Why can't these idiots just leave the law alone and let it crumble under it's own weight.


WASHINGTON (AP) - At the prodding of business organizations, House Republicans quietly secured a recent change in President Barack Obama's health law to expand coverage choices, a striking, one-of-a-kind departure from dozens of high-decibel attempts to repeal or dismember it.

Democrats describe the change involving small-business coverage options as a straightforward improvement of the type they are eager to make, and Obama signed it into law. Republicans are loath to agree, given the strong sentiment among the rank and file that the only fix the law deserves is a burial.

"Maybe you say it helps (Obamacare), but it really helps the small businessman," said Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., one of several physician-lawmakers among Republicans and an advocate of repeal.

No member of the House GOP leadership has publicly hailed the fix, which was tucked, at Republicans' request, into legislation preventing a cut in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients.

It is unclear how many members of the House rank and file knew of it because the legislation was passed by a highly unusual voice vote without debate.

Several lobbyists and Republican aides who monitored the issue said the provision reflects a calculation that no matter how hard the party tries, the earliest the law can be repealed is after Obama leaves office in 2017. In the meantime, according to this line of thinking, small-business owners need all the flexibility that can get to comply with it.

One repeal-favoring Republican lawmaker took a similar view. "I was brought up in a family of 12. My mother taught me to be patient," said Rep. Tom Reed of New York, who backed a stand-alone bill to make the same change.

The provision itself was relatively minor. It eliminated a cap on deductibles for small group policies offered inside the law's health care exchanges as well as outside; the cap was set at $2,000 for individuals and $4,000 for families.

Republicans said they sought it so small businesses can offer high-deductible plans that could be purchased by individuals who also have health savings accounts. These tax-preferred accounts are a long-time favorite of many Republicans, who say they give consumers greater control over their own health care.

The health law contains no deductible caps for individual plans or those offered by large employers, and the Department of Health and Human Services already had waived them for small businesses through 2015. The legislation means they will never go into effect.

As yet, there is no indication the change in course heralds any sort of significant pre-election change in attitude by Republicans, who last week engineered their 52nd vote in the House to repeal or dismember the law. They have said they intend to make its elimination a key element in the November election.

At the same time, though, administration officials announced last week that more than 7 million people have signed up for coverage. Democrats hope to counter demands for repeal by challenging critics to explain why they want to eliminate some of politically popular provisions such as guaranteed of coverage for pre-existing condition or plans without a lifetime cap in coverage costs.

Fittingly in an era of divided government, now that the change has been made, officials in both parties are once more at odds, each describing it as a victory for their side in a ceaseless political struggle.

Asked if the legislation strengthened the law, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said, "I would hope so. I believe that" it does. He added, "So there are changes being made. But the Republicans have to get over if they hate 'Obamacare' and are going to repeal it," he added.

Rory Cooper, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said, "This is another in a series of changes to Obamacare that the House has supported to help save Americans from being harmed by the law, and we're glad to see the President signed it into law." Cantor was involved in negotiations on the legislation, which were overseen by Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Reid.

While Cooper described the change merely as one of several designed to prevent harm, the episode marks the first time Republicans have agreed to make it easier for anyone to obtain coverage under the law.

According to a list maintained by the office of the House Republican whip, Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, five of the eight previous changes signed by Obama reduced funding; one repealed a minor voucher provision; one jettisoned a section dealing with home care for the elderly; and the other eliminated a tax reporting requirement.

In this case, though, large business organizations that support repeal pressed Republicans to make the change.

"Repealing the annual limitation on deductible would free up an important "lever" that employers need as they struggle to design affordable plans that meet the requirements" of the law, R. Bruce Josten, executive vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, wrote senior lawmakers. He expressed satisfaction with HHS' waiver, yet added, "a more permanent and predictable solution is critical."

Democrats said the now-defunct limitation was inserted into the original law in an unsuccessful attempt to win the vote of former Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine. She supported the bill in the Senate Finance Committee but opposed it on the Senate floor.

The GOP does not and has not ever wanted this debacle to go away. They want to control it (and control us to a greater degree) while claiming credit for "fixing" it.

Yep, slimy bastards!

Some of us predicted this.

The GOP has never wanted to 'fix' obamacare. They love power as much as the next guy, and expect to be in charge again this next election.
Politicians do NOT give up power, they just acquire more.

$$$$$$ and votes.

Hopefully this convinces a few more that there is only one party, the party of Government, and that the two "sides" simply play the people for fools, taking the riches and power for themselves and their true party.

You nailed it! No real conservatives that love this country left (ok, that could get elected) .

I believe Obamacare was designed to be unfixable.
Only a Government takeover will work.
The intent all along.

Exactly, and of course, that will eventually be the "bipartisan" plan.

This.

It's why I posted it.

The existing GOP is nothing better than Dem-Lite.. Vote ALL of 'em out this Nov. that are up for re-election..

OUT OUT OUT!!!

Because too many families are being hurt big time.

By November, anyone wanting to get elected had better have signed on board with whatever comes out of the several alterative healthcare programs that will replace ObamaGlitch.

The idea that Republicans want any part of a plan that failed to come close to any of its goals is ridiculous.

Even those who have signed up are looking at much higher costs with fewer doctors and hospitals.

As always happens when voters get hurt; they show up and vote.

But they didn't 'fix' anything, they are just taking partial ownership of a law that is doomed to fail.

The change is to take away a cap on deductibles, which means that individuals (voters) that are being hurt see no relief from the burden that is Obamacare, in fact they will likely see an increase in their deductibles. This helps small business owners by giving them more/cheaper options to provide to their employees, however the families are not being helped by this change.

So again I will ask why don't they just let the inevitable happen and stop trying to save the law.

It was a bi-partisan plan to begin with, or it never would have passed congress.

I don't think that is entirely correct.

Because they're politicians...and once they see the power that the ACA is gonna give them, they're gonna like it (the power) a bunch. They're likely already seeing it.

They all like and want bigger gov't.
The rebubs want their share of the power.

Can you name one Republican who voted for Obamacare? To be bi-partisan there would have to be at least one?

ObamaCare passed in Pelosi�s House and she said we can read it later.

�The final vote tally for the Senate version of President Obama's health care reform legislation in the House was 219-212, with 34 Democrats joining all Republicans in opposition�

58 Democrat Senators voted yea. 39 Republicans voted no with one not voting.


A total of 277 House and Senate Democrats voted for ObamaCare and 251 Republican and Democrats voted against.
Ain�t nobody running nor bragging about voting for this mess.


�With elections approaching, Democratic members of Congress are fleeing and disavowing President Obama�s big central government agenda.�

And there you go.

Personally, I don't lose ANY sleep over Obamacare. Our healthcare system was failing before O-care, and now it's just failing faster. It WILL fall flat on it's face at some point, with or without Obamacare.

Every year we pay more money for less coverage...that's been going on for the past 15 or more years at least. That is not sustainable. At some point, we'll pay $1,000.00 per month, per person for pretty much no coverage. It's a joke.

When it falls on it's face, that's when we'll get saddled with socialized medicine.

By gov't design.

Yes and no...It is now, certainly. But the problems that lead to it, weren't specifically by government design.

The problem is the AMA and the ABA; which are two VERY powerful lobbies. The ABA has done a fine job of getting us where we are with the Ambulance chaser attorneys that sue over anything and everything.

Now they'll ensure that nothing else but socialized medicine will ever have a chance. Because for the private sector to work, you HAVE to have tort reform, and the ABA will make sure that never happens.

And with the Citizens United ruling, we've handed over our entire political processes to corporations and special interest. So we're rather screwed. There will come a point where we may actually look forward to socialized medicine if you can imagine such a thing.

not necessarily true, cousin has an old boyfriend, former drug dealer, current and long time heavy user.


hasn't had a steady job in years

he has some real health issues these days

so she took him to a Dr.

he needs surgery

soooo he signed up for healthcare


turns out he signed up for Obamacare

this is what he posted about it

"i just got obamacare for zero deductuble for zero dollars a month with 1500 bucks tax break at the end of the year THATS [bleep] AFFORDABLE"

Obama knows his constituency. I'm sure NWA thinks this is great stuff!

