72 Million Will Go Without Health Insurance Under Romney’s Health Plan

By Annie-Rose Strasser/Think Progress

One of the myriad things presidential contender Mitt Romney has pledged to do on day one of his presidency is to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s signature health care reform legislation, and replace it with “market drive” reforms. But a new study estimates that the effort would actually increase the number of uninsured Americans to 72 million and increase costs across the board.

The Commonwealth Fund report considered Romney’s proposal in full, including his plans to transform Medicare into a “premium support” structure and convert Medicaid into a block grant for the states. Romney would also “equalize the tax treatment of employer-based coverage and plans purchased in the individual insurance market,” allow insurance companies to circumvent state-based consumer protections to sell subprime plans “across state lines,” and push sicker Americans into expensive high-risk pools. The changes will make it harder for the129 million Americans with pre-existing conditions to find coverage.

As a result, 72 million Americans would be unable to obtain insurance — more than if the Affordable Care Act had not become law in the first place:

Out-of-pocket spending and premiums would also increase, since Americans would lose “the combination of premium tax credits, limits on out-of-pocket spending, and consumer protections” that will reduce “costs for people purchasing coverage through the new insurance exchanges or the individual market”:

Romney’s plan would hit young adults between the ages of 19 and 29 the hardest, with an estimated 41.4 million uninsured (PDF) under his plan. That contrasts sharply to Obama’s health care reform, which will drop the uninsured in that age group down to 16 million, mainly thanks to the provision allowing adults up to 26 years old to remain on their guardians’ insurance.

The Republican candidate’s plan would also be particularly tough for low-income people or people living in poverty, who, under Obamacare, will be eligible for coverage in most states through the expansion of the Medicaid program. With Romney’s cuts to Medicaid, however, the number of uninsured people within 138 percent of the federal poverty line would grow from a baseline of 38.6 million to 43.7 million.

Romney’s Advice To The Uninsured: Go To The ER

By Sy Mukherjee/Think Progress

During a 60 Minutes interview with Scott Pelley on Sunday evening, Mitt Romney suggested that there are already adequate measures in place to protect Americans who lack health insurance. According to Romney, Americans should just go to the hospital to seek care, regardless of the crippling expenses they may incur without adequate health coverage:

PELLEY: Does the government have a responsibility to provide health care to the 50 million Americans who don’t have it today?

ROMNEY: Well, we do provide care for people who don’t have insurance, people — we– if someone has a heart attack, they don’t sit in their apartment and die. We pick them up in an ambulance, and take them to the hospital, and give them care.And different states have different ways of providing for that care.

PELLEY: That’s the most expensive way to do it…In an emergency room.

ROMNEY: Different, again, different states have different ways of doing that. Some provide that care through clinics. Some provide the care through emergency rooms. In my state, we found a solution that worked for my state. But I wouldn’t take what we did in Massachusetts and say to Texas, “You’ve got to take the Massachusetts model.”

However, as Pelley points out, ambulatory care is extraordinarily expensive and shifts costs from often-uninsured emergency room patients into the overall health care market, effectively driving up everyone’s cost of care.

All Americans are entitled to care though the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act or (EMTALA), a law Ronald Reagan signed. It requires hospitals that accept Medicare or Medicaid funding to treat patients for emergency medical conditions regardless of legal status or ability to pay. But EMTALA only applies to medical emergencies. “So, yes, if you’re actively giving birth, you can expect to receive care at an emergency room,” Austin Frakt and Aaron Carroll explain. “If you’re actively having a heart attack, you can also get emergency room care. If you’ve been seriously harmed in a car accident, you can go to the emergency room.” Patients with chronic conditions that don’t require emergency interference — the millions of Americans with diabetes who need “regular access to medication to stay alive,” asthma patients, or women diagnosed with breast cancer — would not be able to access needed treatments.

Although Obamacare and Romney’s own health reform law in Massachusetts both overcome this hurdle by mandating and subsidizing health insurance for all residents, irrespective of pre-existing conditions, Romney no longer seems to believe that his own program — which has improved the lives of millions in Massachusetts while nearly eliminating the children’s uninsured rate in the state — is effective enough to be implemented in other states.

