Drumpf Diary 3/6/17 - Obamacare 2.0, Muslim Ban 2.0

1.) House Republicans have released their replacement for the ACA/Obamacare, the American Health Care Act. Ezra Klein writes:

what I think we’re seeing here is Republicans trying desperately to come up with something that would allow them to repeal and replace Obamacare; this is a compromise of a compromise of a compromise aimed at fulfilling that promise.

The bill sounds so far kinda like Obamacare Lite, which makes almost no one happy. It keeps a somewhat surprising amount of things from Obamacare intact, like mandating coverage of pre-existing conditions, allowing children to stay on their parents' healthcare plans until age 26, and it maintains Medicare expansion until 2020. These Obamacare provisions leave it open to criticism from anyone who wants Obamacare radically rolled back. However, it reduces or eliminates Obamacare provisions which controlled costs, such as the "individual mandate" that forced everyone to either purchase insurance or pay a penalty, and Medicare subsidies.

Regarding elimination of the individual mandate, the Los Angeles Times states:

Without a requirement that individuals carry health insurance, the insurance markets are almost certain to collapse. The repeal is retroactive back to the beginning of 2016, but the real problem is in the market starting this year. Individuals would be able to drop their coverage immediately, which will wreak havoc with the market starting right now. Aetna’s chairman and chief executive, Mark Bertolini, said recently that the individual market was entering a “death spiral” in which healthier customers dropped coverage, leaving sicker customers who know they need insurance facing an ever-increasing rates. 

Naturally the bill will be a tax-cut boondoggle for the rich.


2.) While the GOP House has unveiled Obamacare 2.0, Drumpf has unveiled Muslim Ban 2.0. After his first ban was struck down by the courts, he is now trying again, this time with a ban that restricts Muslims from 6 countries, rather than the previous 7 (he's taken Iraq off the list). Residents of Iran, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, and Libya will be barred from entering the United States for 90 days. Ironically, Drumpf has discussed wanting to get tough on ISIS, yet removing Iraq from the list removes one of the two countries from which ISIS operates. 60,000 people who had their visas revoked would have them reinstated. The new travel restriction is more limited in scope and this is intended to help it withstand legal challenges.