So the AHCA passed out of the U.S. House.
Don’t get too wound up — the U.S. Senate is going to completely re-write the bill and pass their version by a similarly small margin. Then reconciliation happens… and the House Freedom Caucus will be told/sold to say “look — if we really want repeal, then we have to vote for this bill.”
…and then we get to see the true measure of this Congress.
Cheerleaders should not be too encouraged. Not only is this version of the AHCA effectively the same rubric as the one shot down in March, yesterday’s vote now makes the House bill the maximum conservative position as we edge towards a middling one.
That’s right, folks.
Much like the two CR votes and the impending one in September, there will be no reform. Those results will trickle down to state governments, who will use fewer resources to meet the need and impose more on local ones.
The grand solution on health care are Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) that are portable and carry over, linked to federally subsidized High Deductible Insurance Plans (HDIPs) that protect against catastrophic care. That’s the Rand Paul position, that’s the position that Gillespie put forward in Winning Right, and that’s the solution being quietly talked about on Capitol Hill.
…but no one has the guts to make it a national conversation. Why? Because 1/6 of the economy is wrapped up into health care. Too many hands in the till; too many noses in the trough.
How terribly mendacious all of this is. Conservatives should be appalled that its self-styled champions voted for this bill. One really has to wonder — now that they have broken ranks on their hardline position, whether or not they will bend likewise for the reconciliation bill…
One suspects after much struggle and much show, the HFC will submit to the moderated reconciliation bill after a token concession — just like they did with the AHCA (unless, of course, tremendous pressure is brought to bear to bring them to heel — as was done with Brat and his flip-flopping on the CR).
Don’t worry — the Democrats will not be satisfied either way in 2018.
Frankly, I’d be more excited if the bill was audacious enough to change anything… but all this blood for something as mediocre as the ACHA? For something that ultimately is going to be gutted and stuffed by the U.S. Senate? For Wales?
How disheartening and ordinary this has all become.
UPDATE: CATO has a fairly good take down of the health care bill:
ObamaCare is community rating. The AHCA does not repeal community rating. Therefore, the AHCA does not repeal ObamaCare. In fact, Republicans are modifying ObamaCare’s community-rating price controls and other regulations in ways that will accelerate ObamaCare’s race to the bottom.
Why?
Republicans are salivating at the bill’s $1 trillion dollars of tax cuts and cuts to government spending. So would I, if I thought those cuts would last. In reality, the AHCA gets the health policy wrong in ways that create armies of pro-tax voters who undo the bill’s tax cuts and spending cuts.
Read it all. In a nutshell, that’s the problem with the AHCA as written.