I’ve gotten used to the idea that I probably won’t be able to afford health insurance after this year. While I had many problems with Obamacare, I felt good about participating in the ACA because millions of Americans were finally able to afford quality healthcare. I also felt good about the ACA because one of the major things the ACA got right was that insurance companies could no longer treat a vagina as a “pre-existing condition.” Pre-ACA, insurance companies regularly hiked women’s rates or denied coverage to women for necessary reproductive-health issues. The ACA changed that. And now Republicans are about to gut those provisions and take us back to the dark ages. Note: I wasn’t even going to write about Trumpcare today but I just read this story and I couldn’t believe what I was reading.
An amendment in the GOP health-care-reform bill will allow states to deny coverage for preexisting conditions, including sexual assault. Pre-Obamacare rape survivors who sought treatment for their injuries could be denied health care later on. Under Obamacare, preexisting conditions were guaranteed to receive coverage — among them, sexual assault. The American Health Care Act is going to change that.
The new MacArthur-Meadows Amendment will allow states to discriminate based on medical history, reportedly without mitigating the subsequent high cost of health care for millions of Americans. In addition to rape, postpartum depression, Cesarean sections, and surviving domestic violence are all considered preexisting conditions. Companies can also deny coverage for gynecological services and mammograms.
President Trump, who thinks Bill O’Reilly has done nothing wrong, has a litany of sexual harassment claims against him, and is responsible for the quote “grab ’em by the p-ssy,” tweeted that he will “[take] care of pre-existing conditions!”
The amendment also reads, “Nothing in this Act shall be construed as permitting health insurance issuers to discriminate in rates for health insurance coverage by gender.” Maybe Ivanka will stand up this time and explain that the majority of people who get pregnant, are domestically abused, or are raped are women.
Think about that. Think about being denied coverage when you are raped or sexually assaulted. Think about how in Trump’s America, rape is a pre-existing condition because hey, you’re a woman, right? What did you expect? And what are you doing having a C-section?? In Trump’s America, women should give birth naturally, in alleys and gutters, because having a vagina makes you sub-human.
Paul Ryan is really trying to sell the sh-t out of this bill too. I hope his wife and daughters are watching.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
This bill is immoral and disgusting. I just want to thank you for covering this stuff. Celebrity gossip is fun, but this stuff is so important.
Seconded. I feel so sorry for the sensible people who did not vote for this collection of vile morons. They will suffer as much as those who brought it on themselves. The US is one of the richest countries on earth but somehow its healthcare system is going to be a dreadful mess again. I hope the 52% of women who voted for trump are happy. Hell mend them, as we say in Scotland.
The bill just passed. I am so disgusted I could spit.
Could somebody please post a link to the actual bill because I can’t find it. I want to read it for myself and see if this is true. Does the bill literally mention these things or is it interpretation? I had to read the bill that was just passed effecting over time pay a few times to understand it and that thing is no good. Yea, you get the choice of comp time or pay, but there’s too much wiggle room for corporations to take advantage of employees and basically have you work overtime without getting to take your earned days off or your pay rate for time and a half. It’s basically a scam. I really want to read this health bill.
@screwstew it took me about two seconds to google….
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1275/text
I cannot believe it is titled “world’s greatest healthcare plan”
Thanks tata! I tried looking with google, but I couldn’t find the whole bill. I’m google inept I guess.
^^This.
When I read this morning that the GOP has enough votes to pass their vicious bill it gave me a pause… Than I cancelled my WaPo subscription.. I do no longer wish to be informed in detail about a country that is ruled by a party that hates the human race. I always admired the US and amire the folks that fight this horrible administration. the best of luck from Germany.
The vote’s at 1. There’s still time to call. You can find your rep or do general calls: https://trumpcaretoolkit.org
NOVEMBER 2018. We have the power to change this.
Thanks for this reference. My representative’s DC office is giving me the “volume of calls” message, stating that they can’t take my call right now. I’ll keep trying; I’m also trying the local and regional offices, and they’re also busy.
Motion carried. This bill is awful, disgraceful, obscene . . .
My husband works for a health insurance company and HE is disgusted by this. He’s also a cancer survivor, and one of our nephews has cerebral palsy. He understands what this bill will do, as well as anyone can (given that no one has actually seen the damn thing). Neither of us understand why anyone thinks that passage of this bill is a good idea. Even his bosses are scratching their heads.
It’s just absolutely horrifying. And I’m glad CB covers things related to the Trump administration too.
YES. Fully agree on this.
I couldn’t agree more. Celebitchy, and any other non-traditionally “political” sites, covering these important issues have my undying respect. These times call for relevant information from many, many reliable sources. This whole proposal is appalling. Thanks for your remarks and, again, to Celebitchy.
I agree. Thank you so much for covering this. We are all affected.
These people have shown themselves to be vermin. This bill is reprehensible but it will not pass the senate which needs to happen for it to become law. Still, with that said, anyone who voted for this rag needs to be shown the door in 2018.
OMFG.
The Handmaid’s Tale seems more and more real in America.
You are not incorrect. What a derelict future for women.
I have a 19 year old daughter. I am outraged and enraged.
It’s always been real. There’s nothing in that story that hasn’t happened before. Atwood just took it to its logical conclusion in the age of technology.
I was trying to figure out what the difference was this time (from the first bill). And I notice that Breitbart is not denouncing this one. The deplorables are falling in line, even though they will be disproportionately affected by this horrible bill.
Yup. OMFG. I am beyond angry. I cried halfway home. I live in a blue state, I have employer healthcare, I will have it after I retire, and I’m not even safe. This bill allows employer provided healthcare to bail out of the Essential Health provisions, covering things like hospitalization, ambulatory care, Rx, opioid and mental health care, and more.
But I am more upset for those who don’t have my advantages. Who are vulnerable or are sick. And I will never get how 30% of Trump cult members voted for and cheered something that will probably lead to their own death?? I don’t get it at all.
I think America has 30% sociopaths. I truly do.
2017, supposedly the information age, and these people, young men like Ryan (relatively speaking) are talking about women’s bodies and agency like it’s 1817.
Every time i read about his latest shenanigans, i gave to check the date and wonder if i’ve accidentally fallen down a timemachine.
Paul Ryan is a numbers guy. He doesn’t think about anything but numbers and does a budget work.
We’re all just numbers to them.
This doesn’t help the budget the cbo score was horrible in fact every bill Ryan has ever proposed the math doesn’t work.
The “numbers” guy is PR he is a hack.
paul ryan says he’s a numbers guy but he obviously can’t add. the last bill was proven to be bad financially for the country and this is just a worse version of the first bill. he has a hard-on to screw poor people because he read one book in college.
It’s fascinating that this numbers guy can always find money for the military, but not a cent for the poor people or women.
His numbers must have a red alert for poor people and women so he knows which programmes to cut.
Truthfully, he might as well have a sponsorship patch on his suit from the Health Insurance companies. He’s working on behalf of their bottom line, not the citizens of this country who pay for health insurance, only to be denied because of pre-existing conditions or some other crapolla sandwich they come up with.
Ryan always put himself forward as a policy wonk, especially on healthcare issues, but the last go-around, he pretty much revealed that he doesn’t even understand the basic concept of insurance. He is a horrible person who really seems to be sexually aroused by the very thought of cutting people off healthcare.
@Lightpurple, @lizzie-
PR’s favorite pr0n author is Ayn Rand.
Ryan Shrugged.
This will result in women not reporting assaults because it will cost them financially.
