Perspectives On GOP Health Bill: Not Friendly To Consumers — Or California
Opinion writers pick apart the health debate that is roaring on Capitol Hill.
Los Angeles Times:
The GOP's Obamacare Repeal Plan Is Out--And It's Even Worse Than Anyone Expected
After weeks of expectations — actually, nearly seven years of expectations — House Republicans on Monday released their proposal to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Elements of the proposal, which was kept under lock and key last week — have been dribbling out for a few days. The text of the bill encompassing the GOP plan validates much of that reporting. On the whole, however, it’s a nastier, more consumer-unfriendly proposal than even close followers could have expected. (Michael Hiltzik, 3/6)
Los Angeles Times:
The GOP Makes No Bones About One Part Of Its Healthcare Plan: Kicking Millions Of Poor People Off Medicaid
In discussing the House GOP leadership’s proposed replacement for Obamacare, its supporters have stuck to platitudes that obscure much of what the bill would actually do. For example, sponsors tout a “patient-centered healthcare system” instead of explaining that the bill would encourage insurers to isolate people with pre-existing conditions in expensive policies while selling affordable ones to younger and healthier people. But there’s one thing they’re making no bones about: They want to kick millions of people off of Medicaid, the joint federal-state healthcare program for the poor. It wouldn’t happen immediately, but it would happen inexorably, deliberately. (3/10)
San Jose Mercury News:
GOP Health Care Plan Is A Disaster For California
House Speaker Paul Ryan released the plan Monday, and Trump enthusiastically endorsed it Tuesday — even though it covers fewer Americans, increases costs for low-income and senior citizens, increases the deficit, defunds Planned Parenthood and does zero to reduce overall health care costs. Zero. (3/8)
Orange County Register:
Steps Toward A Simplified System Of Health Care
Do Americans want to make health care great again? Evidence is mixed, according to different standards. And now that Republicans are in the awkward position of having to risk offering an Obamacare substitute that turns out to be more inconvenient, less stable or more burdensome up front, their hesitancy in dreaming big is growing apace. (James Poulos, 3/4)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Defunding Planned Parenthood Is Ideology, Not Health Care
Among the ill-considered features of the emerging Republican health care plan is the wholesale effort to hobble Planned Parenthood, the national family-planning organization that, yes, also performs abortions. It’s a case of strident ideology at odds with practical goals. Planned Parenthood delivers a range of family planning and disease-prevention services, including to low-income women using federal Medicaid funds. In California, the organization serves 850,000 residents each year. (3/9)
Los Angeles Times:
The GOP Isn't Replacing All Of Obamacare — Just The Parts That Work
The House GOP leadership’s proposal for repealing and replacing Obamacare would actually leave much of the 2010 Affordable Care Act intact — except for the parts that make it work. Instead of fixing the problems Republicans have been complaining about, it would make them worse. And rather than making insurance affordable to more people, it would raise costs for lower-income Americans and cut them for everyone else. (3/7)
Los Angeles Times:
Here's The Secret Payoff To Health Insurance CEOs Buried In The GOP Obamacare Repeal Bill
Concealed within the 123 pages of legislative verbiage and dense boilerplate of the House Republican bill repealing the Affordable Care Act are not a few hard-to-find nuggets. Here’s one crying out for exposure: The bill encourages health insurance companies to pay their top executives more. (Michael Hiltzik, 3/7)
Los Angeles Times:
Paul Ryan’s 'Trumpcare' Does Not Entirely Repeal Or Replace Obamacare
The House Republicans’ newly unveiled plan to repeal and replace Obamacare is already in political trouble because it neither repeals nor replaces. Rather than being a complete repeal, it retains some elements of Obamacare — more properly known as the Affordable Care Act. This infuriates hard-line conservative members of Congress, as well as anti-government billionaires like the Koch Brothers, because they think it maintains new and unacceptable government entitlements. At the same time, the GOP proposal is anathema to moderate Republicans and pretty much all Democrats because it does not really replace the ACA’s approach to healthcare with an improved system. (David Horsey, 3/9)