Okay, it appears that Obamacare is safe. For now.

Courtesy of Vox:

The Affordable Care Act is going to survive. 

The 2010 health care law has slowly but surely moved out of the line of fire. President Trump barely mentioned it in his State of the Union address Tuesday night. At their annual retreat this week in West Virginia, top Republicans signaled that the repeal dream is likely over. 

After Doug Jones won the Alabama special Senate election in December, the bare Republican Senate majority has no viable path left for a more substantial repeal plan; the math in a 51-seat majority is too daunting. Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) remain opposed to taking up repeal. Senate leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has already said that Republicans would probably move on from health care. 

So the party’s long-held promise to repeal Obamacare root and branch appears to be actually, finally dead. Of course, that hasn’t stopped Trump claiming, after his party’s tax overhaul passed in December with a repeal of the law’s individual mandate, that Republicans “have essentially repealed Obamacare.” But he’s wrong about that. 

Repealing the individual mandate is a legitimate blow to the Obamacare marketplaces, but doing so won’t unravel the markets entirely. They will function worse than they did before, and premiums will likely rise. 

But millions of people who receive generous tax subsidies to buy coverage will not feel the brunt of those cost increases. The law’s rules prohibiting health insurers from discriminating against preexisting conditions remain on the books. Finally, and most importantly, Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, which covered upward of 15 million people, remains untouched.

Well there's an island of good news in this sea of insanity at least.

Still, as pointed out in the article, the Affordable Care Act has been badly damaged, and it needs to be repaired and fine tuned.

Neither of those things will happen with a Republican majority in the House and Senate, so we desperately need to turn out the vote in 2018, and then again in 2020.

And whatever we do we cannot allow ourselves to be distracted with bullshit purity tests and Democratic infighting.

We are often our own worst enemies, but right now there are far more dangerous adversaries with which to deal.

Susan Collins pulls a John McCain and kills the most recent Republican attempt to repeal Obamacare.

Breaking: Susan Collins is a NO. Her statement: pic.twitter.com/QKgv8wrsde

— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) September 25, 2017

I am no Nostradamus or anything but I knew that neither Collins nor Murkowski were going to sign on to this bill.

In fact this came out earlier today concerning Lisa's vote.

Friend saw @lisamurkowski at farmer's mkt in Anchorage this Sat. Asked re ACA. She looked him in the eye & said "I will not be bought off."

— Ben Wikler (@benwikler) September 25, 2017

This is where I would typically say that this thing is now dead for good, and we can all relax.

But that it what they used to say about Jason Voorhees, and he kept coming back over and over again. 

The push to repeal Obamacare intensifies.

Courtesy of Think Progress: 

Senate Republicans are on the cusp of passing a bill that will eliminate hundreds of billions of dollars worth of health funding, destabilize insurance markets, and eventually phase out Medicaid in its entirety. Less than two months after three Republican senators stopped an earlier effort to strip away much of America’s health care safety net, millions of Americans’ health care is now in very serious peril. 

The new Trumpcare legislation — often referred to as “Graham-Cassidy” after Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA), its leading proponents — contains several provisions undercutting the Affordable Care Act. It eliminates subsidies helping many millions of Americans purchase health insurance on the Obamacare exchanges and Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, replacing this funding with a less generous block grant to states.

Then, this block grant abruptly disappears in 2027, leaving many millions of Americans with nothing.

The Trump Administration is pushing hard to get this one passed.

Courtesy of Axios:   

Vice President Mike Pence is throwing the Trump administration’s weight behind the latest Affordable Care Act repeal bill — and against a bipartisan effort to stabilize the marketplaces. In an interview on Air Force Two, Pence told me he’ll call on all Senate Republicans to support the bill by Sens. Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy at a lunch meeting this afternoon, saying, "this is the moment. Now is the time.” 

The bottom line: It’s likely coming down to the votes of Sens. John McCain and Lisa Murkowski, two of the Republican holdouts (the others are Susan Collins and Rand Paul). Graham, who was on the flight with Pence, told me McCain will speak for himself — but added with a knowing smile that he feels good about McCain’s vote.