John Roberts. Supreme Court Justice.

Congress didn't 'stop it'. There are ways when they want to.

Obamacare is such a miserable failure, that the ultimate single payer goal is going down the drain with it.

Ain�t gonna be anyone running in this election who ever heard of socialized medicine.
We will hear a lot about different versions of the Rep. Tom Price alternative health-care legislation.

After this election, won�t be enough left to push any big government healthcare programs.

They may salvage a couple of pieces such as pre-condition coverage and age 27, but that is about it. Pressure to send it all to the state levels will be tremendous.

Losing both Houses, Obama can�t stop it�hell, he has already killed half his program.

ALL politicians shyt in the same hat....

Then try to feed us from it....

Delusional, as the GOP wants this power as much as the DNC.

And which "parties" (aka heads of the same snake) do you believe those interests control?

Delusional? Nobody in the GOP, not even the RINOs voted for this mess.
Even the Dems are bailing out. They never heard of Obama nor his healthcare�

Delusional? Show me your numbers�

Show me where I am wrong. The numbers are rolling in; piling up on top of each other.

Rasmussen polls Support for ObamaCare is now down to 39 percent and 58 percent against.

We were promised a $2,500 cut per family. The numbers are in. unless you are subsidized, the increase is $500 to $8,900 per person or over $22,000 for an average family. That is for plans that cover a lot of things they don�t need or want and leaves out many thing they do need and want. Like their choice of doctors and hospitals.

That is what those 5 million enrollees are facing with more bad news to come.

Nothing turns out voters like pocketbook issues. That is how we got the 2010 conservative landslide election and the numbers are far worse for ObamaCare today.

An EXCELLENT point sir..

I hope he rots in Hell...

This illustrates one of the BIG problems with ObamaCare. Who will pay the costs for all the freeloaders and subsidized enrollees?

�Most of Obamacare�s major provisions went into effect on Jan. 1, 2014, so we�re only now starting to see the wide-ranging impact of this statute. First, the costs. When the ACA was enacted, healthcare was just over $2.6 trillion per year. Now it�s over $2.8 trillion, an increase of four percent. Even with U.S. population growth of nine million in the past two years, that�s an increase of $500 to $8,900 per person--which comes to over $22,000 for an average family. That�s an increase, not a $2,500 decrease.�

Does anybody here think we have the votes to get it repealed? Demographics seem to be against us.

Also, when you say "let it crash", what exactly does that mean?

The �Demographics� are not as bad as the LSM would have us think.

�According to the latest Rasmussen poll published on April 8th, only 23% of likely American voters now rate Obamacare as a success and 62% believe Republicans will repeal the law. The latest polling results are a very bad omen for 13 incumbent Democratic Senators in seats the Republicans believe they have a chance of winning in the November 2014 mid-term elections.�

These are the numbers that gave us the last mid-term election conservative landslide. In fact, these numbers are better. Much better.

Repeal or replace or whatever you want to call it; the bigger the anti-ObamaCare vote this fall, the sooner we can begin to kill this SOB. As I have said, a couple of elements will survive as part of the replacement plan.

Until we take the WH back, all we can do is chop away. The better we do this fall the easier this all becomes. The remaining RINOs and Dems will start sounding like founding fathers of the Tea Party.

Remember, we lost the last presidential election by only about five percent of the popular vote. Numbers show that about five million more conservative votes in the critical swing states would have done it for Mitt.
We have been down that road before. What might have been with a Moderate Mitt and a Republican majority in both houses�

"Let it crash" seems to have different meanings for different folks. I think all the Obama delays and setbacks have killed half of the program. And they won�t be back.

I think the ultimate goal of single-payer socialized medicine is already dead.
Some disagree and I await their numbers to show me where I am wrong.

I see Obamacare being put on life support and lasting another 8-10 years, and then failing. American's have a short memory, so by then after we've been arse-raped on insurance premiums for a decade or more, most American's will welcome "free" healthcare.

BOTH!! And therein lies our perpetual problem.