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Monday, July 24, 2017

Paul Krugman: Health Care Is Still in Danger

"The latest round of falsehoods about health care, combined with the defamation of the C.B.O., may be gaining some political traction":

Health Care Is Still in Danger, by Paul Krugman, NY Times: Will Senate Republicans try to destroy health care under cover of a constitutional crisis? That’s a serious question, based in part on what happened in the House...
As you may remember, back in March attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act seemed dead after the Congressional Budget Office released a devastating assessment..., the House Republican bill would lead to 23 million more uninsured Americans. Faced with intense media scrutiny and an outpouring of public opposition, House leaders pulled their bill, and the debate seemed over.
But then media attention moved on to presidential tweets and other outrages — and with the spotlight off, House leaders bullied and bribed enough holdouts to narrowly pass a bill after all.
Could something similar happen in the Senate? A few days ago the Senate’s equally awful version of repeal and replace ... seemed dead. And media attention has visibly shifted off the subject, focusing on juicier topics like the Russia-Trump story. ...
One particular concern is that the latest round of falsehoods about health care, combined with the defamation of the C.B.O., may be gaining some political traction. ... In particular, the claim is that its prediction of huge losses in coverage is outlandish, and that to the extent that fewer people would be covered, it would be due to their voluntary choices.
In reality, those C.B.O. predictions of coverage losses are totally reasonable, given the ... drastic cuts to Medicaid...
And on those claims that it’s O.K. if people drop coverage, because that would be their own choice... Current law provides enough in subsidies that an individual with an income of $26,500 can afford a plan covering 70 percent of medical expenses, which ... implies an $800 deductible. The Senate bill reduces that standard of coverage to 58 percent, which would raise the implied deductible to $13,000, making the insurance effectively useless. Would deciding not to buy that useless insurance really be a “choice”? ...
In short, the Senate bill is every bit as cruel and grotesque as its critics say. But we need to keep reminding wavering senators and their constituents of that fact, lest they be snowed by a blizzard of lies. ...
And while ordinary citizens can’t yet do much about the looming constitutional crisis, their calls, letters, and protests can still make all the difference on health care. Don’t let the bad guys in the Senate do terrible things because you weren’t paying attention!

    Posted by on Monday, July 24, 2017 at 08:07 AM in Economics, Health Care, Politics | Permalink  Comments (28)


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