I have already made my phone call to Lisa Murkowski and I encourage others to contact their Senators as well.

It might provide some solace to know that there are heroes out there fighting the good fight.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) says Democrats are willing to jam up the Senate to stop the GOP's latest ObamaCare repeal bill. 

“We’re going to look at every possible way to slow this bill down," Schumer said during a Monday press conference. 

Mostly powerless to set the legislative agenda in the minority, Democrats have some delaying tactics at their disposal.

These Democrats deserve words of encouragement as well, so if you have a Democrat for a Senator they might also enjoy hearing from you.

Ultimately I hope that we are working our way toward single payer, but until then we need to fight tooth and nail to hang on to Obamacare for as long as we can.

John McCain has flipped! He now supports the repeal and replacement of Obamacare.

No seriously, do you see that spot on it? That look like cancer to you?

Courtesy of The Hill:  

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday that he supports a newer version of an ObamaCare repeal-and-replace bill, throwing some support behind the last-ditch effort. 

McCain said he backs a bill from Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) that would convert ObamaCare spending into block grants for states. 

Asked if he supported it, McCain told reporters, "Yes. You think I wouldn't be?" 

Graham is one of McCain's closest friends. 

Fucker!

This is why I was not among those blowing kisses at McCain after he cast his deciding vote to stop the GOP repeal and replace runaway train the last time.

I KNEW he could never be counted on to stand his ground for long.

Even though Trump has already said that he would sign this newer version, all is not yet lost.

The measure faces long odds, despite the boost from McCain. The White House is pushing for it, but Senate GOP leadership has so far not expressed interest publicly. 

Republicans face a tight deadline of Sept. 30, when the fast-track process known as reconciliation needed to pass a repeal bill without Democratic votes expires. 

So it is still somewhat unlikely that this thing will make it to a vote by the deadline.

But let's not forget that there is still a long way to 2018.

I fucking KNEW that McCain could not be counted on to hold the line for long.

I swear he shifts positions every time the wind blows.

Hopefully at least Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins will remain more steadfast in their opposition.

Donald Trump to repeal Obama era restriction on police access to military style equipment.

Courtesy of HuffPo:  

President Donald Trump will repeal restrictions that former President Barack Obama placed on police access to excess military gear, allowing the the federal government to immediately resume handing out free bayonets, grenade launchers, tracked armored vehicles such as tanks and other equipment to law enforcement departments around the country. 

Trump will sign an executive order on Monday that repeals the limits Obama placed on the access to some military surplus items in 2015. Obama’s move followed the “provocative” response to the August 2014 unrest in Ferguson, Mo., where St. Louis County Police officers atop armored vehicles pointed sniper rifles at peaceful demonstrators in broad daylight. Policing experts in a report for the Justice Department found that the police actions “inflamed tensions” and violated constitutional rights.

Trump’s forthcoming executive order was announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a speech to the Fraternal Order of Police on Monday. Other items that federal government can again supply to local law officers include camouflage uniforms, weaponized aircraft, and ammunition above .50 caliber.

Yep, nothing says let's disperse this crowd peacefully like pulling out the ole grenade launcher and weaponized aircraft.

But hey, if President Obama was for it, it must be bad.

Right Donnie?

A number of Republican Senators are begging Mitch McConnell to cancel the August recess for fear of what they may face from constituents this 4th of July after failing to make progress on a health care bill.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

An even larger group of Senate Republicans suggested Friday that McConnell should scale back or cancel the chamber’s month-long August recess, given the lack of progress they have made on not just health care but a tax-code overhaul, spending bills, the debt ceiling and a budget resolution. 

Senate Republicans David Perdue (Ga.), Steve Daines (Mont.), Joni Ernst (Iowa), John Neely Kennedy (La.), James Lankford (Okla.), Mike Lee (Utah), Mike Rounds (S.D.), Luther Strange (Ala.), Dan Sullivan (Alaska) and Thom Tillis (N.C.) sent McConnell a letter Friday asking him to shorten or cancel the August recess so they can get more done. 

