US Politics Mega-thread - Page 7949

On June 27 2017 09:10 zlefin wrote:

I don't think repeal then replace would work; just because ther'es pressure doesn't mean they'd do it; not when there's a lot of counterpressure preventing action. especially not considering hwat happened with the sequester aways back.

On June 27 2017 09:08 Introvert wrote:



There is no politically feasible way for Medicaid to stop existing. It simply won't happen. We will always have programs/welfare for the poor.

Edit: even the pre-exiting conditions issue is so seared into the brains of Americans that untold amounts of $$$ will be spent on that, no matter what.

On June 27 2017 09:12 Introvert wrote:


Even people on the right complained about health insurance before the ACA, just for different reasons than the left. There would be no counter-pressure.

On June 27 2017 09:07 Introvert wrote:


I've seen what it's like when Danglars tries to have a conversation on this topic, so I'm going to tread lightly.

What would the GOP bill look like? I don't know for sure, but it would almost certainly look better than what they are proposing now. There'd hopefully be some things like making it easier to keep health insurance between jobs and stuff like that, but I don't know what that would involve.

That's when we'd get into real negotiation. There'd obviously still be Medicaid,

and perhaps high risk pools subsidized by the federal and state governments.

There'd be the elimination or reform of the community rating system and most likely a return of so-called "catastrophic insurance."

On June 27 2017 09:08 Introvert wrote:



There is no politically feasible way for Medicaid to stop existing. It simply won't happen. We will always have programs/welfare for the poor.

Edit: even the pre-exiting conditions issue is so seared into the brains of Americans that untold amounts of $$$ will be spent on that, no matter what.

The rich wetlands of southern Louisiana are sinking faster than previously thought, new data reveals, worsening a decades-long ecological disaster that authorities are struggling to reverse.

"What previous studies have called the worst case is the case that right now is the average," said Jaap Nienhuis, a geologist at Tulane University in New Orleans.

Nienhuis and his colleagues at Tulane have found the coast is subsiding on average about 9 mm (1/3 inch) a year. Some areas, such as those near the mouth of the Mississippi and the Atchafalaya River delta to the west, are settling closer to 12 mm a year.

Periodic flooding of the Mississippi River used to dump fresh soil into those marshes, bolstering the wetlands. But the levees that now prevent those floods keep that soil straitjacketed in the river. The area is also home to a major oil and natural gas industry, and canals cut through the marshes allowed salt water to kill grasses that held the land in place.

As a result, coastal Louisiana has been losing a roughly Manhattan-sized chunk every year to a combination of sea-level rise, erosion, and subsidence. That threatens a rich ecosystem that provides more than 1 billion pounds of seafood a year and provides a buffer when hurricanes spin onto shore from the Gulf of Mexico.

For years, scientists had little more than educated guesses about how much the land was sinking. But instruments installed since Hurricane Katrina battered the Gulf Coast in 2005 have now helped Nienhuis and his colleagues develop a map that shows how much different parts of the shore are settling.

Their findings were published recently in the Geological Society of America journal GSA Today. Previous worst-case estimates of coastal Louisana’s subsidence ran about 8 to 10 mm a year — and that’s before sea-level rise is figured in, Nienhuis said.

"We have no indication that the rate of subsidence is going to change going into the future," he said. "But we do know that the other component, sea level rise, is going to increase. So we have reason to assume this picture is going to get worse."

Sea levels are currently rising around 3 mm a year, but that rate is believed to be accelerating because of climate change. Warmer water expands, while melting glaciers and ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are expected to contribute more to sea levels in coming decades.

Louisiana has developed a $50 billion master plan to restore the coast, including plans to divert silt-rich Mississippi fresh water into the marshes, as well as shore up barrier islands and oyster reefs. Nienhuis said his group’s research could help guide state officials as that work moves ahead.

"This is definitely not the end product," he said. "Data collection is still going on, so we can update this map into the future. But right now, you should look at spatial patterns like this to see where you should put your coastal restoration efforts."

At levels similar to pre-ACA or now?

What is the difference between this subsidy and having healthier people subsidize some of the costs of healthcare for more expensive patients a la ACA?

Allowing people to choose to get cheaper, less all-encompassing insurance definitely has some advantages in the short term, but doesn't this actually make healthcare overall more expensive when folks are less healthy due to not having the benefits of all-around healthcare?

It seems like this is only a small slice of the major issues that would need to get worked out in a replacement of the ACA. The reason why I asked you to expand on such a plan a little bit is because I'm worried a drive to repeal the ACA prior to a real plan to replace it with something better will result in a worse healthcare situation than we have now, despite the ACA's shortcomings.

On June 27 2017 07:20 Buckyman wrote:

tl;dr health care has eaten so much of their economy that it's now too big to fail.

On June 27 2017 10:44 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
Anyone expect anything else, this country is just too corrupt.

https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/879431485740199936

On June 27 2017 10:47 Introvert wrote:


Or it could be that the bill sucked and the cost analysis made it clear that the idea was a hilarious pipe dream? I don't suppose that could be possible.

On June 27 2017 11:19 xDaunt wrote:
How the hell was California going to pay for single payer health care? Their citizenry is already taxed out the ass, and they already have trouble paying for their existing programs and infrastructure.

On June 27 2017 09:47 GreenHorizons wrote:
haha. Conservative, Democrat, what's the difference anyway ;P

Yeah I'm not as hardcore as some leftist (like you don't see me calling to abolish police every time they murder someone) but I'm increasingly sympathizing with more radical left positions, being bombarded with how incompetent and malicious both parties actually are.

Strictly from an apolitical "would you hire this person" perspective most of congress should be fired. I lose more and more patience with people who refuse to see that at this point.

Like I was pointing out earlier, our participation is a bipartisan failure of preserving a democracy. None of them should be excused from their responsibility in it's piss poor condition.

Trump is insatiably incompetent and somehow has spent his whole life and now the presidency making money hand over fist by lying to people, disappointing them, then getting them to buy his bullshit yet again. (for those who seem to miss my Trump criticisms).