Trump picks Tom Price as Secretary of HHS

[Deleted member 159002]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ep-tom-price-as-next-hhs-secretary/?tid=a_inl

One of the 18 members of the House GOP Doctors Caucus, Price supports major changes to Medicaid and Medicare, health insurance pillars of the Great Society programs of the 1960s. Under his vision, both programs would cease to be entitlements that require them to provide coverage to every person who qualifies. Instead, like many House Republicans, he wants to convert Medicaid into block grants to states — which would give them more latitude from federal requirements about eligibility rules and the medical services that must be covered for low-income Americans. This plan would also require “able-bodied” applicants to meet work requirements to receive health-care benefits — an idea that the Obama administration has consistently rebuffed.

Some outside groups and watchdogs have warned that such proposals probably would lead to deep cuts for those who use the program. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that at least 14 million people would lose coverage if Congress revokes the Medicaid expansion that has occurred under the ACA.

For Medicare, Price favors another idea long pushed by conservatives, switching it from a “defined benefit” to a “defined contribution.” With that, the government would give older or disabled Americans financial help for them to buy private insurance policies.

Sounds...bad

 

[EvilWasLittle]

Sounds Fantastic.

 

[Limbo Pete]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ep-tom-price-as-next-hhs-secretary/?tid=a_inl



Sounds...bad

Sounds like a whole lot of people gonna lose coverage or have it severely curtailed. My guess is this will largely happen, but clever congress will phase in the effects so that it doesn't hit much before at least midterms are over and redistricting can secure them a quasi permanent majority regardless of even temporarily losing the majority as a result of fallout.

 

[44nutman]

Smart, one thing the GOP should do is piss of seniors. Seniors never vote Republican

 

[Deleted member 159002]

Sounds Fantastic.

How? How are small insurers more efficient risk managers than one large insurer like Medicare?

 

[EvilWasLittle]

How? How are small insurers more efficient risk managers than one large insurer like Medicare?

Competition

 

[ShoelessRye]

Only people I will laugh at are the 5.5M Trump voters who will lose their health coverage when Obamacare is repealed. Well them and all those who lose their health coverage who didn't vote. If only I could see the look on all their faces when they get that notice in the mail.

It will be interesting to see if McConnell can get 50 senators to go along with any privatization plan. Given it's 52-48, he can only lose two Repub Senators and that's IF he nukes the filibuster over it or any other measure.

 

[7437]

Pretty standard republican stuff. Nothing unexpectedly stupid about this pick.

 

[Deleted member 159002]

Competition

Explain. An insurer with a larger portfolio is less likely to find itself in the red because it has to pay out too many claims than insurers with small portfolios, no? And wouldn't you expect the difference between total premiums and total claims paid out to be smaller for a large insurer than small?

Further, the larger the insurer, the more power it has to bargain for its members. You think healthcare providers are going to just accept what some small insurance company decides to pay them?