GOP Tries to Secure Trumpcare Passage by Making the Bill More Cruel

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Finding that his original AHCA was too destructive not only for all House Democrats but also for many House Republicans, and seeing his dream slipping away, Paul Ryan has labored to modify the bill to try to make it palatable to enough of his more “conservative” members to pass.  Per Jonathan Chait,

Republican leaders are reportedly planning to add to the bill provisions to strip away essential health benefit requirements for insurance. This move would placate many, perhaps all, of the most arch-conservative opponents of the bill, making it far more likely to assemble a majority.

The effect of these changes would be to render the nominal requirement that insurers cannot refuse coverage on the basis of pre-existing conditions meaningless:

Insurers couldn’t turn you away if you had a pricy condition, but the only people who wanted to buy plans covering them would be sick and expensive, making covering their conditions unaffordable — just like before Obamacare existed. Eliminating these reforms would enable young, healthy people to enjoy lower premiums, as long as they remained young and healthy. It would essentially jack up the massive redistribution from the old and sick to the young and healthy already in Trumpcare to new heights.

Read Jonathan Chait’s piece for more.  Also, these: