GOP is attempting to bribe AK senator to repeal Obamacare by letting her state keep Obamacare

[Phokus]

Actually they get to keep Obamacare PLUS they get more grants. Reason #16546868464654 republicans are trash:

http://reason.com/blog/2017/09/21/gop-leaders-are-trying-to-bribe-an-alask

So basically one state will get goodies while everyone gets dicked over because the GOP is desperate to repeal O'care just so they can put a feather in their cap, nevermind that they're making healthcare worse for everyone else.

 

[dphantom]

a usual simplistic explanation lacking in accuracy. Alaska is a difficult case from a health care perspective. Very low population separated by very large distances not seen anywhere else. Some accommodation has to be made for them.

In general, this seems like a decent plan. States get to decide how to handle healthcare. So if a state wants single payer, they can do that as one example. I would think most would welcome local control over their healthcare rather than a mandate from a remote bureaucracy.

 

[fskimospy]

a usual simplistic explanation lacking in accuracy. Alaska is a difficult case from a health care perspective. Very low population separated by very large distances not seen anywhere else. Some accommodation has to be made for them.

In general, this seems like a decent plan. States get to decide how to handle healthcare. So if a state wants single payer, they can do that as one example. I would think most would welcome local control over their healthcare rather than a mandate from a remote bureaucracy.

Speaking of simplistic things that lack accuracy you left out that ‘local control’ comes with around $500 billion in cuts to Medicaid and the ability for states to return to discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions. Overall coverage loss estimates are around 21 million people. I’m going to go out on a limb and say those 21 million people and the people newly screwed again aren’t going to be terribly big fans of ‘local control’. Not to mention all the other shitty things it does, partly out of design and partly because it was written so incompetently the authors don’t even know what its effects will be.

Even if this bill doesn’t pass, everyone who said they supported it should be voted out of office for even attempting to engage in this level of legislative malpractice.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

a usual simplistic explanation lacking in accuracy. Alaska is a difficult case from a health care perspective. Very low population separated by very large distances not seen anywhere else. Some accommodation has to be made for them.

In general, this seems like a decent plan. States get to decide how to handle healthcare. So if a state wants single payer, they can do that as one example. I would think most would welcome local control over their healthcare rather than a mandate from a remote bureaucracy.

I dunno, it sure as shit looks like they're trying to steal back a vote by hand-holding one person, giving them what they want, to get that last vote to squeak by.

 

[HomerJS]

a usual simplistic explanation lacking in accuracy. Alaska is a difficult case from a health care perspective. Very low population separated by very large distances not seen anywhere else. Some accommodation has to be made for them.

In general, this seems like a decent plan. States get to decide how to handle healthcare. So if a state wants single payer, they can do that as one example. I would think most would welcome local control over their healthcare rather than a mandate from a remote bureaucracy.

States also have the ability to drop essential care. Total funds to states is being reduced so GOP can fund their tax cuts. With that reduced funding stated are required to balance their budgets so I can see that going well.

 

[fskimospy]

I dunno, it sure as shit looks like they're trying to steal back a vote by hand-holding one person, giving them what they want, to get that last vote to squeak by.

Yes that much is obvious to anyone who had actually looked into their proposal. They are allowing Alaska to keep its ACA subsidies, which already account for the fact that care is more expensive there and then giving them their block grant that is supposed to replace it on top. There is no rational policy reason to give them both other than to effectively bribe Murkowski.

The problem is that people let their partisanship convince them that things are a good idea without taking time to understand what they are talking about.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

The problem is that people let their partisanship convince them that things are a good idea without taking time to understand what they are talking about.

I swear, if the ACA had come out of 'a bipartisan thinktank' or 'passed down the mountain from Moses Jr' or something, both sides would have been clamoring over ownership of it rather than the right spending their lives attempting to repeal it.

 

[fskimospy]

I swear, if the ACA had come out of 'a bipartisan thinktank' or 'passed down the mountain from Moses Jr' or something, both sides would have been clamoring over ownership of it rather than the right spending their lives attempting to repeal it.

Yep. They would have been extolling the virtue of markets for holding down health care cost inflation. That's one of the reasons Republicans are so screwed when it comes to replacing the ACA as the ACA is quite similar to what a Republican plan for universal coverage would have looked like. Because they can't actually come up with a plan that would work better they basically figured that lying about it was the next best thing.

 

[Moonbeam]

I call what the Republicans are trying to do as a sickness of the ego. They can't govern, they have no real plans, but they want to hold office. They are in it for the power, the money, and the feeling of self importance. The house and senate and white house are full of moral scum.