Standing right alongside Ryan is Representative Diane Black, who calls herself a nurse. Black pushed the law allowing states to defund Planned Parenthood and sat next to Ryan grinning when he signed it and practically manspread her off the couch. She then tweeted pictures of it saying how proud she was to be saving all those babies.
This whole thing is mind-blowingly disgusting. I left voice mail messages all over the country last night in various district offices telling these murderous scum what I think of them.
Explain to me exactly what this means. I do not understand health insurance at all. So um… if a woman is raped and needs some form of ongoing counselling for the trauma, it won’t be covered except initially? Or ever at all? Or if (god forbid) she gets raped again she’s not covered for treating any injuries sustained? A woman has a C-section, so the next time she has a baby a C-section won’t be covered but a normal birth would even though she can’t have one? Or no coverage because she’s already given birth once?
I just can’t get my head round it.
ETA: get it better now from Lucrezia’s comment below.
apparently it’s like this: if an individual has taken anti hiv drugs in the recent past, that person is considered to have a pre-existing condition and therefor uninsurable according to these new rules. Someone who has been raped gets some of these drugs to avoid getting hiv, even if he/she was never exposed to it. It’s a preventative action, because testing for hiv can take a while, so the drugs are just given regardless of the test. That person now has a pre-existing condition on paper.
At least that’s how I saw it explained on another site.
edit: oh yeah I see Lucrezia’s post now too
The severity of the exclusion will depend on the insurance policy and the state. Health insurance operates on risk factors and algorithms that include many factors, including age, gender and risk of illness or injury. The math part is lost on me but everything is calculated for risk. The more people you have in the insurance pool of varying ages, the more the risk gets spread around the lower the costs will be for all – this is a basic premise that is lost on our Speaker of the House. Insurers who are a bit less than scrupulous will cherry-pick enrollees, aiming for younger, healthier customers and excluding older and sicker ones.
In the rape scenario, if the woman is insured, the initial treatment might be covered, unless the insurance argues “third party liability” and tries to make her rapist cover the costs. I say “might” because Trumpcare would allow insurers to sell policies that don’t include basic services like emergency care or mental health care or doctor’s visits or physical therapy. (Empty can plans) But if the insurance does cover the initial treatment, it could place caps on either the amount of service or the cost of the services. The pre-existing condition comes into play if the woman ever changes insurance plans, which can happen for numerous reasons including having employment based coverage and the employer switches plans when the contract expires. The new insurance plan could deny her outright and refuse to accept her as a patient or cover her but exclude any and all services it considers related to her pre-existing condition.
As you can understand, this whole issue terrifies me even though I am fortunate to live in a state that has its own laws against such discrimination.
The standard pre-existing condition definition pre ACA said that if you had treatment or symptoms for which a prudent person would get care within x months of getting insurance, that condition would not be covered for x length of time.
Pre existing conditions were covered after a period of time, the most common being 6-12 months insured. The problem was if you had a condition for which you needed expensive treatment within that timeframe, you weren’t covered and that’s what kept people at jobs because they couldn’t afford to leave as they would have a pre existing condition on any new employer’s coverage.
The whole thing is completely nuts.
I have a version of this when travelling outside the EU since I am now, but was not always, a cancer-free zone. So even though my chances of relapsing while on a city break to NYC are tinier than tiny, my travel insurance premium is always twice everyone else’s unless I exclude relapsing that week.
But for that to be DAILY LIFE?
Yes, Sixer, if this passes we will move backwards not forward. However, I think they aren’t going to put in a pre existing condition requirement wholesale. It’s going to apply to people who let their coverage lapse for more than 60 days or something like that. I think.
There’s two different, interacting issues here.
1) Continuous coverage. They’re using “continuous coverage” as a stick to get people to enroll. A replacement for individual mandate. It affects everyone, regardless of health or state. If you have a gap in your insurance longer than 63 days, you’ll face a one-off 30% penalty on top of your normal premium when you enroll.
It gets the incentives backwards. Instead of being punished (by the mandate fine) for NOT getting insurance, now you are punished when you finally DO get insurance. So it either means everyone is obliged to get insurance (a mandate by another means) or it does the opposite to what is needed and makes the poor put off getting insurance until they’re desperate.
2) Pre-existing conditions and community rating. Under Obamacare, the insurance companies have to take you and charge the same premium, regardless of any pre-existing conditions. That is called community rating. (The alternative is medical underwriting which is when they comb through your history and charge a fee that reflects predicted costs). Trumpcare leaves community rating in place, unless a state asks for a waiver. Even if a state does get a waiver for community rating, the law says the companies still have to leave you in the community rating pool if you can prove you’ve had continuous coverage.
Two problems. Firstly, people do have gaps, so those people are going to get excluded from the community pool. Secondly, there is nothing in the rules saying healthy people have to stay in the community rating pool. That’s actually the whole point of seeking a waiver – to let healthy people choose medical underwriting which would lower their premiums. But the side-effect is that people who choose to stay in the community rating pool are the sicker ones …. so the fees for the community pool will rise.
What you’ll end up with is 3 groups. A healthy young group who are medically underwritten and pay minimal premiums. A group with a history of moderate to severe illness who are community rated and pay fairly large premiums. And a handful of people who have recurrent huge medical bills who are covered by the state’s high-risk scheme in order to lower premiums for the previous group.
The biggest problem that few people are talking about is that there’s a loophole which means this can impact on those who get employer insurance. Apparently employers can choose from ANY state’s rules, so once one state gets a waiver then ANY employer can institute medical underwriting.
I am so sorry. I know there is not much I can say, so just know I do realize how very fortunate I am to live in Canada.
I take nothing here for granted, especially my health care.
(hugs) to all today, as we wait to see if this abhorrent bill passes.
Seriously.
And everything is women-related..
I am European grew up in Italy, living in France, and the healthcare with all its faults it’s something to be proud of.
On another record: I am watching the Handmaid’s tale…scaring.
So scary. I am watching too and it is this administration’s wet dream
I feel very fortunate to be very healthy.
Sometimes I feel that way – -34 yrs old, don’t have kids, haven’t had anything like cancer or heart issues. Haven’t been raped or abused. * eye roll* I think the only thing that routinely comes up are UTIs and Vitamin B deficiency and even with UTIs it will now be labeled as a possible pre-existing condition. I am still lucky b/c I am a government employee with pretty good insurance. However, it does give me pause to think of those who only suffer from these minor issues and may not have good insurance and now they may not be able to get any or will pay outrageous amounts over something so ridiculous.
I know without my job I would also be screwed because of a random surgery I had 10 years ago. I was and still am an extremely healthy person otherwise. Nothing I did just bad women luck I suppose.
Watching this from the outside is just mind-boggling. I respect that political differences exist, but looking at this I do not know how any decent human being could call themself a Republican. It’s just not possible these days, sorry.
This makes me fume. Most c-sections are very necessary..it could literally mean life or death for mother or child or both! Don’t even get me started on the sexual assault & rape. If men had the vaginas this would be a non-issue. Sickening
What was the line in Veep? If men got pregnant you’d be able to get an abortion at an ATM
my mother used to say “if men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.”
actually most c-sections aren’t necessary BUT doctors and hospitals get more $$$$$ from insurance companies for them so they are quick to go to surgery if things are taking too long. they are also plagued by malpractice insurance that makes standard protocols more rigorous and reactionary ending up in requiring MORE care than possibly necessary. our entire healthcare system is a total scam that is based on providers charging inflated rates to get more money from the insurance companies making it necessary for individuals to be over-insured and buy plans with higher premiums. providers get more money and insurance companies get more money. it is a snake eating its tail and everyone but the patient has their pockets lined. so now that the medical community in the US has a standard protocol to do more c-sections the government – who has encouraged the scam that is in place by letting insurance companies run roughshod over people for years in the name of “free markets” – is taking away people’s right to be insured against having one. it is maddening. completely maddening.
also – apply this to pretty much every medical procedure there is.