UPDATE

Romney has not always believed that emergency rooms are the best route for the uninsured. Back in 2008, Romney decried uninsured emergency room visits as “free riding,” declaring, “If somebody could afford insurance, they should either buy the insurance or pay their own way. They don’t have to buy insurance if they don’t want to, but pay their own way. But they shouldn’t be allowed to just show up at the hospital and say, somebody else should pay for me.” According to Jonathan Gruber, a close adviser and architect for Romney’s Massachusetts health care law, overcoming this “free-rider” dilemma was at the heart of Romneycare. “The guy has come completely full circle,” Gruber said.

Republicans Expose Themselves as Enemies of Millions of Americans Health and Well-being

By: Rmuse/politicususa

When voters go to the polls, they assume their chosen representatives will work for the interests of all the people to provide an environment that allows every citizen to prosper in the pursuit of happiness whether it is a good job, a decent home, or good health. For the past three years, Republicans have demonstrated their ideology demands protecting the wealthy and big business at the expense of the majority of Americans, and when possible, punish the rest of the populace out of sheer contempt and for political expediency. Whether it is labeled collateral damage or ideological consistency, the GOP is unfazed when their policies cause undue harm to the American people and it has become the hallmark of the party’s agenda regardless the issue. Of course, the issue of the moment is the Affordable Care Act’s implementation after the Supreme Court ruled the health insurance reform law is constitutional, and Republicans are taking extreme measures to block implementation of the law regardless the consequences to millions of Americans.

In a letter from Republicans Jim DeMint and Michele Bachmann to states with Republican governors, they asked for assistance to punish Americans by refusing to implement provisions of the Affordable Care Act. “By refusing to create an exchange, you will assist us in Congress to repeal this violation,” and it is part of their campaign to demean the law they consider “reprehensible” regardless it passed both houses of Congress, was signed into law by the President, and declared constitutional by the High Court. The beneficiaries of repealing the Affordable Care Act are the insurance industry who can return to immoral practices of refusing to provide health care consumers pay dearly for, and as is usually the case for Republican policies, to punish Americans. There are already several Republican governors promising to opt out of a plan intended to give millions of poor Americans health coverage, and in a continuing Republican practice, they are lying to justify their decision.

Florida governor Rick Scott epitomizes Republican hatred for the people and on Sunday he announced that his state is opting out of an expansion of Medicaid, a joint federal-state health care program, and choosing not to build a state-based health insurance marketplace known as an exchange. The ACA always allowed states to “opt out” of building an exchange, and if they did refuse to set up the health care marketplace, the Department of Health and Human Services will do it for them. Florida is a particularly noteworthy example because by opting out of the Medicaid expansion, they are leaving a significant portion of their citizens without health care.According to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, Florida has the second-highest rate of uninsured Americans at 21 percent. If Scott did not opt out, Medicaid expansion would have covered 951,622 people according to Kaiser and it informs the level of contempt Scott, a typical Republican, has for residents of his state.

In what has become a typical Republican tactic, Scott lies and says Florida can’t afford the expansion, but for the first two years the federal government pays 100% of the Medicaid expansion and after 2017 when states begin paying their share they will never contribute more than 10% of the cost. Scott is not the only Republican governor to opt out of the Medicaid expansion or exchanges that threaten nearly a million people in Florida alone, and depending on the number of states opting out, the Medicaid expansion helps provide healthcare coverage for more than half of the 31 million Americans without healthcare insurance, or 16 million Americans who are mostly children, seniors, and the working poor according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

Since the Supreme Court’s ruling, Republicans have revealed their true intention if they are able to repeal the ACA, and it is that they have no plans to help over 31 million Americans gain access to affordable health care.  Over the weekend, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said “the lack of healthcare is not an issue” Republicans are concerned about, and Speaker of the House John Boehner was hard-pressed to contain his anger at being questioned on how Republicans would replace the ACA if they repeal it. Boehner admitted “all of those provisions, popular provisions, many of them very sound provisions can, in fact, be done in a common-sense way,” but only in small incremental steps after Republicans were finished“ripping Obamacare out by its roots.”

McConnell revealed the real issue for Republicans and it is not whether Americans had access to healthcare insurance, it is protecting the health insurance industry from providing services policy holders pay for. In fact, Republicans admit that if they cannot win big in November and repeal the ACA in its entirety in 2013, the law’s benefits will be nearly impossible to take away from the people as they begin seeing the real benefits. It is astounding that Republicans are finally admitting the people will love the law once its “popular and very sound provisions” take full effect, and yet they claim vehemently that the American people hate it with a passion. However, as the law takes effect and insurance providers beginning sending out $1.1 billion in rebate checks for failing to spend consumers’ premiums on providing healthcare services, the recent 50% approval rating will increase and that is precisely why congressional Republicans are urging governors to opt out of the program now to prevent the American people from realizing that the ACA is nothing but good news for all the people and anathema to Republicans.

