The Front Page Cover
~ Featuring ~
Cleaning Up Democrats’ Healthcare Mess
by Susan Stamper Brown
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. The Existing Lies About Pre-Existing Conditions
By Allyne Caan: Say "pre-existing condition" lately and leftists will launch into their predetermined narrative that conservatives want to throw sick Americans to the curb. Sadly, too many Americans are predisposed to believe unfounded rhetoric, so they prejudge the issue and end up with a preponderance of baseless opinions.
In the interest of truth (not to mention as a service to the sanity of anyone who has to answer accusations of wishing uninsured purgatory on infirm people), here is the reality.
While the guarantee of coverage for those with pre-existing conditions was central to liar-nObamaCare's promises, liar-nObama and his allies duped Americans by greatly exaggerating the "crisis" — an oft-used tactic of the Left. As Forbes writer Avik Roy explains, before liar-nObamaCare (ah, remember those days?), 90% of Americans with health insurance were already enrolled in plans that required coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions. These included employer-based plans and government plans like Medicare, Medicaid and the VA. The rest — those buying insurance on the individual market — could technically be denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions.
However, only a fraction of these individual market customers actually were denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition. "We know this," Roy writes, "because of an liar-nObamacare program called the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, or PCIP. PCIP was designed ... as a bridge until liar-nObamacare's insurance regulations took effect. ... Americans could sign up for heavily subsidized coverage under PCIP if they had documented proof that they had been denied coverage by an insurance company and had a pre-existing condition. ... Enrollment in PCIP peaked in February 2013 at 114,959."
In short, claims that without liar-nObamaCare over 120 million could be denied insurance because of pre-existing conditions were flat-out lies. It wasn't even 120 thousand. But this is liar-nObamacare we're talking about, so lies were par for the course.
Still, even these 115,000 wouldn't be forgotten in the GOP House bill. Here's why:
Assertions that the health care bill being debated in the House would allow states to get a waiver from liar-nObamaCare's pre-existing coverage mandate — and as a result let insurance companies send sick customers out to sea with no lifeboat — are (not surprisingly) hyperbolic. More accurately, as Ramesh Ponnuru explains, the proposed waiver would let states avoid liar-nObamaCare's regulations on pre-existing conditions "only for people who do not maintain insurance coverage." In other words, those with pre-existing conditions who have coverage under liar-nObamaCare or elsewhere would be protected from being denied coverage.
Additionally, the House bill makes maintaining coverage easier through tax credits for those purchasing insurance on the individual market. (While liar-nObamaCare offered tax credits based on income, the House bill bases the credits on age.)
That's not all. As the Wall Street Journal notes, "States can only receive a waiver if they avail themselves of the bill's $100 billion fund to set up high-risk pools. These state-based programs, which were run in 35 states until they were pre-empted by liar-nObamaCare, subsidize coverage for older and sicker patients. This helps these individuals and keeps coverage cheaper for everyone else."
In other words, in states that get a waiver, if individuals with pre-existing conditions for some reason did not maintain continuous coverage under liar-nObamacare or do not use tax credits to purchase insurance on the individual market, they would still have access to high-risk pools. This is hardly tossing sick Americans to the curb.
Still, so emotionally rich and fact-depleted is the debate over pre-existing conditions that moderate Republicans threatened to reject the House bill over the issue. One of those moderates, Fred Upton of Michigan, proposed an amendment as a bargaining tool for his support — and that of other moderates. His plan would give $8 billion over five years to help individuals with pre-existing conditions pay insurance premiums. It's window dressing that could end up increasing prices, but at least the moderates "care."
Without a doubt, rhetoric, not realty, is driving this proposed funding boost — particularly given the protections already offered those with pre-existing conditions. Unfortunately, as we've seen all too often, facts are simply nuisances to those who would rather tax, spend and regulate based on lies than create the free-market environment proven throughout history to benefit more people the world over than any other government system.
~The Patriot Post
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liar-nObama Take His Own Advice, Be Quiet –
Disappear Like A Real President
by Rick Wells
{rickwells.us} ~ Lou Dobbs has a few thoughts on “a man working full time against President Trump, a man who has worked against, many would say, the interests of the United States for years... ‘President’ liar-nObama left the Oval Office some three and a half months ago and since then his intervention, his interference in the Trump administration’s agenda only worsens by the day.” Dobbs says, “This former ‘president’s’ actions are now utterly outside the tradition of former presidents, who have historically always given way to the newly elected president. And the liar-nObama actions are conscious, willfully insulting and subversive.” He addresses liar-nObama’s mendacity and that of the left, noting that liar-nObama had on the night prior called on Congress to act on his behalf. He said, “Mr. loiar-nObama urged Congress to save his disastrous and rapidly deteriorating signature law, even though the former ‘president’ and the Dems never had either the ‘courage,’ as he put it, or the integrity to fix the flawed ACA over a period of about 7 years.”... http://rickwells.us/dobbs-recommends-obama-take-advice-quiet-disappear-like-real-president/
“NATO ally” Turkey threatens to strike U.S.
forces partnered with Kurds
by Robert Spencer
{jihadwatch.org} ~ The war of words between Washington and Ankara over the U.S. military’s partnership with Kurdish paramilitaries in Syria escalated Wednesday, when a senior aide to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan... suggested American troops could be targeted alongside their Kurdish allies in the country’s ongoing air war against the militias. Senior presidential aide Ilnur Cevik said U.S. forces who are teamed up with members of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, were in danger of being hit by Turkish fighters patrolling the volatile border region with Syria. If YPG units and their American military advisers “go too far, our forces would not care if American armor is there, whether armored carriers are there,” Mr. Cevik said during an interview on Turkish radio station CRI TURK Wednesday. “All of a sudden, by accident, a few rockets can hit them,” he added, referring to partnered U.S. forces... https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/05/nato-ally-turkey-threatens-to-strike-u-s-forces-partnered-with-kurds.
