Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, flanked by fellow Supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas, Janice Hahn and Hilda Solis, told healthcare providers and community advocates gathered outside the downtown Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, “We mean to stop this bill.”
Department of Health Services Director Mitchell Katz said more than 1.2 million county residents gained health insurance coverage under the expansion of Medicaid or health care exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act [ACA], more commonly known as Obamacare, which meant “they no longer had to wait days for care in emergency rooms” and could afford the medications they needed to stay healthy.
“All of that’s in jeopardy now,” Katz said.
California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris are opposed to the Senate proposal — the Better Care Reconciliation Act [BCRA] — and all of their Democratic Party colleagues are also expected to vote against it. The Republican Party needs at least 50 of its 52 members to pass the bill, even if it relies on Vice President Mike Pence for a tie-breaking vote.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, had pressed for a vote before the Senate’s scheduled 4th of July recess. However, that vote was postponed after several Republican senators expressed concerns, with some criticizing the bill as doing too little to unwind Obamacare and others worried that it would hit their constituents too hard.
Tuesday’s rally was about making sure everyone understands the consequences, said Louise McCarthy, president and CEO of the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County.
“The thing that’s most notable about this fight is the fact that it really doesn’t know boundaries because of social media,” McCarthy said. “The more people hear stories, they understand that they’re actually connected to these issues.”
Residents who don’t rely on Medicaid or the ACA for health insurance will also feel the effects if Obamacare is repealed, she said.
“If you think this doesn’t impact you, hop in the line at the emergency room once there are 22 million uninsured people lining up for care,” McCarthy said. “Or when your nanny doesn’t show up. Or when your substitute teacher shows up sick and gets your kids sick … this is public health.”
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that 22 million people would lose care under the Senate proposal.
The COB reported that the BCRA would reduce the federal deficit by $321 billion over the next 10 years. It would also eliminate taxes on the wealthy that were used to pay for expanding coverage and do away with mandates requiring insurance and associated penalties.
At a board meeting following the rally, Supervisor Kathryn Barger — the sole Republican on the nonpartisan board — said legislators on both sides of the aisle believe “the ACA as written has flaws,” but praised the work Katz has done to expand coverage.
“We’ve done very well under the ACA,” Barger said.
Both Solis and Hahn called the Senate proposal heartless, while Kuehl proposed a new slogan for the Senate bill.
“The slogan for the proposed plan may as well be `Make America sick again,”‘ Kuehl said. “If this terrible plan passes, Medicaid, as we know it, will be virtually gutted and L.A. County will be ground zero for the plan’s deadly consequences.”
Ridley-Thomas said the board was willing to push back.
“We will not retreat. We will not relent. We will fight for the people of this county because healthcare is a right, not a privilege,” Ridley-Thomas said.
–
Jenn says
His mother died of cancer, a horrible death. And, to this day, Barack’s angry about it. In his mind, it’s all our fault. We’re to blame. So, he had is bestest pal, Nancy Pelosi, do up a heath care bill for his peeps, called the Affordable Care Act. And, you’re the one who pays for it. Period. That’s that. If the cost of the Obama-Pelosi ACA translates, into increased premiums, increased co-pays, increased co-insurance, and less coverage for employer based plans? So be it. But, the rule is, if you’re on an employer based plan, then you’re stuck. This is payback. This is your punishment. You can’t migrate to the Obamacare, on account it’s only for his peeps –
Tim Scott says
Not to pester you with facts, but average premiums today are thousands of dollars less than they were projected to be ten years ago. The ACA didn’t make them go down, but it was very effective at leveling them off. The Republicans and their zeal to repeal want to put premiums back on the skyrocket climb they were on ten years ago. The grim reality is they will probably NEVER go down. Your choice is about how fast you want them to go up.
AV'er in Idaho says
Not to bother you with facts Tim Scott, but the average amount that employees need to contribute toward their health care has increased more than 134 percent over the past decade.
Your comment “average premiums today are thousands of dollars less than they were projected to be ten years ago” is an opinion (assuming you didn’t make it up).
From “Insurance Journal” November 12, 2015
On average, employees paid $4698 in insurance costs in 2015. Of this, $2,490 went toward the premium and another $2,208 in out-of-pocket costs, such as co-payments, coinsurance and deductibles in 2015.
In contrast, the amount of employees’ premium and out-of-pocket costs combined in 2005 was just $2,001.
This is after managing premiums through high deductible plans, cost sharing (co-pays), reduced subsidies for covered dependents, and surcharges for adult dependents with access to other health coverage.
These are the FACTS.
Tim Scott says
Ten years ago most projections for insurance premiums had them tripling or better over the decade. So, yes, a 134% increase is way less than the projections.
I know you’d rather just yammer at me than do the math, but try being smart.
William says
Wow, Jenn. What a mess of a post you got there.
What people fail to notice is that employer based health insurance is a hidden ‘tax’ on consumers when they buy a product from that employer’s business. It’s an odd form of socialized medicine in that everyone but the employee is paying for her health insurance that is passed on to the consumer.
You probably think that insurance comes from the heavens.
And, when employees don’t have health insurance paid by their employer, they might go to the ER for the flu or other minor ailments that should be treated by a primary care physician. But, they don’t have insurance and can’t afford to pay out of pocket.