 

[sactoking]

Alaska isn't the only state that is low population/large distance, it's just:
A. The most extreme; and
B. The only one with a Republican Senator who is up for grabs.

North/South Dakota, Nevada, and Montana all face similar problems but don't have uncommitted Senators.

 

[JSt0rm]

a usual simplistic explanation lacking in accuracy. Alaska is a difficult case from a health care perspective. Very low population separated by very large distances not seen anywhere else. Some accommodation has to be made for them.

In general, this seems like a decent plan. States get to decide how to handle healthcare. So if a state wants single payer, they can do that as one example. I would think most would welcome local control over their healthcare rather than a mandate from a remote bureaucracy.

Wait Im supposed to pay for them because they live far apart? What are you a communist?

 

[tweaker2]

I wonder what the Repub plan would look like if they just weren't so fixated on including a very nice hefty tax cut for the wealthy in this altogether fake repeal/replace scenario they're trying to pass off on the nation. Might've even looked like a half-ass version of what Romney cooked up when he had the position to make it happen.

Problem is this whole Repub led government is fixated on giving the wealthy everything they're asking for at the expense of the middle class and poor and for some reason they're not being coy at all about it like they used to. It's all part and parcel of the Trump Effect I guess.

 

[Jhhnn]

What can they offer Murkowski that she won't keep just by voting no?

 

[JSt0rm]

What can they offer Murkowski that she won't keep just by voting no?

tax cuts for the rich?

 

[Jhhnn]

tax cuts for the rich?

There's that, but Alaskan politics are peculiar. I don't think she's under the same pressures wrt funding or vulnerability to the Teahadists as many of her compatriots. They primaried her out in 2010 but she won anyway as a write-in, the only senator to ever do that. I doubt she has any affection for the Koch network after that.

 

[outriding]

Doesn't Alaska have a bridge that takes them everywhere... They should have easy access to healthcare because of the bridge

 

[senseamp]

Health care is difficult everywhere. We need universal federal single payer, not patchwork of bribes for different states.

 

[dphantom]

What are you a communist?

No but I am sure you could provide some lessons.

 

[JSt0rm]

No but I am sure you could provide some lessons.

How so? Liberals are capitalists. Look at all we do.

 

[cytg111]

Meanwhile mccain is standing his ground, his reasons for turning it down last time is even more valid now.. And he is right, if they arse this thing through it will be the first thing to be repeal-repealed come power change.. And the people will love it, it is one gigantic loosing bet for the republicans one way or the other... who the hell be they taking orders from??

 

[pcgeek11]

This is yet another dogturd of a healthcare bill. The congressional Repubicans are a joke at this point.

 

[colonel]

Wait Im supposed to pay for them because they live far apart? What are you a communist?

dude you really lack knowledge about communism, you might say socialism instead, however, is not the case here.

 

[Puffnstuff]

This is yet another dogturd of a healthcare bill. The congressional Repubicans are a joke at this point.

Democracy for sale to the highest bidder is a policy all sides of the aisle employ to get what they want.

 

[Thump553]

a usual simplistic explanation lacking in accuracy. Alaska is a difficult case from a health care perspective. Very low population separated by very large distances not seen anywhere else. Some accommodation has to be made for them.

In general, this seems like a decent plan. States get to decide how to handle healthcare. So if a state wants single payer, they can do that as one example. I would think most would welcome local control over their healthcare rather than a mandate from a remote bureaucracy.

Actually you are 100% wrong in your example. This GOP bill, purportedly to expand states' rights and flexibility, EXPLICITLY bars any state from adopting single payer. I guess donor's directives outweigh supposed GOP principles. This whole effort is about the $400 million fat cat donors are threatening to withhold plus Trump's childish desire for a "win" regardless of what the law would do than any effort to reform health care law.

 

[Thump553]

I swear, if the ACA had come out of 'a bipartisan thinktank' or 'passed down the mountain from Moses Jr' or something, both sides would have been clamoring over ownership of it rather than the right spending their lives attempting to repeal it.

The framework for the ACA was created by THE Republican think tank (Heritage Foundation), became Romneycare in MA before becoming the ACA. https://www.forbes.com/sites/theapo...invented-the-individual-mandate/#75b563926187

As for why the GOP politicians freaked out so much about the ACA when Obama proposed and ultimately enacted it, well someone else will have to explain that to me. Other than playing on the public's fears of a major change and their crass political motivations, I have absolutely no idea. The ACA should have been bipartisan from the beginning-the GOP chose to demonize what had been their baby not for policy but for partisanship reasons. And those are the clowns now purporting to run this country and will make us great again. Yeah, right.