Hi Lizzie, just to let you know that both of my children would have died if I hadn’t had C-sections so please let’s not generalize this.
Word, Lizzie. You can certainly get a c section easier than you can get an NVD with no interventions.
Totally agree with Harla – I think people are really way to often generalizing this “C-sections are not necessary”. There are many reasons why C-sections became so widely spread – and often they are saving life and trauma.
My sister delivered two large (over 10 pounds) babies vaginally. She thought the third would be easy. Eight hours into a labor that was far more painful than the other two, with all the monitoring equipment saying the baby was in the right position, the doctor realized that my 11 pound nephew was full breech. He was staring at a butt, not a head. She needed that C-section.
what i said is not an indictment on people who receive the procedures and it isn’t a generalization, it is a fact. c-sections are overused in the united states as are many other medical procedures that are life saving for some people and over-treatment for others. almost every orthopedic procedure comes to mind. as are ENT procedures. i know this because i worked in the medical industry and see the numbers behind pushing unnecessary medical testing and procedures on people.
just because some people need them doesn’t mean the procedure isn’t abused. i’m glad you were able to get a c-section when you needed it and it should be covered by insurance because it should be used in emergencies or scheduled for high risk situations. it should never be a pre-existing condition since having one c-section usually leads to future ones. that being said – it shouldn’t be used for convenience or over-reactions due to excessive protocol and it is. that is not fault of the person receiving it – it is a failure of our healthcare system.
Lizzie, I realize I am getting a bit too much into this, but it is a topic that is important to me and I do find that you are generalizing: I agree its a fact that C-sections are overused, but I disagree with your statement “mostly it is not necessary”. Like I posted before there are many reasons why c-sections increased dramatically. From what I know a fair percentage is also (a) because indications of a baby’s distress (not enough air in the blood) became better measurable; (b) the health system became more cautious (inducing “artifical” labour sooner after the water breaks bc of infections) (c) other practices became less common – among those unproblematic “good” ones (i.e. doctors being experienced with turning the baby inside the womb) but also more problematic ones like the forceps or vacuum).
I knew back in the day two nurses who told me that personally, both of them would choose C-section over natural birth – that’s due to what they saw when assisting during numerous labor and child births.
Yes, my child AND I would have died if not for my emergency c-section due to severe preeclampsia. Stop generalizing about c-sections of convenience- I still haven’t met a woman who has had one that hasn’t been due to medical necessity.
I had twins and baby A was breech. Baby B was sitting on his head. I needed that C-section.
Really, most are unnecessary? I did not choose mine either, it would have been death for me and my child. But thanks Lizzie for trivializing a vital life saving procedure.
I’M NOT CRITICIZING PEOPLE WHO GET C-SECTIONS. HOLY SHIT. i am being pretty clear about criticizing healthcare providers and insurance companies for extorting people over healthcare. replace the word c-section with knee replacement and re-read what i wrote. i’m sure none of you had life saving knee replacements so perhaps you can take the emotion out of it.
re-read what i said about excessive protocol which absolutely happens for liability reasons and morphs into an opportunity for enhanced profitability (yes non-profits measure in terms of excess funds aka profitability). i have worked in hospital administration and i have sat in on protocol and policy creation. i have sat in on administrative training for doctors to improve c-section rates, lower the administration of unnecessary drugs. to improve protocol so people can spend less time in the hospital and leave healthier and without hospital born infections due to unnecessary procedures and hospitals stays. c-sections are part of that. i left my job in healthcare because i was disgusted by it all because insurance payout is *always* a factor when talking about patient care these days. it is a hideous business my friends.
But Lizzie didn’t say all are unnecessary, only that, being from the medical proffession, she observed the process being used often when it’s not necessary. You’re really misconstructing her words here.
ETA: OK, Lizzie already replied in the meantime.
Lizzie:
Get off your high horse. I’d be dead today–as would my son-without a c section.
Sweeping statements like yours are just as bad as the ones the Trumpians make.
It also comes off very ANTI WOMAN.
Lizzie, yep. I had a csection, but let’s not kid ourselves, the majority of csections are unnecessary. In fact, in the US hospitals are actively looking to reduce them.
Lizzie, I hear what you are saying. In America the c-section rate is 34% and the WHO recommends that the number be about 10%. For MANY people, c-sections are life saving, no one is denying that. But, for a multitude of reasons, almost all of which are not the mothers failt, America has a much higher rate of c-sections.
What sucks is once you have a c-section, you will have a hard time finding a doctor willing to do a VBAC, which I imagine is why having a c-section will be considered a pre-existing condition — future deliveries will be more expensive. Which sucks, because it’s not a woman’s fault if she ends up having one (unless she elects to do so).
whatever dude, I would have died and my child would have died without the C-section. Doctors are not doing C-sections willy nilly.
I delivered both my children at home just to avoid unnecessary medical interventions of any kind. Including a something as simple as a mandatory IV line. I was young, healthy, and had good prenatal care. I wasn’t sick so I didn’t want to go to the hospital. And I like being in control of my own body, I wasn’t ready to cede that to hospital protocol unless I had to. I was lucky and they both went off without a hitch. My insurance would not cover the birth because the midwife did not have her own billing number. So I paid $1800 out of pocket per child, including prenatal and post natal and lactation consultation. I’m sure I saved the insurance company $$$$.
Adele, Lizzie is not on a high horse.
Lizzie NEVER SAID all c-sections are unnecessary.
My oldest nephew was one; my sister had a difficult labor, baby was stuck and she wasn’t able to push so she had one — necessary!
Second one was scheduled. She just decided to have a c-section because she’d had one before. Her doctor had said it was OK to try natural. She opted against. My co-worker scheduled her baby’s c-section delivery to avoid having him at Christmas because it would ruin the day. — Not so necessary.
So let’s not say that every single c-section is medically necessary. They aren’t and Lizzie is correct.
Wow what is going on with reading comprehension?! Why would Lizzie not know that csections are life saving? It’s such basic knowledge that she probably didn’t think it needed a caveat! Also for the second csection it’s not as elective, trying for a vaginal birth is not necessarily safer (uterine rupture). There is a max number of c sections for a woman’s lifetime (correct me if this is wrong) so when a dr chooses or pushes that first c section they are taking some agency from the mom about her future fertility and parenthood choices. That’s a big deal!
Lizzie wasn’t criticizing you all for lifesaving c sections. She’s criticizing the people that only care about the money they get from them.
I do know women who have had c sections because they wanted to have the convenience of picking their kids’ birthday (astrology and lucky days), because their spouse was going to be deployed soon, because they were going to a wedding or the doctor was going to be on vacation and the person felt it made more sense to have THEIR doctor do a c section rather than trust a stranger to do a natural birth.
I knew of a woman whose coverage was going to run out and between her coverage, job, and when her husband could take off, she was going to be saving $30 000 if she scheduled a c -section by a certain date (before her partner lost their job/coverage)
And I also knew a woman who pushed for a c section as she had heard that the last month’s weight gain was the worst and wanted to avoid that. (Yikes, just yikes)
Of course there are women who need c sections as life saving procedures, but also, there is overuse, by patients and OBGYNs, of using c-sections when they are not medically necessary (though many try to fudge the paperwork after) because of myriad reasons.
I feel like we shouldn’t be blaming women here, we should be blaming hospitals that push them to increase patient turnover, which is what I thought Lizzie was saying.
*hospitals push c-sections to increase revenue and patient turnover
Tata, I should have just scrolled down a little more and said “what Tata said!”.
I’ve never understood why people judge safely planned c-sections chosen for convenience. Because convenience is bad and we’re all supposed to be mommy martyrs. It’s only around child birth you get this kind of moralizing.
F*CK. Just…F*CKING HELL
They’re not even trying to hide the fact they hate women anymore, not that they ever did much.
This was my exact thought when I posted my OMFG earlier.
Not only are they not even trying to hide the hate, they aren’t even trying to hide their crazy.
The lunatics are truly running the asylum now.
I am always amused about when men decide to remember they can be raped too.
When women seek justice, they are up in arms and claim their numbers are ignored. When we try to seek healthcare, it was our fault and they shouldn’t have to pay.
It’s time to move.
Fcking Handmaid’s Tale ish.
Other tidbits:
Congress is exempt from this sh*t bill. They won’t even let their families have the coverage they want the American people to take.
The bill will bring back lifetime limits. Read this to see how it matters.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/2/15/14563182/obamacare-lifetime-limits-ban
This plan can go after your employer coverage.
“Many people who obtain health insurance through their employers—about half of the country—could be at risk of losing protections that limit out-of-pocket costs for catastrophic illnesses, due to a little-noticed provision of the House Republican health-care bill to be considered Thursday, health-policy experts say.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/little-noted-provision-of-gop-health-bill-could-alter-employer-plans-1493890203
They are rushing this through for a reason. These are huge steps backwards for average citizens. Gotta get those big tax breaks funded for corporations and the wealthy.
Dont you mean all the ones Hilary was in cahoots with, all those big corporations and wall street types? Trump was a man of the people who wanted to drain the swamp….
How the f*ck did anyone buy into that shit
(sorry for being sweary)
@Lindy79
Because those who bought into it fall squarely into one of the following categories:
1) was part of his cult of personality
2) are hateful, selfish, bigoted people
@Lindy, you had me for a moment. Then I realized you were using the pot-calling-kettle method that some believe without question.
This is going to affect a lot of orange’s base, and they don’t even see it coming.
I live in a country with universal health care and still, I just got sick. As in physically sick. I feel nauseous. This isn’t even subtle anymore. This is just open season on women and it just makes me want to cry. They all need to burn in a barn fire and then go straight to the Seventh Circle. Or maybe the Fourth or Fifth, it’s unclear at this point. What a group of horrible excuses for human beings.
Me too.
It’s watching a horror show and wondering how and why this is happening in a country that is supposedly a world leader.
I have never actively hated anyone-especially people I have never met, but I find myself loathing these people. Just pictures of people like Trump and Ryan make me angry
Since I live fairly close to Paul Ryan’s hometown, I secretly harbor a dream of seeing him on the street and (censoring myself since we can’t threaten violence on this site).
Hate hate hate them all.
It’s just WTUF, isn’t it? I can’t even get my head around it.
It boils down to greed and judgment. The party in charge has two core segments — the corporate/high wealth interests and the moral authority who view reproductive choices as their moral platitude (apparently above taking care of the sick and hungry).
They cannot get elected with just the first segment (which is truly the master they serve), so they throw enough bones to the second group to keep them on board.
ITA. So disgusting.
Well. That’s horrifying. 217-213? Sh*t. The Senate better step up.
The only thing that will convince me not everything is lost if Marine Le Pen gets eviscerated on Sunday. The world is so depressing right now. I’m really sorry, American Celebitches.
I’m curious … Why c-sections? I get the (insane) argument they’re using for the rest, but not this one? Are they affraid abortions will be labeled as c-sections or what?
I suppose if you’ve had one then in their minds you’re more likely to have another one? Even though that’s not true, most hospitals give you the option if you’ve had one, more than thet yes it’s not recommended you go VBAC.
Plus, I remember talking to a colleague who worked in our US office who said she was planning a C Section as maternity leave was so poor in the US, it meant she could plan better.
(not saying that;s the norm but it shocked me that women have to even think in terms like that because of such shitty maternity leave policies)
tbf it’s proven that elective c-sections got out of hand, as in women choosing to have c-sections over natural birth which is both more costly and dangerous. idk if it specifies whether it’s both elective and emergency c-sections. in the uk we have universal healthcare, and unless there’s a medical reason for it you won’t get to choose to have a c-section. if you want one, you go privately.
Ireland is the same, you’d be very hard pushed to find a doctor who would do one electively but we have 26 weeks maternity leave with options to extend to up to 11 months all in if you can afford it (state benefit is pretty meh but it’s something and some companies make up your salary for some or all of that but they’re not required to)
True but let’s be honest, not the point here. They’re not trying to reign in costs, they think these lazy womenz need to go back to being in as much pain as possible, as God intended. Which makes no sense. Two people can decide if a c-section is necessary. A woman and her doctor. And even the doctor sometimes “allows” for an “unnecessary” c-section for various reasons.
This is all bullsh*t.
honestly they probably just did the math of the amount of money a c-section costs times the amount of women that have a c-section, and thought ‘jackpot!’.
I wonder how many of the top ten largest ‘female health’ expense budgets still exist in this new format. C-sections were very likely one of them.
C-sections are far more expensive and require a longer hospital stay. I am fine with them addressing the overuse of them (mainly because women who think SURGERY is less dangerous than vaginal birth are idiots), but I’m not kidding myself into thinking that’s actually what will happen with this bill. It will be far more likely abused by companies as a way of exploiting female reproductive health care for money.
How can rape and c sections be pre existing conditions? How?
Because it happens to women and they do not care about women. At all. Has been said for centuries. But 54% of them elected this so, let them have it,
I’d like to add that men can be victims of rape, sexual assault, and domestic violence. Everybody acts like only women can be victims of these things. This makes it very hard for men to come forward about their traumatic experiences which is honestly horrible.
Llamas, you’re of course right but I think Tiffany’s point was that the fact that it does happen to women is enough for them to make up their minds. And you know, you just KNOW, that the people who voted for this don’t consider the rape of a man or boy to be a thing. That just doesn’t happen and if it does, they probably have even more disdain for them than for the women.
It’s hard for women to come forward about sexual assault and DV, too, let’s not kid ourselves. We all watched the Brock Turner fiasco go down last year. Society as a whole is very unforgiving toward victims of violence. And while it’s not technically a gendered issue, I can guarantee you the authors of this bill think of those issues as inherently female and that contributes to both the erasure of male victimhood and the apathy toward it.
These are included in the preexisting clause because these people are extremely wealthy and they don’t care. They will never have to worry about their wives (or selves) getting access to this care because they’ve purposefully built an exclusion clause into it for government officials, and more importantly, most of them are wealthy enough that it wouldn’t be an issue to begin with. Fundamentally, it’s one more way of financially exploiting and controlling the lower classes, women, and minorities.
From the perspective of the insurance company, they are simply details in your medical history that indicate you’re likely to be a high-cost patient … so they don’t want you. Simple as that.
Lindy covered c-sections above. If you’ve had one, you’re quite likely to need another. And while a c-section costs a bit more than a natural birth, the real problem is whatever complication caused you to require a c-section in the first place. Obstetric complications can run into the millions. If they think you’re high risk, they’re not going to want you as a customer.
The rape example I read involved a lady who’d taken anti AIDS medicine after being raped (as a precaution). When she tried to get insurance, they saw the medication in her history and then refused to insure her (because AIDS patients are high-cost). They said they’d revisit the idea in 3 years if she tested clean. (She did.) Another obvious risk factor would be mental health care for depression or PTSD.