“Delivering meaningful results was never assumed to be easy, but the millions of Americans who placed their confidence in our leadership expect our full and best effort,” the 10 senators wrote. 

Republicans are steeling themselves for attacks on their health-care negotiations over the July Fourth recess, with progressive activists planning to pressure any members of Congress they see at public events. Most GOP senators were keeping their plans close to their vests, though a handful, including Cassidy, Ted Cruz (Tex.), Susan Collins (Maine), Jerry Moran (Kan.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) have announced town halls or parade visits. 

Collins, a vocal critic of the current Senate draft, had publicized just one scheduled appearance — in the 1,300-person town of Eastport, Maine, near the Canadian border. 

At (Louisiana Senator Bill) Cassidy’s town hall at the Living Faith Christian Center in Baton Rouge, he tried to make the case for transitioning Medicaid recipients into private insurance. But constituents interrupted him repeatedly, prompting him to chastise them for being rude. 

“I’ll tell you what’s rude — kicking 22 million people off of health care in this country,” said a man in the front row after the senator recognized him to speak. 

The audience erupted into cheers. 

Reminding Cassidy, a medical doctor, of his stint treating patients at a hospital for the uninsured, the man continued: “You worked at Earl K. Long for many years. You know what people are like at their lowest.” 

Senate Democrats are staging events aimed at highlighting how the Senate’s draft bill could hurt health-care delivery in their home states. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) is visiting at least two rural hospitals over the break to underscore the impact of proposed funding cuts.

Yeah I bet these GOP Senators are absolutely dreading these 4th of July events.  

I think that Alaska's two senators are only planning on attending the parades, but I have little doubt that they will be inundated with demands that they protect Medicaid and work to expand health coverage up here.

I especially think that is true of Lisa, who many see as being much more likely to reject the GOP plan, and who is the subject of a lot of anti-repeal advertising on our local radio and television stations right now.

Wannabe Alaskan Senate candidate Joe Miller demonstrates why he will never be the nominee.

Okay first off if this dipstick wants to demonstrate how manly perhaps he should learn to grow a full beard.

Secondly running against Obamacare is so 2012.

Now days the law is working too well for any serious candidate to think shooting a damn hole in it is going to impress anybody.

And thirdly....well thirdly this is just fucking embarrassing.

Obamacare has saved the American people nearly 2 billion dollars on their premiums. Damn that law sucks doesn't it?

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

Millions of Americans can expect to get a refund from their insurance companies this year, at an average of about $80 dollars per family, thanks to a little-known Obamacare provision that’s helping people save money on their premiums. According to a new report released by the Health and Human Services Department on Thursday, Americans across the country have received a total of $1.9 billion dollars in rebates since this provision first took effect in 2011. 

Obamacare’s medical loss ratio provision — which is also frequently referred to as the “80/20 rule” — requires insurers to spend at least 80 percent of every American’s premium costs on their medical care, rather than on the company’s own profits or administrative overhead. If insurance companies don’t hit the right balance, they have to issue a refund check to their customers to make up for it. 

According to HHS’s calculations, 6.8 million Americans will save $330 million in refunds this year because of the 80/20 rule. Insurance companies are required to provide those reimbursements by no later than the beginning of August. Not everyone will actually receive a physical check in the mail; insurers are allowed to apply the reimbursements to future premiums, so the savings could show up that way.

Well no matter how the savings show up they would have been impossible without the passing of Obamacare, a law that  Republicans have tried to defund or repeal more than 50 times, and a law which Republican appointed judges are currently trying to undermine.

We need to get Democrats to the polls in huge numbers this November, and in ever increasing numbers going forward after that.

Obamacare is here to stay and it is winning over converts everyday. Oh look, I'm a poet and I didn't even know it.

Courtesy of The National Memo:  

In mid-March, House Republicans took their 52nd vote in 38 months to repeal the Affordable Care Act. While a majority of the House voted in favor of the bill, however, public support for these continued efforts to repeal the health care law is progressively shrinking. 

