contacting Reps and Paul Ryan about latest, worse Trumpcare

peggy_j

Looks like the house of reps may vote on a repeal-and-replace plan that's even worse than the last one (states could allow the insurance companies to charge more for patients with pre-existing conditions; cuts subsidies; congress and staff won't be required to buy a Trumpcare plan, etc)

CALL your elected reps today, especially if they are moderate Republicans. (they may be the deciders this time). I also called Speaker Ryan.

For some reason, his website is super slow today. Here's the contact info for Paul Ryan's speaker-of-the-house office. I called just now and was able to leave a short message.

H-232 The Capitol
Washington D.C. 20515
P: (202) 225-0600
F: (202) 225-5117

Some groups think the vote may be as early as tonight (Thurs April 27).

ruthbru

Call them whether they are moderate or not. They all need to know that their constituents are watching and will hold them accountable.

peggy_j

Good point. When I called my rep I said (among other things) that **70% of voters** think patients w/ pre-existing conditions should be charged the same price.

Hopeful82014

Peggy, thanks for the heads up. Calls made!

ChiSandy

They intend to vote to continue the ACA prohibition against penalties for preexisting conditions…but only for their OWN insurance policies!

peggy_j

ChiSandy--isn't it outrageous? Congress and their staff get to have a different set of rules.

Here's more info on the bill from a cancer advocacy group. Looks like some GOP are flipflopping and now the bill may pass this week. arg! Called my rep this morning.

https://www.canceradvocacy.org/protectourcare/?mc_...

kcat2013

From the reading I've done it looks like if the current legislation gets passed insurers will NOT be able to charge higher premiums for pre-existing conditions UNLESS there is a lapse in coverage (60 days if I remember correctly). So anyone currently insured with a pre-existing condition will be protected from having their rates raised. But people who choose not to have insurance and then get diagnosed with something and decide they NOW want insurance will be subject to higher rates. This part is essential in nudging healthy people to sign up for coverage to help offset the cost of us heavy insurance users. I guess this part of the bill does not scare me too much because I've played the "continuous coverage" game since I was 18 years old because I have an autoimmune condition. It just means that paying for insurance is a top priority for me, and has been my entire life--even when money was very tight. I've also participated in the past in my state's high risk insurance group. I wish it still was in existence (it was dissolved when ACA went into effect) because the insurance premiums were reasonable and the coverage was excellent--better than my current ACA marketplace plan.

Anyway, I don't say all that to say I agree with the current legislation being proposed (I don't). I just don't think it's all completely doom and gloom

ruthbru

I called mine & put this on Facebook too.

peggy_j

Ways to take action, from two other advocacy groups. The first, Health Care now, and then a script from Social Security Works (who helped stop Geo W Bush's plans to privatize Social Security)

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From Healthcare Now

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Healthcare Somehow, leaders of the House GOP claim that they have enough votes to pass a deeply unpopular bill that would gut Medicaid and remove essential protections to healthcare access. TODAY. A handful of Republican moderates have the power to stop this; starting right now help us flood their phone lines and demand they summon the courage to stand up to their party, vote NO to stripping millions of people of life-saving healthcare access, and instead support the only real "fix" to the Affordable Care Act: H.R. 676, the bill that would establish a national single payer healthcare system. Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to speak to each office. If they don't pick up, leave a message. This is a yuuuuge list, and if you can't make it through them all, choose the 5 representatives closest to you: Here they are in order of priority: Republicans Leaning YES Bradley Byrne (Ala.) Mike Coffman (Colo.) Rick Crawford (Ark.) Jeff Denham (Calif.) Tom Emmer (Minn.) Jeff Fortenberry (Neb.) Rodney Frelinghuysen (N.J.) Garret Graves (La.) Peter King (N.Y.) Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) David McKinley (W.V.) Dave Reichert (Wash.) Hal Rogers (Ky.) Scott Tipton (Colo.) Glenn Thompson (Pa.) David Valadao (Calif.) David Young (Iowa) Lee Zeldin (N.Y.) Republicans who are Undecided Justin Amash (Mich.) Paul Cook (Calif.) Carlos Curbelo (Fla.) John Faso (N.Y.) Darrell Issa (Calif.) Steve Knight (Calif.) Erik Paulsen (Minn.) Bruce Poliquin (Maine) Peter Roskam (Ill.) Ed Royce (Calif.) Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) Rob Wittman (Va.) Kevin Yoder (Kan.) Don Young (Alaska) Republicans Leaning NO Mario Diaz-Balart (Fla.) David Joyce (Ohio) Michael Turner (Ohio) Yours in solidarity, Ben and Stephanie Healthcare-NOW! National Staff Healthcare-NOW! is a grassroots organization that fights to end the health insurance crisis by educating and advocating for improved Medicare-for-all legislation, such as HR 676. You can unsubscribe from Healthcare-NOW!'s email list here. View and share this email as a web page here. 9A Hamilton Place Boston, MA 02108 United States www.healthcare-now.org

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Now from Social Security Works:

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This is it. House Speaker Paul Ryan is preparing for a Trumpcare vote. And one vote could make the difference.

Call your Representative right now to tell them to vote NO on Trumpcare using this toll-free number: 1-844-432-0883

Here's a suggested call script:

My name is [FULL NAME] and I live in [Rep. NAME]'s district. I urge the Representative to reject the Republican healthcare plan – the American Health Care Act –which would kick 24 million people off of their healthcare, raid billions of dollars from Medicare and gut Medicaid. And with the new amendment, give states the option of letting health insurance companies charge sky-high rates to people with pre-existing conditions.
This would be especially dangerous to the tens of millions of Americans in their 50s and early 60s who are not yet eligible for Medicare.
Please tell the Representative to vote NO on the American Health Care Act.