And this is why medical underwriting sucks. It’s not like risk of house fire, which is quite rare and hard to predict. Based on medical history, it’s actually fairly easy to figure out who is going to be high-cost. So the companies will cherry-pick the clients, looking for people who are unlikely to have expensive claims. Community rating (charging everyone the same, regardless of history) is the only way to make insurance affordable to people who have any kind of risk factor in their medical history.
Thanks for the explanations! And yet … strangely the cost efficiency seems to affect women more than men. I wonder why that is. Are some insurance plans still covering viagra?
I’m sorry, I’m in such a horrible mood over this and I don’t even live in the U.S.
Thank you, Lucrezia. Because I really did not understand the practicalities of this at all.
A simple diagnosis of a condition, no matter the severity, can cost a person coverage on the basis of pre-existing condition. These diagnoses can include: asthma, diabetes, cancer, any mental health issue, arthritis, and on and on. They can exclude treatment for the condition or they can refuse to cover the person at all.
I just don’t understand how there aren’t pitchforks in the streets for single payer, I really don’t.
I read something today that really made me think of the practicalities from the perspective of the insurance companies. I’m used to single payer, the costs are spread over millions of people, so a few high cost patients are really nothing.
The American system is totally different. Even though they have millions of people, the insurance pools we’re talking about with Obamacare are actually quite small. In Iowa there are 33,000 people accessing insurance on the exchanges. Unfortunately one of those people is someone with a genetic disorder whose bill is $1million … per month. Every month! The other 33,000 are paying $30 per month just to cover this one person.
If the cost were spread across the entire US population, it would be nothing. But because the exchanges are state-based and only for those who don’t have Medicare or employer insurance, they’re just too small. When a few high-cost patients can drive up your premiums by so much, it makes sense that healthy people start to get a bit selfish and think that high-risk people should be paying more than low-risk people.
It also explains why the free market isn’t working like it should. Iowa only has one insurer because of this guy. Why would another company try to enter the market? If they undercut the existing company they might steal 10,000 clients (half of the people are going to be too lazy to switch) … but what if one of the clients was the $1,000,000 per month guy? They’d lose massive amounts of money. So there’s no competition.
My father delayed his retirement because pre-existing condition (my mother’s RA) could mean being rejected for future coverage or astronomical premiums.
I thought we had made great strides in recent years, but now we’re stepping back decades. The breadth of what can be considered ‘pre-existing condition’ will be a huge wake-up call to the public.
Single payer is the only thing that will solve this, but the health care industry (and it is a for-profit industry here, make no mistake) is too big and throws too much money at congress for serious reform to get any traction.
The industry has everyone brainwashed or frightened into believing the system they have now may suck but is still so much better than what they could have. They use scare tactics like loss of services or loss of jobs to quell any opposition. In the meantime, they keep making insane profits by systematically screwing over the people they exist to help.
@Lucrezia, the situation you describe is exactly why the ACA mandated everyone purchase health coverage, if it wasn’t already provided by your employer. The Obama administration knew that high-risk patients – the ones that would most benefit from ACA – would suck the system dry if healthy citizens with relatively low medical costs didn’t also contribute. It was the primary reason that the pre-existing condition exemption could be eliminated, and was a major concession to the insurance companies to help with their bottom line. Without it, the ACA would have never passed in the first place.
Again, thank you! Much clearer now.
And to think the boogey man of non-existent death panels in universal systems actually frighten some Americans – when the system they’re living under is quite clearly hell on earth.
Oh, another reason why are costs are so high? We have very little regulation on pharma. US pharma negotiates low rates with countries that buy in bulk for their national health programs and those pharma companies than pass the difference onto the US consumer.
I’ve read before that drug cost is astronomical in comparison to other countries. Here, of course, the NHS negotiates cost for the whole country.
IIRC, the US spends about 18% of GDP on health and generally gets worse outcomes for the population as a whole (due to so many uninsured, presumably, rather than the actual services not being up to scratch). Universal systems generally account for 9-12% of GDP.
The whole thing is so self-defeating.
I will tell you something. I work in the industry and I cannot tell you how many people tell me that they don’t want to pay for insurance unless they use it. That’s a direct quote . . . “but I didn’t use it! Why do I need to pay for that month?” You need to pay for that month so the guy in Iowa lives to see another day, and the preemie in New York gets the treatment s/he needs. It’s not about covering all your doctor visits; it’s about pooling costs to pay for those people who are truly ill.
We all do it; it’s our pocketbook vs. the insurance companies, but that totally goes against why everyone should have insurance. Everyone should have insurance so that truly ill people can get care. It’s why we buy car and homeowner insurance; to pay for catastrophes. But medical care is so much better these days, and complicated, and people’s expectations are so high that’s it’s basically unworkable. People want every single thing covered. Everything. AND at the best places possible. But they don’t want to pay what it costs to do that.
That makes me laugh Bluhare because I’m sure they’re super against ‘socialist’ medicine also. I probably pay less of my tax dollars for my socialist medicine over a lifetime, plus I don’t need to worry about being bankrupted due to medical bills and I’m guaranteed healthcare for life.
Exactly, bluhare! Insurance works perfectly well for rare, unpredictable catastrophes. Car insurance covers crashes but not petrol or regular maintenance. What 99% of Americans seem to want from health care is universal cover rather than catastrophic cover … but you can only get that with single-payer or by regulating the crap out of private companies (like the Swiss do).
I actually respect the hardcore libertarian stance more than the moderate Republicans on this. At least the libertarians are upfront about not wanting/expecting universal cover. I totally disagree with them, but at least their policies will do what they want them to do. The moderates are simply idiots if they think the free market means insurance will get “better” if you regulate it less.
I had contractions for 36 hours and only dilated to 4 when my Dr stepped in and convinced me I had to have a C-section that I was dead set against. What convinced me was he said the baby was in distress. I can’t imagine having to add a financial element to that decision. These legislators need to have their a$$’s handed to them over this abomination of a bill. 2018 can’t come fast enough….
@anniefannie~same, water broke, contractions slow, dialation slow, baby in distress….EMERGENCY C-section. Trust me, it was not my choice!!
Or as Freedom Caucus Member Mo Brooks said: “Health care is for good people who live healthy lives.” I guess women who get raped dressed provocative and so it is their fault. That means, the preexisting condition of rape or sexual assault is totally on them.
I’m watching from the outside and can’t believe that anyone would even suggest such a bill. My jaw dropped when I read the headline.
That’s EXACTLY what it is – it’s always been about controlling women. Period. It’s the same M.O. as the anti-choicers. If they really wanted to prevent all abortions, they would be advocating for free and universal access to birth control. It’s not about healthcare costs (or abortions) – that’s just the avenue by which they seek to achieve the actual goal.
I called his office and asked them to explain to me what I must have done to get breast cancer? All the guy on the phone could say was “I’m so sorry.”
So great, you did call them, though!!
I hope you are well, lightpurple. Kudos for calling his office and asking for an explanation. I don’t know if I could do this without getting really rude.
You got born with breasts, Lightpurple, you silly goose. That’s what you did to get breast cancer, in their opinion. If this goes through, I will hope with all my might the men at the table get breast cancer – (treatable, though, because I’m not completely horrible).
As a person from a country with universal healthcare and a long maternity leave I generally can’t really understand what’s going on with US healthcare, maternity leave etc, but to consider rape a preexisting condition is a new low. Actually, at first I completely mnisunderstood that term “preexisting condition” and thought it’s, for instance, when someone is born with a hole in their heart, they have a preexisting heart condition, so I couldn’t make it analogical to rape. My thoughts didn’t go to rape being provoked by women’s outfits like yours, but even further and weirder – the thought process went like that: “So those wankers actually think that just because women are born with vaginas, they are automatically prone to getting raped, which means rape is a preexisting condition?” and I got really angry. How is that possible? Is it some weird social experiment?