More than anything, Republicans are exposing themselves as enemies of the people they are elected to represent and provide an environment where all Americans are able to prosper in the pursuit of happiness, and that includes access to quality, affordable healthcare insurance. The American people should be aware by now that Republicans have no compassion for anyone who is not in the top one-percent of income earners, and that they will pursue any means to punish the people. The ACA will create jobs, reduce the deficit, and give 31 million Americans healthcare for the first time in their lives and the GOP is panting to “rip it out by its roots” to protect the insurance industry. The past year-and-a-half have given the American people a preview of a Republican-controlled Congress and White House, and it portends a Draconian existence for all but the wealthiest Americans as the GOP rips out social safety nets by their roots and replaces them with more tax cuts for the wealthy and cuts to education, environmental protections, and eliminating Medicare, food stamps, police, firefighter, and construction jobs.

Compassion and concern for the general welfare of citizens is as foreign to Republicans as flying is to a rhinoceros, and to further their ideology of opposing everything proposed by an African American President, they will punish the American people with extreme prejudice. For over three years, Republicans have opposed every piece of legislation that protects Americans whether it was jobs programs, banking reform, payroll tax cuts, or healthcare reform. The Republican’s champion to win the White House, Willard Romney, promises to exceed the GOP’s expectations of creating a nation of peasants to serve the wealthy, and besides repeal banking, healthcare, and environmental reforms to enrich corporations and himself, it informs his cult’s belief that the accumulation of wealth and power supersede protecting all the people.

Americans living in states like Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina are fortunate that in spite of their Republican governors refusing to create insurance exchanges, the ACA’s provisions allow the federal government to do the work for them. However, for states like Florida and Wisconsin that plan to opt out of the Medicaid expansion program, millions of poor, seniors, and children risk losing healthcare coverage so Republicans can make a point that regardless the consequences to the people, they will pursue their twisted, Draconian ideology of punishing the people to protect corporations. This is the Republican Party America is suffering, and after trying and failing for sixty years, Democrats were finally able to provide healthcare for nearly every American and the GOP is using every means possible to strip it away from the people. However, no American should be surprised because regardless if it is a low-life Republican governor, a cry-baby Speaker of the House, or a lying Mormon seeking the White House, stripping away beneficial programs from the American people is the first order of business in Republican ideology and proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Republicans hate America.

30 million uninsured not the issue for GOP

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GOP Governors May Turn Down $258 Billion In Obamacare Funds, Leave 9.2 Million Americans Uninsured

Ben Sherman/Guest Blogger for Think Progress

Despite the Supreme Court ruling that the Affordable Care Act is constitutional, Republican governors are considering refusing billions in Medicaid funds which promise to insure millions of lower-income Americans without health care. The Court found that while the Medicaid provision is constitutional, the federal government cannot take away federal funds from states that refuse to open the program to more residents.

A ThinkProgress survey reveals that ten GOP governors have said definitively that they will not accept the funds, while 19 are still considering other options. Sixteen states, all with Democratic governors, have committed to expanding their programs:

Starting in 2014, the Affordable Care Act expands Medicaid, the massively popular program which makes health insurance available for lower-income Americans. For the first three years, the federal government covers 100 percent of the expansion costs. After five years, the federal government finances 90 percent of the expanded population.

Not a single Republican governor has pledged to accept the new Medicaid funds and three Democrats are also considering turning down the money. In total, these states would give up $291.4 billion in federal funds and leave 10,297,221 Americans uninsured.

Romney: Uninsured with preexisting conditions should be denied coverage

From the Stephanie Miller Facebook page

By David Edwards/Raw Story

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Tuesday insisted that President Barack Obama’s health care reform law should be overturned and that people with preexisting conditions should be denied coverage if they had never had insurance before.

During an appearance on NBC’s Tonight Show, host Jay Leno told Romney that he knew people that had never been able to get insurance before “Obamacare” was passed.

“It seems to me like children and people with preexisting conditions should be covered,” Leno noted.

“People with preexisting conditions — as long as they’ve been insured before, they’re going to continue to have insurance,” Romney explained.

“Suppose they were never insured?” Leno asked.