Thank you for taking action today and for all that you do to protect the health care and retirement security of millions of Americans.

Sincerely,

Alex Lawson
Social Security Works

peggy_j

kcat2013 We need to stop treating people with pre-existing conditions differently, period, because you can count on the insurance companies to game the system.

I bought my own insurance prior to the ACA and prior to my BC Dx. Even thought my state had a continuous coverage clause, the insurance companies exploited the loopholes. They couldn't require existing customers to get medical underwriting to stay on our existing plan. So their end-around was to introduce brand-new plans that required medical underwriting to join. That was legal. Healthy people moved to the new cheaper plans and sick people were pooled in the old plans and were charged much higher rates. (note: this scenario could happen to you and me under Trumpcare, even if we keep our current plans)

Any time you require medical underwriting (i.e. if someone is out of a job, can't afford insurance and later wants coverage) there's the risk that the insurance company will rescind your policy later when you do get sick. i.e. sign up when healthy, years later get a BC Dx and then the policy gets rescinded because the patient forgot to mention a trip to the doc years before for a sprained ankle. The insurance companies are horrible and all about the bottom line. Any protection that we lose will be exploited.

juneping

I just read the news………let's hope the senate will make a differenve

ruthbru

Disgraceful! Redouble the phone calls....start planning for 2018......

peggy_j

This NYTimes article lists some of the really bad implications of this bill. At the end it also lists which GOP Senators may be the most likely to oppose it.

The Trumpcare Disaster

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/04/opinion/obamaca...

The House speaker, Paul Ryan, and other Republicans falsely accused Democrats of rushing the Affordable Care Act through Congress. On Thursday, in a display of breathtaking hypocrisy, House Republicans — without holding any hearings or giving the Congressional Budget Office time to do an analysis — passed a bill that would strip at least 24 million Americans of health insurance.

Pushed by President Trump to repeal the A.C.A., or Obamacare, so he could claim a legislative win, Mr. Ryan and his lieutenants browbeat and cajoled members of their caucus to pass the bill. Groups representing doctors, hospitals, nurses, older people and people with illnesses like cancer opposed the bill. Just 17 percent of Americans supported an earlier version of the measure, and Republicans have made the legislation only worse since that poll was conducted. Neither Mr. Trump nor Mr. Ryan seemed bothered by this overwhelming criticism of their Trumpcare bill, the American Health Care Act. They seemed concerned only about appeasing the House Freedom Caucus, the far-right flank of their party.

Mr. Trump in particular has been spreading misinformation and lies about health care, arguing that the legislation would lower costs while guaranteeing that people with pre-existing health conditions could get affordable health insurance. It would do the opposite. Here is what the bill actually does:

Takes a machete to Medicaid. The bill would cut $880 billion over 10 years from Medicaid, the program that provides health care to about 74 million poor, disabled and elderly Americans. That's one-fourth of its budget. As a result, 14 million fewer people would have access to health care by 2026, according to a C.B.O. analysis of the earlier bill, which contained similar Medicaid provisions. The cuts would also hurt special education programs, which receive about $4 billion from Medicaid every year.

Slashes insurance subsidies. It would provide $300 billion less over 10 years to help people who do not get insurance through employers and have to buy their own policies. This would hurt lower-income and older people the hardest. For example, a 60-year-old living in Phoenix and earning $40,000 would have to pay an additional $12,370 a year to buy a policy, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Many people who find themselves in this situation would have no choice but to forgo insurance.

Eliminates the individual mandate. Many people hate that the A.C.A. requires people to buy health insurance or pay a penalty. But without the mandate, fewer younger and healthier people would buy coverage. This would lead to what health experts call a "death spiral" as insurers raise rates because they are left covering people who are older and sicker, leading to even more people dropping coverage. Eventually, companies could stop selling policies directly to individuals in much of the country.

Guts protections for people with pre-existing conditions. An amendment by Representative Tom MacArthur of New Jersey would allow states to waive the requirement that insurers sell policies to people with prior health problems and not charge them higher rates. The chief executive of Blue Shield of California said the bill "could return us to a time when people who were born with a birth defect or who became sick could not purchase or afford insurance." Republicans say they will require that states with waivers offer high-risk pools and find other ways to help treat these people. The bill offers $138 billion over 10 years to help states pay for such programs. Experts say this is far too little; Larry Levitt of the Kaiser Foundation estimates it would take at least $25 billion a year.

Makes insurance less comprehensive. The bill would also let states waive a requirement under Obamacare that insurers cover a list of essential services. This means people in some places might not have access to maternity care or cancer treatment. This provision could also hurt people who get insurance through work, because federal regulations allow employers to opt into the rules of any state for the purposes of determining annual and lifetime limits on coverage, according to an analysis by the Brookings Institution.

Defunds Planned Parenthood. Republicans have included a provision that takes federal money away from the organization, which provides birth control, cancer screenings and other health services to 2.5 million people, mainly women. About 60 percent of people who use Planned Parenthood depend on government programs like Medicaid.

Despite this catalog of the bill's horrors, many Republicans have embraced it so they can claim they fulfilled their promise to repeal Obamacare. They aren't bragging that the bill would reduce tax revenue by $880 billion over 10 years, according to the C.B.O. A vast majority of those tax cuts would go to wealthy Americans.

The bill now moves to the Senate, where several centrist Republicans are opposed to it. The best hope for defeating this legislation rests with lawmakers like Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rob Portman of Ohio. But Mr. Trump and far-right groups will put tremendous pressure on them to pass this dreadful bill or something similarly terrible. The health of millions of Americans is now in their hands.

JWoo

#RESIST

#JoinTheRebellion

#2018

#2020

#IWillComeForYouFirst

Call them every day.

https://t.co/rsukPc4r1M

They vote no, or they go.