My thoughts automatically went there because that’s what rape survivors had or have to face all the time, right?
“Miss, what were you wearing, the night of the alledged attack? A short and tight dress? You’re a woman, so I mansplain this to you: short, tight dress equals ‘I want sex, no matter what I say or do or how much or not I fight back’.”
The blame always lies with the women. No one in their right mind would even suggest such a bill if they don’t believe women brought it on themselves!
I feel the same, NBM! Half the time I don’t really even understand what the problem is. I mean, I get it here that this is misogynist in the extreme, but the actual practicalities of it? When you are used to universal healthcare, you can’t even get your head in the space to understand what’s being discussed.
I HATE MO brooks. May he burn in hell, and if I die first I swear I will come back as a ghost and haunt these aholes.
I’d love to know what bad life decisions my sister made to justify getting rearended so hard by an eighteen wheeler than it permanently damaged her shoulders and spine.
It’s horrific, we all have to call our reps and senators. I live in a blue state and called my representative and senators this morning and demanded to know why when this failed originally they as a Democratic Party didn’t have a bill to fix the issues with the ACA on the floor and presented to the American people. I also told my senator that anything short of killing this bill in the senate would be viewed as a betrayal and I don’t need statements i need action. That I will only accept a fixing of the ACA.
I don’t think I have ever been so angry. This is horrific. I’m furious at the republicans, I’m furious at the democrats, I’m furious at the people who voted for trump (can tell you will never by any product made in the rust belt) and I honest to god am enraged the democrats ensured coal miners got healthcare and pension and didn’t take care of this.
Blind rage right now and I let my reps know that I feel they sold me, my rights and my vote out by not stopping this.
Also if you are in a red state I beg you to call and tell them to vote no.
The Democrats are fighting as much as they can against all this. The Republicans have a majority. The arm twisting to get votes is all done by Republicans to other Republicans. The Democrats are voting against it and talking against it in the House and in the media.
The only reason they failed to get enough votes for the first attempt at TrumpDon’tCare was because the extremist Republican Freedom Caucus said it wasn’t horrible enough. So the Republicans made this version horrible enough to get those Republican votes. There are moderate Republicans who want to vote no, but have promised Ryan that they will vote yes if he needs their votes. It seems like political suicide to me as well as outrageously immoral, but that’s what is going on. The Democrats really can’t do anything about it.
We’ll soon see if the moderate Republicans miraculously grow spines and vote their conscience rather than going along with this insanity. Trump is so unpopular and becoming more so, and Ryan is even more unpopular than Trump. The majority of Americans clearly want to keep and improve Obamacare, even among the minority that voted for Trump. I don’t understand why Republicans are acting like lemmings following those two out of touch fools Trump and Ryan over the cliff.
Sorry no when the bill failed originally they had press and a lot of momentum, all they had to do was present a bill that would fix the ACA, and they didn’t. Paul Ryan probably wouldn’t have brought it to a vote but that would have made it worse for republicans because citizens would have known their was a solution and option. They didn’t do that and it’s allowed this to happen. Clearly the GOP is at fault for proposing it but they should have tried to stop it.
I’m so an angry about this and frankly I’m giving no one a pass because they had tome for coal miners they could’ve fought for the rest of us in the country
Guess Ivanka won’t try to convince her daddy that this is all wrong.
I live in Australia. I had two emergency c-sections one of which was followed by an emergency hysterectomy. All life saving. All covered by our health care system. Up until today I had completely taken that coverage for granted. I am truly horrified that a country like America is, in this day age, even debating whether or not any of this essential health care, including treatment after rape, should be covered. Absolutely shameful. Pigs the lot of them.
same with me, Inge. Also totally took it for granted. I do wonder though if they only talk about voluntary, planned c-sections and not emergency or “secondary” (ie. after some labor) c-sections
Another Aussie here. I’ve been hearing horror stories about American health care for years now (I started following the topic when Obamacare was being implemented) and every new horror story makes me appreciate our local system even more.
I’m certain they mean both types of c-section. An uncomplicated c-section costs a few thousand more than an uncomplicated natural birth. I’m sure they’d like more customers to have natural births so they can save the money. But a complicated c-section costs even more (say another $5k for the emergency c-section itself), and has risks of huge (HUGE) bills for the insurance company. What they’re really worried about are complications like a maternal stroke (average cost of treatment $600,000) or a child with a developmental disability (average cost $40k per year).
It’s the HUGE bills that they’re trying to avoid with the pre-existing condition rules. If it was just the the $2k additional cost for a simple c-section they’d simply raise the premium, not deny coverage altogether.
Lucrezia, I’m sorry but I don’t buy the economics argument, especially not in this instance. If it were purely about the numbers then why aren’t open heart surgeries and hip replacements considered pre-existing conditions too? Both of those are pretty expensive, and rife with risk.
Huh? They would be pre-existing conditions. Anything can be. Pre-Obamacare they were denying people for acne. I read one story where a woman’s doctor recommended hysterectomy for painful periods and after that the only insurance she could get excluded any and all gyno treatment of any kind. She took it, but was terrified that she’d develop ovarian cancer or something like that and not be covered.
I think the two specific items you mentioned are not commonly used as examples because they tend to occur in older people. You hear fewer horror stories because those patients were probably covered by Medicare rather than seeking insurance on private exchanges.
@jetlagged, those ARE considered pre-existing conditions. My niece and several cousins had surgeries for scoliosis. They would be denied or excluded for all orthopedic issues. Jimmy Kimmel’s little baby would be excluded his whole life because of that heart condition.
My point, although inarticulately expressed, was that the Republicans are going after services that are exclusive to women, because they may be heartless SOB’s but they are not stupid. I’m sure they would love to go after health services for the elderly (Ryan has said as much), but the moment they try it the senior citizen constituency would raise holy hell, and a good many of them vote Republican.
As long as our health care system is based on private, for-profit insurance companies dictating what is covered and what is not, and that decision is based solely on what makes them the most money, we the people are going to get screwed over – and some of us will probably die as a result.
I’m so very fortunate. Thanks to my husband’s military service, I have Tricare coverage, and this year will start on Medicare (if these guys don’t f*ck that up, too), so I haven’t had to obtain insurance under the ACA. This just makes me furious — my heart is pounding as I read the articles about what’s going down today.
Not many of my women friends voted for Trump, but the ones who did SAY they did so as a vote against the ACA. I wonder what they’re thinking now.
Medicare reimbursement is slashed under TrumpCare. Sorry.
I know, and Congress is playing with fire. The people on Medicare, or soon to be, vote bigly.
I’m am heart sick for the USA right now. This is so scary. What can we do?!?!
I’m an American living in canada and I want to know what can we do?! We need to fight these people tooth and nail. This is horse sh!t.
I’m not sure if you’re a Democrat, but Democrats Abroad has chapters all over Canada. If not, call Reps and Senators from your home state and let them know how you feel!
*clears throat and steps up to microphone*
They are both equally horrible candidates. But her emails.
This is in equal measure hilarious and depressing. People who voted for this man because of f*cking emails should die of shame.
Especially since Trump’s close adviser Flynn really did deliberately mishandle classified information on his very own secret server in his last job (before he was fired by Obama). He passed along classified material to his NATO contacts who were not authorized to receive it. Comey admitted that they found no evidence that Hillary intentionally (or honestly, actually) mishandled classified info. He said some e-mails she received should have been marked classified but weren’t (the people who sent them dispute that). But she used the state department server for anything marked classified. She also properly archived everything work-related and had lawyers check over the ones she asked a staffer to delete to make sure they were deletable as personal mail. The whole flurry about “e-mails” was ridiculous from the get-go.
