AHA has passed the House vote

[BakerWilliams]

Anyone who votes for this bill is simply evil

[adamgreer]

I'm disgusted and embarrassed.  

Rape can once again be classified as a preexisting condition.  Rape. 

It's a sad day in this country. 

[madbrian]

My GOP representative (Frelinghuysen, NJ) voted for the bill.  I now have my personal mission between now and next November.

This bill is disgraceful.  It gives tax breaks to the wealthy, rolls back Medicaid expansion, defunds Planned Parenthood, allows employers to gut their health plans, and does not protect pre-existing conditions.

[Cat Guy]

Think 2018.

[A Director]

I wonder how the Trump supporters who use to post here are feeling now?  Also, today Don The Con signed or is going to sign a EO allowing freedom to discriminate!

[madbrian]

A Director said: "...Also, today Don The Con signed or is going to sign a EO allowing freedom to discriminate!"

Actually, I believe the "religious freedom" executive order will allow religious orgs more freedom to participate in the political process without endangering their tax exempt status.  Still awful, but not as bad is expected.

[javero]

There will be hell to pay @ midterms next year.  Every AARP member with whom I'm acquainted is fighting mad right now.  The House GOP has not demonstrated that the $8 B set-aside will cover the entire pool of folks with pre-existing conditions nor is there a C.B.O report to allay anyone's concerns.  Employer-provided coverage is no longer cover for employees with pre-existing conditions if they work in states that opt to obtain a waiver in order to bounce high risk employees.

[madbrian]

My understanding is that the Senate cannot act without the CBO, and I believe their score will require 60 votes to pass, which would make it DOA.  Which would also give the Dems unlimited ammo for the midterms.

[newintown]

I hate to pour water on any righteous anger about today's act, because we need to keep protesting, but the bill does still need to pass the Senate (which won't be easy), then return to the House, and then they would still need to figure out the messy details (which this administration has shown they don't do so well).

As for the repeal of the Johnson Amendment - that will allow every nonprofit organization in this country to vocally support liberal legislation and politicians, and there will be a deafening roar from them, drowning out the churches and isolated few right-wing nonprofits. So some good will come from that.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Evil- and the celebration afterward made me ill. I cannot fathom what is wrong with these people. 

[BakerWilliams]

newintown said: "I hate to pour water on any righteous anger about today's act,"

I'm not sure that is true. You do enjoy pouring cold water on things, not that it isn't appreciated (we all need a good dose of reality every once in a while). 

I just think today's passing of the bill is yet another in a long line of examples that the elected representatives of the United States government are actively working against the people who voted for them. If this were to pass, thousands would die. They celebrate.

[South Florida]

MadBrian is right calm down.

 

[Cat Guy]

Here are House Democrats singing "Goodbye" after the vote.  Love my Dems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAEYZwfySuc

[madbrian]

Let's drop the AHA acronym, and call this Trumpcare.  It will make a much better albatross next November.

[javero]

Copy that, madbrian.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Cat Guy said: "Here are House Democrats singing "Goodbye" after the vote.  Love my Dems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAEYZwfySuc"

I hope the Dems take back the House in 2018, but this is...not a great look. Sure, it's possible that Republicans will feel ramifications from this, but we all also thought Trump would feel the ramifications of the Access Hollywood tape. I'm sure many of them do, but seeing things like this makes it feel like they don't take it seriously. 

It also wouldn't hurt if Dems (looking at you Nancy Pelosi) wouldn't be so quick to shoot down anyone that asks about support for Single Payer. If the anger over this bill has shown anything, it's that Americans want more spending for healthcare, not less. 

[Liza's Headband]

I don't disagree, wonderfulwizard. But where can we reduce our spending to increase for healthcare?  I suppose the military (I'm all for that).  This might sound bizarre but does anyone know what it would actually take, financially speaking, for a heavily-subsidized hybrid public/private system? 

[javero]

"This might sound bizarre but does anyone know what it would actually take, financially speaking, for a heavily-subsidized hybrid public/private system?"

