US national policy issues looming after healthcare?

Colorado just passed a law that would immediately convert all aspects of the industry to "Medical Marijuana" should the feds begin enforcement against recreational use.

Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) came under fire Friday after he said that "nobody dies" from a lack of health care coverage at a town hall at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho.

Labrador made the remarks the day after the House passed a Republican-sponsored health care bill that, if passed, would repeal and replace significant parts of Obamacare. The Congressman, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, was replying to an audience member who was speaking on concerns about the bill's potential impact on Medicaid recipients.


"You are mandating people on Medicaid accept dying. You are making a mandate that will kill people," the audience member said, before Labrador interjected.

"No one wants anybody to die," Labrador said. "You know, that line is so indefensible. Nobody dies because they don't have access to health care."

His comments prompted an immediate outcry from audience members, who began to audibly boo, according to clips shared on social media.

In a Beijing ballroom, Kushner’s sister flogs a $500,000 ‘investor visa’ to the wealthy Chinese

Chinese citizens were urged to invest in a New Jersey real estate project for a chance to immigrate to the United States. But President Trump’s vow to crack down on immigration, as well as criticism from members of Congress, has led to questions about the future of a program known in China as the “golden visa.”

You are soooo unobservant, Ken. Colorado held its nose and voted for HRC.

Nobody dies because they don't have access to health care

Obamacare Repeal Results In Tax Cuts For The Rich; Tax Increases And Lost Insurance For The Rest

The biggest revenue raiser in Obamacare is the net investment income tax, which levies an additional 3.8% surtax on interest, dividend, rent, royalty and passive business income of high-income taxpayers; those earning more than $250,000 (if married, $200,000 if single). Thus, once again, the tax impacts only the wealthiest 2% of Americans.

Texas adoption agencies could reject Jewish, Muslim, gay or single parents

Republican sponsors of bill set to be debated in state legislature next week say it supports the religious freedom of adoption agencies and foster care providers

Macron wins French presidency, to sighs of relief in Europe. With virtually all votes counted, Macron had topped 66 percent against just under 34 percent for Le Pen - a gap wider than the 20 or so percentage points that pre-election surveys had suggested

EPA dismisses half of its scientific advisers on key board, citing ‘clean break’ with Obama administration

The move could significantly change the makeup of the 18-member Board of Scientific Counselors, which advises the EPA’s key scientific arm on whether the research it does has sufficient rigor and integrity.

"A spokesman for the E.P.A. administrator, Scott Pruitt, said he would consider replacing the academic scientists with representatives from industries whose pollution the agency is supposed to regulate, as part of the wide net it plans to cast."

35 of 37 economists said Trump was wrong. The other two misread the question.

President Trump's administration says his tax cut will pay for itself. It turns out it's really hard to find an economist who agrees.

Oh yeah, the Deplorables and their staunch comrades the Aryan Brotherhood and the KKK. Fear the Walking Dead.

Better run back to your yacht club, Commodore, and hunker down amongst your peers. Safety in numbers. Maybe you can ask HRC to speak at your annual regatta.

There have been many bad laws in U.S. history. Some bills were poorly conceived; some were cruel and unjust; some were sold on false pretenses. Some were all of the above.

But has there ever been anything like Trumpcare, the health legislation Republicans rammed through the House last week? It’s a miserably designed law, full of unintended consequences. It’s a moral disaster, snatching health care from tens of millions mainly to give the very wealthy a near-trillion-dollar tax cut.

What really stands out, however, is the Orwell-level dishonesty of the whole effort. As far as I can tell, every word Republicans, from Trump on down, have said about their bill — about why they want to replace Obamacare, about what their replacement would do, and about how it would work — is a lie, including “a,” “and” and “the.”

The really important thing, however, is not just to realize that Republicans are breaking their promises, but to realize that they are doing so with intent. This isn’t one of those cases where people try to do what they said they would, but fall short in the execution. This is an act of deliberate betrayal: Everything about Trumpcare is specifically designed to do exactly the opposite of what Trump, Paul Ryan and other Republicans said it would.

If there's one thing about the US presidential election in 2020 that seems a safe bet, it's that for the first time since 1976 (!!), neither a Bush nor a Clinton will be a candidate. (2012 doesn't count.) Thank heavens!

Boy, once again way off base, Ken. Most Deplorables strongly support law enforcement.

Why that healthcare lifetime maximums cap thing is a big deal:

SHARING ENCOURAGED — NO NEED TO ASK


(Credit: Clint Anderson)

"I worked for a large health insurance company throughout the late '90s/early '00s at a time when PPO/HMO policies were our main products; nearly every plan I encountered had some type of clause for preexisting conditions, as well as annual and lifetime maximum payouts.

Most of my employment was spent in the call center dealing with claims and coverage inquiries. It was a pretty boring job, but not without its enjoyable moments — as well as some memories that have stuck with me since then.

One slow evening, shortly before the call center closed for the night (we were located in CST so would stay open later to accommodate our west-coast customers), my headset beeped and I was connected to a customer.
I ran through the standard scripted greeting and introduced myself.
"Umm, hi," a shaky and worried-sounding voice uttered on the other end. "I had questions about this 'maximum' that I guess we met?"
The caller was a manager at some kind of chain restaurant...married, several kids, all covered on a pretty decent PPO policy provided by the company.

I got some basic information to look up the specific letter we'd sent out. It was in regards to one of his children, his only daughter. She had some type of advanced cancer and had been treated for a duration of several years of her short life. I'd imagine that, even after we covered most of the charges at 80% (as long as you see one of our in-network providers!), the remaining 20% resulted in some pretty hefty bills for this working-class family.

Now we weren't paying anything, and Dad wanted to know why.

The lifetime maximum had been attained on that medical policy by that poor little girl. I informed him that we would not pay any more claims for his child due to this. He started sobbing. I fought back tears (at the time I was a new parent, my firstborn Ashlee probably only a few months old at this point).
T
hrough his own tears, he asked how we could do that to them, and how could they ever expect to take care of all the bills that would likely start piling up even more now. I desperately wanted to use my own words — "It's not f*#king fair. Your little girl doesn't deserve this. Nobody deserves this." But I followed protocol, read the policy language as he cried uncontrollably, and then offered to transfer him to a department that might have more specifics (don't you LOVE when we do that when you've already been on hold for an hour?).

He agreed to be transferred, so I put him on hold and contacted the appropriate specialist. I provided all the necessary info, and I was told, "Yeah, that maximum has been met, so we won't pay anything else, but they're not going to be able to insure her on any other policy ever again — hitting a lifetime max is also a red flag to other insurers. You can put the caller through and I'll go over this with him."

I didn't work in that industry for much longer after that day, but it was on that day that I decided I hated the health insurance industry.

I was elated when Obamacare did away with lifetime maximums.
And some of you are elated that they can now be brought back? F*#k you."