@littlemissnaughty: Shame is not an preexisting condition, but I’m sure some of his voters will die because of this bill. Unfortunately others will die as well.
this is why i’m terrified of conservatives dismantling the nhs in britain, and wanting a US sort of deal. it’s just terrifying. the article talks also of postpartum depression and how they could deny coverage to mammograms. funnily enough, it’s all problems that affect women.
It’s just the Muslim ban mentality all over again. “Oh, it’s not a Muslim ban! It’s just accidental that the banned countries are majority Muslim and that Christian minorities are allowed in as a special case!” So it’s just accidental that men don’t have so many pre-existing conditions, nothing against women of course. Republicans apparently don’t get born from a woman but just descend magically from heaven, so the health of a mother has nothing to do with them.
How in the hell can Rape be a pre-existing condition??? Or C-sections, this administration never ceases to make me want to smack all of them with a shovel!!!
You know that feeling of rage where you’re just so pissed off that you can’t make words yet, just sounds and maybe rage tears cause it has to pop out somehow. Yeah, that’s all I’ve got.
What the actual fuck.
first i hope paul ryan is one of the rare cases of male breast cancer
then i hope his nipple gets ripped off in a freak mammogram machine malfunction
then i hope he gets MRSA in his nipples
then i hope both the cancer and the MRSA spreads to his balls
then i hope he goes bankrupt after meeting his lifetime max after his mastectomy and ball removal and chemo and antibiotics and skin grafts for MRSA
then i hope because of all his preexisting conditions he can’t get new insurance
then i hope he suffers a slow death
then i hope he’s buried in a pauper’s grave
then i hope i can walk my dog past it to take a steamer on it
Ouch! That’s definitely what he deserves
They voted this morning to exempt him from his own healthcare plan.
I feel ya-
Except don’t congress creeps have better (gov’t) insurance than we plebs?
They won’t have the same coverage (or rules) for their lifetime healthcare coverage, is my understanding. And that is a red flag, because if it’s all so grand, why not be a willing participant?
I approve of this scenario.
Omg, I’m wiping the tears from my eyes over ‘take a steamer’. Thanks for a laugh in the midst of this giant dump on humanity.
This makes me want to scream and cry. So f*cking scary that things could be like this. What careless coldhearted people they are. Absolutely embarrassing that anyone voted for these mean monsters
So what, is being alive now going to be seen as a pre-existing condition? These people are ridiculous and must be removed.
Only if you’re female.
it is before birth according to them.
Just despicable.
GOP = Greed Over People
(Saw this fitting acronym in a huffpo comment thread today.)
This is being done solely to give trump a ‘victory’ to talk about..they couldn’t care less what the consequences are. They’re rushing it before the costs..in $ and human terms..can be figured. Its all getting so terribly sad, I find myself turning off the news channels just to preserve my own health and sanity.
It makes me feel better coming here & reading this, knowing I am not alone. I posted on my FB site today how horrible this was with what would be happening and got BLASTED! The ACA was never affordable, elderly people could not afford it…thank goodness they are getting rid of. Do people just not pay attention to what is being passed?????
I think there are people who just parrot whatever they have heard tenth-handed, instead of researching the facts for themselves.
I just went to the FB page of The Hunting Ground and people were talking about this bill. A man (of course) jumped in defending Trump and his p*ssy grabbing comment, because Trump said it in private and also how is this sexual assault because if your hubby grabs you by the p*ssy you give consent (Always I guess, because you are married and therefore your husbands property) and Hillary was the head of a pedophile ring and so on.
People don’t want to see and they don’t want to know. I don’t were all of this is going, but it will be ugly. Trump supporters don’t want to hear our side. They think we are dumb to believe fake media and they know the truth. Just as a lot of us think Trump supporters are idiots for believing what their prefered media is spreading. One side has to be convinced by actions and doings. It is either Trump’s administration burning the country down, so even the last and slowest of his supporters smells the coffee or… Well that is basically it.
I have a Trump voting friend who also blasted the ACA. She lost her government job once Trump got in and is now working part time without health insurance. She also has an immune condition that probably won’t be covered as she’s had it a while, I worry about her but I also wonder if this will be what wakes her up.
I have health insurance through my employer and pay $400 a month to have it and have a $3500 per year deductible. And a 30% coinsurance rate.
As it is, I can barely stay afloat of my medical bills, and I’m a pretty healthy person (smashed up my ankle recently, though).
I cannot even imagine what’s going to happen now. MAMMOGRAMS? GYNECOLOGICAL SERVICES?
Holy hell, this administration is a NIGHTMARE HELLSCAPE for women. More than just for women, but DEFINITELY for women.
America: Be Born Rich or Die.
Annual screenings like primary care visits and pap smears and mammograms will no longer be mandatory benefits unless negotiated into your insurance package.
ENDLESSS SCREAMING!!!!!!!!!!
Codifying cruelty. Period. And why I think it’s important to cover this administration on a gossip website–because the role played by Tr*mp for many years in the Apprentice franchise fooled the audience into thinking that he, Ivanka and Don Jr. really are bona fide business people. The power of celebrity gave weight to his candidacy, gave him free interviews on hundreds of radio and television stations. and now it gives weight to every tweet he sends and every piece of rotten legislation the GOP creeps like Ryan are desperate to push through.
Nancy Pelosi just said that Republicans will carry a scar to show that they voted for this abomination. They may think they are being clever pushing this vote through (forget those hysterical women) but they will pay a price for their lack of compassion and human caring. I say human caring because I take better care of my dog than our elected officials propose taking care of their constituents. May they all get gangrene of the penis!
Diane Black doesn’t have a penis, although she does refer to her evil self as “Congressman Diane Black.”
Evil is right! May the hatred she sends out to the world come back to her times a million.
This really makes me furious. How can this happen in the so-called No. 1 country on this planet?
But you all have a weapon, a very mighty weapon, just use it!!! Refuse Sex with your partner and let them go on the barricades until these items are changed to your favour.
As a non-American how on earth is it okay for congress to be exempt from this plan?!?? HOW?!??!
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
Throwing things around my living room in anger at Diane Black’s testimony full of lies in support of Ryan’s Death Pools.
Scum is what they are. Report came out last night at 8. Half if not more have not read it. But they have no problem voting to kill people. They should be forced to live on prosal for 1 year before forcing it on Americans.
While we are destroying the constitution let’s loosen up the definition of treason so we can cast a wide net.
How can these people have no compassion for the citizens they are supposed to represent? I don’t understand why.
I have a sincere question, and haven’t been able to find an answer. We know that Congress doesn’t have to worry about their own very generous insurance or their wives and children being affected by Trumpcare. But, if they get voted out, what then? Do they get to keep their insurance if they have been in Congress a certain number of years? Does having been in Congress give them a lifetime pass to be part of that insurance pool?
What insurance pool are you talking about? Congress already have to buy insurance on the DC exchanges.
They don’t have a separate pool. Their perk is that the government pays massive subsidies for gold level cover. (That’s not quite as unfair as it sounds, all federal employees get a big chunk of their insurance covered whether they are congressmen on the exchanges or other types of workers who are on the federal employee benefits scheme.) That employer subsidy ends when they lose their job. Just like normal people. (Unless they are old enough to retire … not entirely sure what happens then. I think they might automatically go on the federal employee benefits scheme with the other retired federal workers.)