According to a Kaiser Foundation poll released on Wednesday, only 18 percent of Americans still wish to see the law repealed and not replaced — 11 percent want to repeal the law and replace it with a Republican alternative, 10 percent want it to remain as is, and a 49 percent majority want to keep it and improve it. 

It seems repeated GOP efforts to defund the law have hit a standstill, representing a possible warning to Republicans who exclusively focus on the ACA in the upcoming midterm elections. According to the poll, a growing number of Americans have accepted the ACA as the law of the land. Some 53 percent of those polled now say they are tired of debating the already implemented law, and would prefer to move on to other important issues.

This is great news moving forward. In fact there are more stories rolling in about how many of those once opposed to he law are now seeing the benefits.

One was so good it was even used by the White House Blog:  

I am a staunch Republican, a self-proclaimed Fox News addict, and I didn't vote for the President. And I'm here to tell you that Obamacare works. I'm living proof. 

I'm a chemotherapy patient, and was previously paying $428 a month for my health coverage. I was not thrilled when it was cancelled. 

Then I submitted an application at HealthCare.gov. I looked at my options. And I signed up for a plan for $62 a month. 

It's the best health care I have ever had.

I wrote a letter to President Obama this past February to tell him about my experience with the Health Insurance Marketplace. I hoped he'd read it, and he did. 

I may not be a supporter of the President. But now, I get mad when I see Obamacare dragged through the mud on television. 

And even though I regularly tune in to conservative pundits, I'd like to tell them they're getting it wrong. Obamacare works.

It's signed Mark D. Bearden, Ph.D. and the White House is now using it to help sign people up for Obamacare. Which is what I have been suggesting for months.

And of course the enrollment is now over six million. 

However before we all start high-fiving each other we need a reality check.

While it is true that the Republicans cannot do anything in the short term to derail the Affordable Care Act, their is a scenario that would give them the power to do just that.

Last night on Real Time Bill Maher interviewed Jimmy Carter. When asked if he thought that winning the presidency, the Senate, and the House would mean that the Republicans would feel empowered to repeal the ACA, Carter said yes it would.

No doubt about it.

So while we may not be able to imagine a scenario where the GOP wins the White House, I am not willing to leave it up to that election to protect our progress, and we need to make damn sure that EVERY Democrat, Liberal, and liberal leaning Independent gets out to vote in 2014.

We have come too far to allow all of this to go up in smoke.

Nate Silver was on the Daily Show the other day and he kind of dared the Democrats to prove him wrong about his predictions concerning 2014. I haven't played truth or dare for many, many years, but that is one dare I am more than willing to take.

You know that conservative talking point which says that the majority of Americans are against Obamacare? Yeah, not so much.

Courtesy of TPM:  

A substantial majority of Americans believe Obamacare should remain law, either exactly as it is or with small changes, according to a new poll. 

Bloomberg News found that a combined 64 percent of Americans said they support keeping the law in place. That includes 51 percent who said it should be kept but may need some small changes and 13 percent who said it should be left alone. Only 34 percent said it should be repealed.

That flies directly in the face of every talking point spewed by the conservative mouthpieces, from Rush Limbaugh, to Ted Cruz, to Sarah Palin, who has made repealing the law the central criteria for her recent political endorsements.

The problem for the Republicans is that as 2014 marches forward the numbers who have signed up for the Affordable Care Act are only going to grow, and positive stories about how it is actually affecting the lives of Americans (Many of which can be found here.) are going to continue to pile up.

It will be interesting to see if running against Obamacare still benefits candidates in red states, and then what happens to that rhetoric once they are elected and find themselves marginalized by the more rational Republicans who are currently working to improve the law rather than repeal it.

Today the House voted for the 40th time to either repeal or keep Obamacare from being implemented. So in response the Administration gives you forty reasons why that should piss you off.

Today the House of Representatives voted to pass a bill that would bar the IRS from any role in carrying out the Obamacare law or in collecting taxes to help pay for it. It was the fortieth time Congress has voted to defund, repeal, or sabotage the Affordable Care Act since it was signed into law in 2010.

