Before tackling single-payer, save Obamacare
By E.J. Dionne Jr.
Before supporters of universal health coverage get all wrapped up debating a single-payer system, they need to focus on a dire threat to the Affordable Care Act likely to come up for a vote in the Senate before the end of the month.
The latest repeal bill is an offering from Republican Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (La.) that would tear apart the existing system and replace it with block grants to the states. Block grants — flows of money for broad purposes with few strings attached — are a patented way to evade hard policy choices. All the tough decisions are kicked down to state capitals, usually with too little money to achieve the ends the block grant is supposed to realize.
Because Graham and Cassidy are civil interlocutors and have sounded more reasonable than many of their Republican colleagues in talking about health care, there is an unexamined assumption that their proposal must be more sensible than other approaches to repeal.
But it’s not. In fact, it would be disastrous. In certain respects, it’s even worse than earlier repeal measures, which at least kept some of the structure of Obamacare’s subsidies in place. This bill would simply blow them up.
More at the link.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/before-tackling-single-payer-save-obamacare/2017/09/17/c062a284-9a50-11e7-82e4-f1076f6d6152_story.html
You wouldn't think that we would have to be reminded that the threat to ACA is still looming.
and this time it looks like they might just pass it.
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I need the ACA and have made close to 400 (REALLY!) calls to Congress since the beginning in Jan when this was announced. I am exhausted mentally and I can't take this much longer. You can not trust the GOP and McCain has flipped (traitor). McConnell has been buying votes all summer and needs this win desperately. My future is pretty bleak both physically and financially due to these greedy sociopaths.
