It’s been literally hours since I last updated you on the Republican health care bill, so let’s catch up. Twitter is our friend:
LOBBYIST SOURCE: They’re 5 votes short, but have decided to take the vote tonight or tomorrow to try to ram it through.
— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) May 3, 2017
What’s the rush?
A big part of the GOP’s gambit here is rushing this bill through without a CBO score so members don’t know how bad the legislation is.
Ah.
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) May 3, 2017
Roger that. TrumpCare 1.0 arguably failed because of that hideous CBO score saying that 24 million people would lose coverage—a truly remarkable achievement since Obamacare only covers 20 million people in the first place. TrumpCare 3.0 is even worse, so God only knows what the CBO would say about it. Anyway, how bad can it be? I mean really?
Under this amendment, here are est hikes in premiums for ppl w/:
Asthma: $4k
Diabetes: $5.5k
Pregnancy: $17k
Arthritis: $26k
Cancer: $140k! pic.twitter.com/doGukuaNCc— Steven Rattner (@SteveRattner) May 2, 2017
Urk. Pretty bad. Even the AMA gets it:
Just in:
AMA says that despite changes, new bill would still cost millions coverage and strip protections for preexisting conditions: pic.twitter.com/Osee5Ag2P2
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) May 3, 2017
Good for them. What’s remarkable, though, is how lonely their position is:
Interesting to me how dead quiet AHIP and the insurance industry has been on AHCA 3.0.
— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) May 3, 2017
I don’t really get this either. Maybe they’ve given up? Maybe they figure that as part of the hated establishment, their opposition is just more likely to make Republicans vote yes? Beats me.
Apparently a lot of Democratic politicos are sort of hoping the bill passes and then gets killed in the Senate. That way they have an unpopular vote to wrap around the necks of vulnerable Republicans in the 2018 midterms. But is that worth the risk that, somehow, it might actually pass if it gets through the House? It seems like better strategy to make it crystal clear that there’s simply no needle Republicans can thread on this subject.
Then we get to wait and see if President Trump kills Obamacare anyway in a fit of pique by cutting off the CSR subsidies. This is really shaping up to be a great year.
