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House to vote today on ObamaCare repeal/replace

By Dan Calabrese ——--May 4, 2017

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I'm thinking it will be close no matter what, but last time around they never even got to a vote because support was tanking right up to the time it was supposed to happen, and finally Paul Ryan pulled the bill because the failure was going to be monumental. This time? Do they know for sure that they've got the votes? And if so, what did they do to the bill to get there?
Thursday suddenly got tense, friends:
The latest iteration of the GOP bill would let states escape a current requirement that insurers charge healthy and seriously ill customers the same rates, a measure that has drawn the ire of some moderate Republicans. However, a pair of moderates flipped their position earlier Wednesday and announced they were supporting the legislation after winning Trump's backing for their amendment to the measure. The proposal by Reps. Fred Upton, R-Mich. and and Billy Long, R-Mo., would provide $8 billion over five years to help some people with pre-existing medical conditions afford coverage. Upton said their plan would put "downward pressure" on premium costs. Upton's conversion was especially significant because he's a respected, centrist voice on health issues and former chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Upton and Long were among four House members who met with Trump at the White House. Also attending the White House meeting were the current Energy and Commerce chairman, Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, who heads a health subcommittee. "Today we're here announcing that with this addition that we brought to the president, and sold him on in over an hour meeting in here with him, that we're both yesses on the bill," Long told reporters at the White House.
The $8 billion will be used to help states establish high risk pools for people with pre-existing conditions. The reason that's better than ObamaCare is that it stops putting already-sick people in the same pool with everyone else while refusing to let insurers reflect the difference in the pricing of their policies. Nowhere else does insurance work like that. If you have a horrible driving record, you're going to pay more than someone with a good driving record. Higher risk costs more to insure. Now, someone might say, it's not fair to punish a person for being sick like you would punish a person for being a bad driver. That's true. But it's not a matter of punishment. It's simply how the economics of risk management works. So the answer is to separate the risk pools so you can manage the needs of the sicker person differently than those of the healthier person.

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This is not the ideal government-plays-no-role-in-health-care solution that purists would want, but it is far better than ObamaCareThis isn't over by a long shot ObamaCare refused to do that and insisted on everyone paying the same for the same level of coverage. The result, as anyone could have predicted, has been soaring premiums and much worse care. This is not the ideal government-plays-no-role-in-health-care solution that purists would want, but it is far better than ObamaCare and it repeals the taxes and locked-in spending requirements that would have exploded the deficit and brought about a massive shift of capital from the private to the public sector over the next several years. You realize, of course, that this bill passing the House is no guarantee of passage in the Senate. But major legislation is rarely passed by both chambers in the exact same form, so it's normal to get difference in a bill followed by a conference committee report that irons those differences out. Of course, we're talking about a much more difficult ironing-out process when you're fixing a mistake as colossal as ObamaCare was. What's happening today is a necessary first step, but it's still only a first step. This isn't over by a long shot.
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Dan Calabrese——

Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain

Follow all of Dan’s work, including his series of Christian spiritual warfare novels, by liking his page on Facebook.

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