“Ways and Means Republicans have voted to defund, undercut, and undermine our country’s health care system.”–Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis.
“They have made it clear as day that they care more about the cost of the ACA than the value of human life,” Moore wrote, referring to former President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare reform, the Affordable Care Act. “I am announcing my remission today to remind everyone on this committee that I am a living example of the lifesaving value of essential health benefits. For my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren that is a cost worth paying.”–Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Wis.
Essentially every committee Republican expressed support for guaranteeing coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and called on Congress to lower health care costs.–Roll Call
The 116th Congress Ways and Means Committee met circa Jan. 29 to discuss health care. Instead, they engaged in political posturing. Republican opposition to affordable, universal health care for Americans is well known. They were adamantly opposed to coverage for pre-existing conditions in the Affordable Care Act until that position became politically untenable. But now they would have us forget about that.
The Roll Call article cited reports:
Still, the hearing largely fell into a rehashing of past health care debates, such as how the 2010 health care law was drafted and whether the Republican health bill that passed the House last year included significant protections for patients with pre-existing conditions.
That measure included a provision known as the “MacArthur amendment” that was crucial to its passage in the House and would have allowed states to seek waivers letting insurers charge people with pre-existing conditions more for coverage in some situations.
Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) was one suggesting that Republicans now support insurance coverage for pre-existing conditions:
“Take yes for an answer. We agree with you. We heard the voice and the fear that was the result of the 2018 election where this issue became centerpiece.”–Rep. Tom Reed
Ranking member Kevin Brady, R-Texas, reportedly proposed the committee work on efforts to lower prescription drug costs, prevent surprise medical billing and reduce deductibles in a bipartisan way.
“The ACA is failing too many Americans who face soaring costs, skyrocketing deductibles and few choices of local doctors and hospital. It’s time for a fresh start, this time with both parties working together — creating truly affordable health focused on patients, not Washington.”
What sort of fresh start would lead to affordable, universal health care yet be radically different from the Affordable Care Act which Brady continues to disparage isn’t clear.
https://www.rollcall.com/news/congress/hearing-reveals-health-care-goals-old-grudges-issue
https://familiesusa.org/product/macarthur-amendment-republicans-health-care-bill-will-hurt-millions
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2017/05/12/ahca-unusual-politics-unusual-policy/
“What Do You Care What Other People Think?”is the second of two books of oral reminiscences of American physicist Richard Feynman. Feynman explains that this was the advice given by his wife. This advice seems to have served him well.
We didn’t know where Tom was last November, but we do now. Tom and his wife have traveled the world at the expense of the Ripon Society and the Franklin Center–Prague, London, Berlin, and Paris last November. According to Tom:
‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.’ –Lewis Carroll
In his memoir, Travels with Herodotus, Ryszard Kapuscinski tells the story of a Persian potentate intent on making war with a neighboring tribe. The tribe’s queen predicts that the Persian will get his fill of blood if he persists. As it happens the Persians are defeated, and the Queen, overlooking the dead, brutally makes her threat real.