Not bizarre at all.  It's how learned persons approach problem solving.

I'd like to learn how the $8 B set-aside is to be divvied up.  Will one state that obtains a waiver be eligible to make a play for the entire payout or will the funds be dispensed on a first-come first-served basis?

$8 Billion Comes Nowhere Close to Meeting Republican Commitments to People with Pre-Existing Conditions

[Steve C.]

hearing the cheers and screaming in the House this afternoon is a heinous display again of the haves and have nots and the "I don't give a puck" attitude; Congress coverage not affected at all; more money back to the super rich....

2018, 2018, 2018....Remember today; May the 4th come back to Kill them!

[Alex Kulak2]

If there's any good that can come if this, at least we can assume that in 200 years, this'll be a fascinating hip-hop musical

[bethnor]

we won't get healthcare right until we get religion right.  while religion is around, there is always going to be some segment of the population which resists universal access (including for themselves), because the people who are sick, must be sick because the universe wills it.  many of the representatives flat out said as much, that medical illness is the result of moral turpitude.  and that's not the first time; they flat out said the same thing when HIV was ravaging the gay population (just like what they said with syphilis, leprosy--funny how we won't learn from history).

there is no old man pulling the strings, there's no cosmic system.  everyone is completely on their own.  while "good behavior" (whatever this means) decreases the odds of medical illness, it cannot ablate it because there is no treatment for being human.  evolution only "mostly" gets it right, which is the easy explanation for the wide variety of medical illnesses that we see.  and many of the adaptations which proved useful on the african savannah (the ability to store sugar and fat for later use) now plague us (diabetes).  the genetic material which causes cancer helped us get here.  it doesn't make provisions for the fact that we have a modern civilization and like living to a ripe old age.

the beginning of universal access is accepting these basic facts about human existence.  i should help others who get sick because one day, their illness may be mine, and if i were in their shoes, i would want help.  there's nothing about me that excludes me from getting Alzheimer's (like Ronnie Reagan) or metastatic melanoma (like Carter) or pancreatic cancer (like Ginsburg).  what IS different, is that, through what is in many ways a horrible genetic lottery, many people are born into better situations where their chances at succeeding in life and making money are more secure, so they can afford expensive care.  it is not because they are intrinsically "better" or more beloved by god or any other trash.

[SmoothLover]

If Paul Ryan ever makes a public appearance which is highly in unlikely I will make it my mission to spit on him.

[newintown]

Although I agree with bethnor that belief in any religion is a mental aberration akin to believing in ghosts, vampires, or leprechauns, it should be acknowledged that there are many, many, many members of the homo sapiens sapiens subspecies in this world who lack the intellectual wherewithal to deal with the universe without some sort of metaphysical support.

That is, they see the universe as chaotic, and that terrifies them too much to bear; they have a real and deep need to believe that there is some kind of order imposed by some magical Daddy or Mommy figure.

They also feel the bizarre need to believe that we are not just another (exceptionally neurotic) kind of mammal on this planet, but that we possess some special "soul," making us more important than all other life.

Examined with even the slightest objectivity, it's all utterly ridiculous. But try telling that to someone who can't cope without religion.

[Liza's Headband]

And then there are those who do not believe in what you've just spewed, but rather believe in cosmic destiny, universal fate and innate spirituality; that is not religion. 

[newintown]

It's still silly metaphysics - i.e., believing in something imaginary. Have at it, if you will, but it's the same thing. Zeus, Jehovah, Mithra, Odin, Ra, Osiris, Buddha, Allah, Jesus, Dracula, AA's higher power, Shakti Gawain, "fate," Titania the Fairy Queen - none of these critters are creating order for you. At best, they're a placebo.

But this is all pointless - believers are not thinkers.

[madbrian]

newintown said: "...But this is all pointless - believers are not thinkers."

I am not a person of faith, and in the history of the world far more bad than good has been done in the name of some god.  However, that does not negate the good that has been done, and it's just wrong to broadly categorize those of faith to be non-thinkers.