Obamacare repeal vote upends 2018 House landscape

 By Alex Isenstadt and Gabriel Debenedetti @ Politico.com, May 6

This week’s vote to replace Obamacare has scrambled the 2018 House landscape, jeopardizing Republican lawmakers across the country and potentially endangering the party’s longstanding grip on the chamber.

More than a dozen senior Republican strategists, lawmakers, and potential candidates expressed varying degrees of concern over the political implications of the health care push. Some predicted that House members would face a fierce backlash from voters, while others said the party had erred badly in rushing through a bill that lacked broad public support.

The vote, combined with President Donald Trump’s record-low poll numbers and rising public dissatisfaction with how Republicans are wielding power over the federal government, has produced a cauldron of instability for the party, which is holding onto a 24-seat edge in the House. There is also the weight of history: In every midterm election since 2002, the party in the White House has lost congressional seats.

Some Republicans said the political environment surrounding the chamber had become more unpredictable than at any point since 2010, when they took power in a historic 63-seat wave [.....]

‘You f*cked up’: John Oliver rips Republicans for passing Trumpcare without reading it

By David Ferguson @ Raw Story, May 7

On Sunday night’s edition of “Last Week Tonight,” HBO’s John Oliver blasted Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives for passing their attempt to “repeal and replace Obamacare” without actually reading the bill first.

Oliver played a clip of South Carolina’s Rep. Mark Sanford (R), who, when asked by CNN if he’d read the bill hemmed and hawed before finally admitting that he “turned through every page” without reading them all.

“Wait,” Oliver said, “You ‘turned through every page?’ That’s not how you read a bill, that’s how you check a bill for spiders.”

He went on to New York Republican Rep. Chris Collins (NY) who got stymied by the Buffalo News when they asked if he was aware that a large portion of his constituency would be stripped of their coverage the American Healthcare Act (AHCA) were ratified.

“Explain that to me,” said the New York congressman, baffled [....]

Medicaid Expansion May Unravel Trumpcare In The Senate

By Bruce Jaspen (" I write about healthcare business and policy") @ Forbes, May 7

[....] “The Republican-controlled Senate will be the voice of reason and draft a version that will keep the Medicaid expansion and save the lives of the millions that stand to lose coverage under the House plan,” said Jerry Vitti, CEO of Healthcare Financial, a Boston-based firm that helps connect low-income beneficiaries to disability benefits.

There are 31 states that opted to expand Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act and most of them have influential Republican Senators insurers and providers see as unlikely to end benefits for poor Americans. “ Twenty Republican senators come from states that expanded Medicaid , and 16 Medicaid expansion states have Republican governors,” Centene CEO Michael Neidorff told analysts on the company’s first quarter’s earnings call, which was a week before the House voted to approve the AHCA [....]

The riskiest things voted on by House Republicans By David Nather, Vitals @ Axois.com, May 8

[....] Now they have to go out and make the case for their replacement for the Affordable Care Act — and not just to the faithful who wanted repeal all along [....] Here's what could make them the most vulnerable, at town halls and in next year's mid-term elections.

• Pre-existing condition waivers [....]
• Essential health benefit waivers [....]
• Medicaid cuts [....]
• Age rating [....]
• Replacing the tax credits. [....]
• Net investment tax repeal [....]
• Congressional exemption [....]

Republicans who could be hurt the most in 2018

[.....]

Aetna Is Latest Health Insurer to Quit Obamacare Markets

• Insurer had already pulled out of most ACA health exchanges
• Move comes as Republicans in Congress work to dismantle law

Aetna Inc. will leave the few remaining states where it had been selling Obamacare plans next year, making it the latest health insurer to pull out of the health law as Republicans attack the program as failing and work to dismantle it.

While the move is likely to attract outsize political attention, the decision affects just Delaware and Nebraska. The Hartford, Connecticut-based insurer already said last year it would pull out of 11 states, and in the last month announced plans to exit Iowa and Virginia [.....]

Aetna CEO Says America Should Have a ‘Debate’ About Single Payer

By Eric Levitz @ New York Magazine, May 12

The Democratic leadership does not want “Medicare for all” to be the party’s official vision for the American health-care system. Many progressives believe that this is because Team Blue sold its soul to the insurance industry. But what if the Democrats actually oppose single payer because they haven’t sold out enough?

Normally, it would take a family-size portion of hallucinogenic drugs (and/or an especially desperate Slate columnist) to generate such a question. But on Friday, Vox obtained private remarks by Aetna’s CEO that suggest we could bring socialized medicine to the United States — if only the insurance industry exercised more control over our politics.

“In the news media, it is reporting that the Republican health plan is paving the way to a single-payer system,” an Aetna employee asked Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini at a meeting Thursday. “What are your thoughts on that, and how would it impact Aetna?”

Here was Bertolini’s response [.....]