“Well, if they’re 45 years old, and they show up, and they say, I want insurance, because I’ve got a heart disease, it’s like, `Hey guys, we can’t play the game like that. You’ve got to get insurance when you’re well, and if you get ill, then you’re going to be covered,’” Romney replied.

“I know guys that work in the auto industry and they’re just not covered because they work in brake dust,” Leno pressed. “And then they get to be 30, 35, and were never able to get insurance before. Now they have it. That seems like a good thing.”

“But people who have had the chance to be insured — if you’re working in an auto business for instance, the companies carry insurance, they insure all their employees — you look at the circumstances that exist,” the candidate explained. “But you don’t want everyone saying, `I’m going to sit back until I get sick and then go buy insurance.’ That doesn’t make sense. But you have to find rules that get people in that are playing by the rules.”

The Washington Post‘s Greg Sargent pointed out that by passing health insurance mandates in Massachusetts, Romney had acknowledged that people should get coverage when they are well, but he had since moved further to the right in an effort to win the GOP presidential primary.

“So he’s forced to give a nonsensical answer to the core policy and moral question that’s left behind if we do away with Obamacare: What should the federal government do about those who can’t get insurance covarge, thanks to preexisting conditions?” Sargent wrote.

“Until Romney details otherwise, his answer, for all practical purposes, is: Nothing.”

Watch this video from NBC’s Tonight Show, broadcast March 27, 2012.

GOP Presidential Candidates Tell Florida Uninsured Woman: You’re On Your Own

By Igor Volsky/Think Progress

At last night’s CNN presidential debate in Jacksonville, Florida, the GOP candidates told an unemployed woman in need of health insurance that they would repeal the health reform law that could help her find coverage and giver her a tax deduction to go out and find her own insurance.

The woman — Lynn Frazier — said she found herself “unemployed for the first time in 10 years and unable to afford health benefits.” Under the Affordable Care Act, Frazier may qualify for temporary insurance in the state’s high-risk pool, which already provides coverage for 3,285 Floridianswho can’t find affordable coverage elsewhere. In two years, she’ll be able to pick out a health policy through the state’s Exchange. All private insurers will offer a comprehensive basic set of benefits and allow consumers like Frazier to compare and contrast different plans to find the coverage that works best for them and their family. Insurers won’t be able to deny insurance based on past illness or rescind coverage unexpectedly, as they often do in today’s health market, and Frazier will pay a “community” rate and may even qualify for tax credits to help her afford her premiums and out of pocket cost-sharing expenses.

The Republican candidates pledged to undo these benefits and instead encouraged her to find coverage “as an individual” — on her own — with the help of a government tax deduction:

– RON PAUL: And you should have an opportunity — medical care insurance should be given to you as an individual, so if you’re employed or not employed, you have — you just take care of that and you keep it up.

– NEWT GINGRICH: She ought to get the same tax break whether she buys personally or whether she buys through a economy. She should also be able to buy into an association so that she’s buying with lots of other people so it’s not single insurance, which is the most expensive kind.

– MITT ROMNEY: What we should do is allow individuals to own their own insurance and have the same tax treatment as companies get. You do that and people like this young woman would be able to own her insurance. The rates would be substantial lower for her buying it individually than if she had to buy it individually today.

– RICK SANTORUM: All three of these folks sound great and I agree with them. I would just add that health savings account, which I introduced 20 years ago with John Kasich, is really the fundamental reform of getting consumers back involved in the health care system.

Watch the exchange:

In reality, sending off Americans to face health care insurers on their own without first reforming the individual health care market — so that companies can no longer deny coverage due to pre-existing conditions, rescind insurance, or charge sicker and older people substantially more — is an inadequate solution that will do little to lower the number of uninsured or reduce health care costs.

Since insurers are hoping to attract the most profitable beneficiaries, individual plans offer “coverage so riddled with loopholes, limits, exclusions, and gotchas that it won’t come close to covering their expenses if they fall seriously ill.” As a Consumer Reports investigationconcluded, individual insurance policies are “more costly than the equivalent job-based coverage, and for those in less-than-perfect health, unaffordable at best and unavailable at worst.” The lack of effective consumer protections in most states also allows insurers to trick consumers by selling plans with “affordable” premiums “whose skimpy coverage can leave people who get very sick with the added burden of ruinous medical debt.”

Thus, if an individual falls ill under the GOP’s proposal, the cost of the medical episode and the inadequate insurance will outweigh any beneficial tax treatment and deplete any health savings account they may have.