Trumpcare Now Has 6-Month Waiting Period for Slackers

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A new revision of the Senate health care bill is out, and as expected it adds a 6-month waiting period for anyone who hasn’t maintained continuous coverage:

Can they get away with this under reconciliation rules? I’d say no, since it doesn’t have a direct effect on government spending or outlays. But I assume they already ran this by the parliamentarian, and she approved it. So that’s that: if you don’t maintain continuous coverage, you have to wait six months before you can buy insurance.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with this. It’s a way of coaxing people into buying health insurance, just like the individual mandate penalties in Obamacare. But I wonder what the point is? Obamacare already restricts new signups to an open enrollment period at the beginning of each year, so for most people there’s already a waiting period if they don’t have continuous coverage. That’s still around in the Senate bill, so I guess this is just a way of tightening things up. Everyone who lacks continuous coverage has a minimum 6-month waiting period, even if they sign up during open enrollment.

However, there’s an exception! There is no waiting period for “a newborn who is enrolled in such coverage within 30 days of the date of birth.” All heart, these guys.

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“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

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