This was the Administration's response, courtesy of Organizing for Action:

To mark the occasion, here's a quick rundown of 40 ways that Obamacare is already working for millions of Americans and will impact more beginning in 2014. 

1. Say goodbye to lifetime limits: Insurance companies will no longer be able to place an arbitrary cap on coverage. 

2. Children can no longer be denied health insurance because of a pre-existing condition. 

3. Starting in 2014, adults will no longer be denied health insurance because of a pre-existing condition. Free preventive care, including: 

4. Annual check-ups 

 5. Contraception 

6. Vaccinations 

7. Gestational diabetes screenings 

8. Mammograms 

9. Screening and counselling for HIV 

10. Cholesterol screenings 

 11. Colonoscopies 

12. Blood pressure screenings 

 13. Cancer screenings 

 14. Osteoporosis screenings 

 15. Young adults can stay on their parents' insurance plans until the age of 26. 

16. If insurance companies aren't spending your premium dollars on your health care—at least 80 percent—they've got to give you some money back. 

17. Insurance companies can't raise your rates by double-digits without justification. 

18. Insurance plans can’t require higher co-payments or co-insurance if you get emergency care from an out-of-network hospital. 

19. Women will no longer be charged more than men just because they're women. 

20. The health insurance marketplace will be ready to go in every state starting October 1 of this year. 

21. No-hassle comparisons: The online marketplace provides easy access to information on all available plans, so you can do a side-by-side comparison and find a plan that works for you. 

22. Many Americans will be eligible for financial assistance to help them buy health insurance on their own, so you can afford a plan that will be there if you get sick. 

23. When you buy insurance through the marketplace, premiums can be determined based only on these four factors: where you live, how old your are, how large your family is, and whether or not you are a smoker. 

 24. In the marketplace, you can choose a plan that matches your budget and needs: Platinum, Gold, Silver or Bronze. 

25. By 2020, the Medicare prescriptions drug "donut hole" will be closed for good. 

These are the essential benefits that all health plans in the marketplace must cover: 

26. Ambulatory patient services 

27. Emergency services 

28. Hospitalization 

 29. Prenatal care 

30. Neonatal care 

31. Mental health services 

 32. Prescription drugs 

33. Rehabilitative services and devices 

34. Laboratory services like bloodwork 

35. Preventive care 

 36. Wellness services 

37. Chronic disease management 

38. Pediatric services, including oral and vision care 

39. Lower prescription drug costs for people on Medicare. 

40. These states are already foreseeing dramatic drops in premiums: New York, California, Nevada, Connecticut, Oregon. 

There you have it. 40 ways Obamacare is helping and will help Americans—benefits the House of Representatives is about to try to take away for the 40th time.

Oh but don't think that is the ONLY trick up the conservative's sleeve, they are also trying to undermine it by convincing young people not to buy into it,

This courtesy of Salon:

First, some background. The “plan,” such as it is, works like this: Young people tend to be healthier and thus cheaper to insure, so they essentially subsidize the cost of older and sick people. If enough young people don’t sign up, and the pool is mostly older and sick people, costs will skyrocket. A price “death spiral” is health policy experts’ biggest fear with the law, but it’s exactly what the conservative groups want to artificially induce, thus dooming the law. 

To that end, conservatives are trying to rally young people to skip the healthcare exchange and pay the fine for violating the individual mandate to have health insurance. They’re making their case with GIFs, Op-Eds and a campaign to burn Obamacare draft cards (which don’t actually exist, but can be downloaded from FreedomWorks’ website for later incineration). Americans for Prosperity is even considering setting up kiosks at Universal Fighting Championship matches and college football games to tell people not to enroll. 

But, if this gambit is successful, wouldn’t that lead to millions of young people living without health insurance, and older and sick people paying higher health insurance premiums? And since Obama will never repeal his signature law, we’re talking about at least three years of intentionally inflicted misery, all for a shot at repealing Obamacare sometime in the future and replacing it with something that doesn’t even exist yet. What about the human toll?

Pissed off yet? Yeah, me too!