the heartrending discovery just 3 hours after he was born that his son Billy would need open-heart surgery.

A nurse at Cedars Sinai Medical Center noticed that he was turning purple. After tests showed that Billy was born with a heart disease, he was rushed to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

"The operation was a success," Kimmel said, describing it as the longest three hours of his life.

Kimmel said his son would likely need two more surgeries over the course of his life for the condition, but that he would be OK. He cried as he read a list of nurses, doctors, and others who had helped save his son.

Kimmel said his son would likely need two more surgeries over the course of his life for the condition, but that he would be OK. He cried as he read a list of nurses, doctors, and others who had helped save his son.

Kimmel ended the segment by pointing out that Trump just last month proposed a $6 billion cut to the National Institute of Health, although Congress had rejected his proposal.

He pleaded with politicians on both sides to make sure that all Americans have access to health care, especially for those with pre-existing conditions — including his son, after being born with a heart defect.

He pleaded with politicians on both sides to make sure that all Americans have access to health care, especially for those with pre-existing conditions — including his son, after being born with a heart defect.

“If your baby is going to die, and it doesn’t have to, it should not matter how much money you make,” Kimmel said, while holding back more tears. “I saw a lot of families there. And no parent should ever have to decide if can afford to save their child’s life. It just shouldn’t happen. Not here.”

Kimmel also asked people to donate to Children's Hospital.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/mbvd/jimmy-...zxk#.ihNQgak8v