If they’re under retirement age and lose their job they could continue to pay the premiums, but I think most of them would move out of DC, back to their home state and get insurance there.
Thank you Lucrezia. I appreciate your reply because I really didn’t know.
And to think I used to want to live in the US (I’m European, southern Europe)! No longer the case.
I live in the UK and thanks to Brexit I got a policy provided by a not-for-profit provider just to cover my bases. But p*co private health insurance. Just adds unnecessary layers of cost to healthcare, which would be far lower if provided and paid by the entire population through government-sponsored universal health care. Even a cash-starved NHS is far better than that private healthcare garbage.
I’ve read CB for ages, and never commented before. But now its too much. I am danish and live here. For a time i thought about uprooting and trying my luck in LA, as I am a reporter and my fave subject is Hollywood.
But when Drumpf ‘won’ I put the plan on pause. And it is still very much on pause.
I feel like USA was never as free or progressive as leaders would claim (even Obama, whom i love) – but i used to still think it had its charm.
I knew women were treated worse than in Denmark (and DK is getting worse!), but holy f–k, am i scared for u. I wouldnt dream of comming even as a tourist as long as these insane men are running the country. I seriously fear for you. The Handmaids Tale is becomming real
Holy sh-t.
Ryan is having cases of beer brought into the House so he can party once he votes to strip millions of healthcare.
Is there an impeachment clause for this a hole? There’s got to be something. I loathe him with every fiber of my now uninsurable (thanks life saving c-section) being.
That means erectile dysfunction will be a pre-existing condition right?!
Oh please God yes.
What is motive behind this other than to look like complete a holes?
I am so grateful not to be American. For those who are, I hope you guys can hang in there for the next four years. You deserve way better than the assholes in office.
They are singing “hey hey hey goodbye” in house. I have to shut down or I will combust. This is fun times for them.
According to CNN, it’s democrats who are singing that:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/04/politics/trump-health-care-latest?lf-content=194658442:lb-post-506e4baccda75e7579904d30ce2a8727@livefyre.com&hubRefSrc=permalink
Hope their prediction comes true!
HuffPo are saying that it was Democrats singing it towards the Republicans who are very likely not going to be re elected once the reality of the bill sets in for ordinary people.
Paul Ryan is mincing around looking like he’s just had the best orgasm of his life.
I’m also appalled that they are going to celebrate denying millions of people, esp women, access to healthcare by drinking beer on the White House lawn. Seriously!!!! Lets have WH frat boys party. Talk about fiddling while Rome burns.
What the actual f-ck? They are singing “hey hey hey goodbye”??
RAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THESE FU_KERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s okay! It’s the Democrats singing because they know this vote will lead to losses in the midterms! Hey, hey, hey, GOODBYE!!!
I am so disgusted, I’m actually dizzy. I’ve never wanted to get the hell out of this country more than I do now. Day drinking is in order.
OMG!!! I just turned the TV on and it says the house passed the bill. I want to punch Paul Ryan’s smirking ugly face and shove Trump off a mountain.
I wonder if we should call a swift kick in the balls a pre-existing condition now.
So is Trump & the GOP’s master plan (hah!) to have the House pass this healthcare death bill and for the Senate Dems to filibuster and prevent passage in the Senate? That way, Trump & Company can claim that it was the Dems that prevented replacement of Obamacare and blame them for the the healthcare crisis that will surely exist when Trump & Company do nothing to help fix Obamacare?
This is most likely the plan. Too many folks are upset– this won’t pass the Senate. Meanwhile, the GOP continues to work with insurance companies to make Obamacare less and less effective, so that after the 2018 elections, it will be so “dead” that folks will welcome the GOP alternative. We need to keep vigilant on this.
I am so scared about this repeal.
I got really sick last year from my awful job and the ACA meant I had insurance to see a doctor. I spent months going to specialists, and my insurance is the reason why I’m slightly healthy (I’m still dealing with the aftereffects and I had to quit my job because of my health problems). I might be dealing with ovarian cysts that developed after I got sick and I’m TERRIFIED to think they might go into full blown issues because of this repeal.
My dad got sick a few years ago and was uninsured, and every day that he was in the hospital, I was thinking about how much money we’d have to pay for his surgery/hospital stay. His bill was over $100,000 for a five day stay, and he was chased by debt collectors until the state Medicaid programme stepped in because of ObamaCare and helped him pay the bill off.
I’m so angry and pissed, and I want to drop kick every single GOP a*hole into a volcano right about now.
bunny ears, what can I say except that I hope your health issues are not as bad as you fear, and that you get through this to brighter days. The Senate might see sense.
Thank you. I’m hoping it’s just a health scare. My dad’s thing is gone now, so at least I don’t have to worry about him. *phew*
No wonder the press has been hit with gushing articles about Ivanka, she was doing damage control because she knew that her father was going to force the GOP into voting for his healthcare bill.
i am so f-ing pissed that it passed!
I hate the GOP more than ever.
From up here in Canada, I am watching all this unfold and I am floored with disbelief and horror. What the FUCK, you guys.
WTF is a question I ask myself on almost a daily basis. America is f@cked up. The GOP is working their hardest to screw over the most vulnerable among us. I just wish that it would only affect the ignorant asses who voted for trump, Ryan and the rest of those assholes. Unfortunately it will touch the lives of many who did not want this.
Just when I think I could not be any more sad for the state of my country the republican asshats do something more.
One silver lining – it was reported that the states with the highest rates of preexisting conditions are states that voted for trump. In Louisiana, it’s 30% of the population. You look at his rallies and you think cigarettes, booze, meth, diabetes, heart disease. They’ll get hammered by trumpcare. I’m a Democrat and I sing to them hey, hey, hey, goodbye.
If I had enough time to do it before someone could prevent it or stop me, I would shoot and kill Trump, Pence, Ryan, Sessions and Bannon. They are PURE EVIL.
I feel the same way.
Ugh, I’ve been so depressed all day! Thank you for giving me a community of people who are thoughtful and well-spoken. These days I feel like I am completely out of touch with the world and am losing my mind, but coming here always helps ground me. I’m reminded that there are many wonderful people out there and we have to keep fighting.
Same here. I’ve had anxiety about this all day, and of course it passed. Being a woman is basically a “pre-existing condition” now, thanks to this bill. I really don’t want to hear another #NotAllTrumpSupporters or even #NotAllRepublicans for a nice, long time after this bullshit.
I come here every day to be around people with common sense. Everywhere else I go, it’s depressing to see how many people can’t see the facts. Definitely helps with my anxiety to be here . Thank you everyone
Someone needs to take out Trump, Pence, Ryan and the rest of them, period. 4+ lives that are pure evil vs. 25 million victims. The choice for saving humanity is clear. Someone needs to kill these sons of bitches!
I don’t have words. Seems like every day with this administration it’s some fresh f-ckery. People are going to die and they just.don’t.care.
I think I need to go take a lie down.
This breaks my heart. Monster doesn’t cover it. He’s dangerous in his ignorance.
I work directly in women’s healthcare.
I am a rape survivor. And I am just in rage fueled tears over this. I hope he burns. That a scandal will take him down and him image and legacy will be heavily tarnished.
Right a long with wanting to control the 1st amendment. He’s the worst.
Well then erectile dysfunction and prostate issues should also be under the pre existing conditions. Oh and anything requiring a script for low testosterone. I am so tired of my hard earned 80 cents on the dollar subsidizing flaccid penises.
Fuuuuuuck. I feel like I’m in The Handmaid’s Tale. Next thing you know, we will be fired from our jobs and we won’t be able to access our bank accounts.