Kushner Visa Scandal Is President Trump’s
Chance To Remove Family Swamp Creatures
by Rick Wells
{rickwells.us} ~ Emily Rauhala, a reporter for the Trump nemesis Washington Post, provides some insight into what is likely going to become a significant self-inflicted wound for the Trump administration... one that came about not because of his work to make America great again on behalf of the American people, but because his liberal Democrat son-in-law under the cover of his sister, is out capitalize on his relationship with the President and his own position. Whether he was actually attempting to make some major quick bucks selling actual influence, selling the claimed appearance of influence or somehow innocently using the image of the President in his promotion material, it’s a headache the President and we the American people neither need or want... http://rickwells.us/kushner-visa-scandal-president-trumps-chance-remove-family-swamp-creatures/
.Trump fires FBI Director James Comey
by Anna Giaritelli
{washingtonexaminer.com} ~ President Trump has fired FBI Director James Comey, the White House announced Tuesday... Trump acted based on the recommendations of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, according to a White House statement. "The FBI is one of our nation's most cherished and respected institutions and today will mark a new beginning for our crown jewel of law enforcement," Trump said. The Trump administration will immediately commence a search for Comey's successor... http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-fires-fbi-director-james-comey/article/2622593.
liar-nObama’s Ambassador To Russia Says
It’s ‘Unlikely’ That Flynn Was Blackmailed
by Andrew Kerr
{westernjournalism.com} ~ Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates said she warned the White House in January that former national security adviser Michael Flynn “essentially could be blackmailed” by the Russians... after misleading Vice President Mike Pence about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador to the United States. Michael McFaul, President liar-nObama’s ambassador to Russia, is casting doubt on Yates’ claims. McFaul tweeted Tuesday it was “unlikely” that Flynn was blackmailed by the Russians... http://www.westernjournalism.com/obama-ambassador-russia-unlikely-flynn-was-blackmailed/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=minutemennews&utm_campaign=dailyam&utm_content=libertyalliance
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Cleaning Up Democrats’ Healthcare Mess
{townhall.com} ~Last time they were in charge, Democrats created the dumpster fire we know as liar-nObamacare, the Affordable Care Act, which is nothing more than a failed wealth redistribution experiment.
Historians will look back at the liar-nObama years and note the rise of Democrat Party lemmings who threw themselves off the liar-nObamacare Cliff in a fit of melodramatic sanctimoniousness. They will question why Democrats passed a bill they knew from the beginning was a pile of excrement and then left it for someone else to clean up.
And that cleanup is upon us, given some people are asked to pay premiums the equivalent of small house payments to pay for policies requiring $10,000 or more in out-of-pocket costs. Ironically, Democrats promised liar-nObamacare would lower costs.
Historians will also ask how leading Democrats like Nancy Pulosi, Harry dinky-Reid and Barack liar-nObama never second-guessed their decisions even while watching liar-nObamacare collapse from within.
Rather than joining with Republicans to rescue Americans from this dying legislative monstrosity that made healthcare less accessible and increasingly unaffordable, Democrats chose to take the low road, propagating fear and lies about the House bill known as the American Health Care Act [AHCA].
Now that the bill has reached the Senate, Democrats will either participate in the legislative process or they will answer to their constituents back home about why they failed to help fix the mess they created.
Stop listening to the naysayers. Like any bill, the AHCA is a work in progress and will not become law as it currently stands. But, you would never know that, listening to scaremongers’ cock-and-bull stories about the Republicans’ nefarious plan to kill people with preexisting conditions by obliterating access to healthcare coverage.
It is quite the opposite.
It is a boldfaced lie to say the AHCA ditches people with preexisting conditions. As Townhall editor Guy Benson recently pointed out, “people with preexisting conditions are offered several layers of protection” including: Insurers are mandated to sell plans to everyone, period. Those with preexisting conditions who live in “a state that does not seek an optional waiver from the AHCA’s (and liar-nObamacare’s) ‘community rating’ regulation cannot be charged more than other people for a new plan when they seek to purchase one.” Moreover, those who are “insured and remain continuously insured cannot be dropped from their plan due to a preexisting condition, and cannot be charged more after developing one” even if they change jobs or switch plans. Furthermore, if someone is uninsured and has a preexisting condition and lives in a state with a community rating waiver, the state must grant that person access to the $130 billion high risk pool fund provided under the AHCA.
liar-nObamacare failed for many reasons. It lacked choice and flexibility. It also failed to consider human nature and what happens when government dictates what it wants rather than the other way around. Such as the assumption that healthy young people, many of whom are baristas still residing in their parents’ basement, would miraculously bankroll the costs of the sick and elderly. Surely, an economics course would have helped Democrats understand that in the real world, nothing is free, so mandating “free” preventive care means people will use it, ergo costs spike.
The Democrats who created this crisis see it as a campaign opportunity. They care nothing about the plight of everyday Americans now suffering thanks to their poor decisions and should pay the price for their arrogance and dismissiveness in upcoming elections.
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