So, the uncompensated care they receive in the ER is either borne by the hospital or passed onto paying patients through cost shifting.
Just because the costs of health care in this country are either hidden or passed on to paying patients doesn’t mean they aren’t real.
Bottom line. It’s a waste of time to reply to you but I’m using your nonsense post to speak to others who might understand.
Bettemarie says
The judicial objective of the Affordable Care Act was, establishment of a clear precedent for criminalization of anti-insurance behavior. In Obama and Pelosi’s mind, all personal and social risk must always be externalized and institutionalized (e.g., social+ism). Obama and Pelosi’s objective was, to legislate away your right of choice how you personally choose to externalize or internalize risk. If they could control that (e.g., hard paternalism), if they could decree a birth contingent insurance mandate (e.g., the act of being born automatically triggering mandatory insurance compliance), then poof-gone, forever, like dominoes falling, your 10th amendment is automatically dissolved, and along with it, there goes your 2nd amendment privilege. Hinged upon it, once your Founding Father’s 2nd amendment privilege is gone, like dominoes falling, so goes your 1st amendment privilege.
Kitty says
Just 8 years ago, my husband and I were proud, straight-ticket Costo-Democrats, doing quite well with our employer based health insurance. Shoved, straight down our throats without a referendum, decimated by Barack Obama and his Affordable Care Act, our employer based plans are table-scraps of what they once were. Three times more expensive, astronomical co-pays, high co-insurance, and lousy coverage, trying to switch over to a government subsidized Obamacare plan, Covered California staffers slam the door in our face, desperate to keep us out. Though our employer plans are no longer affordable, to us? The wonderful people at Covered California automatically disqualify us, on the basis they’ve arbitrarily decreed our employer plans, “affordable.” For covered California staffers, that our employer plans are no longer affordable, to us, is wholly irrelevant.
mariia antelopei says
I can tell you this. Nobody deserves to die because of some politician’s desire to leave a “legacy”. They seem to think they ‘ll go down in history as doing something heroic! Well, standing up against the idiots running this country is way more heroic than sentencing 22 million people to possible death by taking away their health care! Why does nobody go after the insurance companies if they want health care to be affordable? The prices they charge for an ace bandage is insane! There’s no excuse for those kind of prices. Except greed. And what does giving the top 1 % massive tax cuts have to do with health care? They need to act like grown ups, sit down with each other and come up with a plan that helps everyone,but the republicans refuse to work with the democrats. Are they scared that Democrat-ism is contagious? That they might catch it? Gimme a break.
Kitty says
Just 10 years ago, my husband and I were proud, straight-ticket Costo-Democrats, doing quite well with our employer based health insurance. Shoved, straight down our throats without a referendum, decimated by Barack Obama and his Affordable Care Act, our employer based plans are table-scraps of what they once were. Three times more expensive, astronomical co-pays, high co-insurance, and lousy coverage, trying to switch over to a government subsidized Obamacare plan, Covered California staffers slam the door in our face, trying to keep us out. Though our employer plans are no longer affordable, to us? The wonderful people at Covered California automatically disqualify us, on the basis they’ve arbitrarily decreed our employer plans “affordable,” to them.
Rochelle says
… 5 worst policies in U.S. history (in any order you like):
1). the Civil War –
— e.g., fighting the Civil War, the government in Washington DC spent 20 times what it would have otherwise cost, buying slaves their freedmen status; America was never the same, since;
2). Simpson-Mazzoli Act –
— e.g., Ronald Reagan’s amnesty bill; Mexican nationals bum-rush the policy; population of Los Angeles doubles overnight; decades later, California is bankrupt; Social Security is bankrupt;
3). Korea & Vietnam –
— e.g., America goes berserk on a saturation bombing binge; freeing the capitalists trapped deep within the soul of every Korean and Vietnamese, plunged America into a sea of indebtedness from which it never emerged;
4). the Patriot Act –
— e.g., the greatest crime ever perpetrated upon our Founding Father’s constitution; everyone in the policy community caught having signed it, or having acted upon it is, by law, guilty of treason and, by law, should be shot;
5). the Affordable Healthcare Act –
— e.g., the Obamacare; an insurance mandate; precedent for criminalization of anti-insurance behavior –.
Marguerite says
Thanks to the Obama-Pelosi Affordable Healthcare Act, our co-pays have doubled 4 times, since 2008. Our co-insurance skyrocketed 3000%. Coverage benefits for medical procedures on ERISA based plans is negligible to such extent, it no longer makes sense paying our premiums. Since 2010, premiums for eligible dependents on ERISA family employer plans, trebled. Thanks to Nancy Pelosi’s Affordable Healthcare Act, socially concerned moderates no longer trust the Democratic ticket.
Nadine says
… insurance is not the answer. Historically, doctors were intimately embedded members of our frontier western communities whom made house calls during the wee hour, and were commonly paid in chickens and eggs. In the 21st century vernacular, insurance was always a poor solution for heathcare. All the worse, to the next power, a Federal mandate for mandatory insurance compliance, and the criminalization of anti-insurance behavior (e.g., the Obamacare). The only thing which kept healthcare affordable, the right to drop your policy (e.g., your right to internalize risk), there can be no room for argument, whatsoever, at any cost, the Obamacare mandate has to go –
Tim Scott says
LOL…”the right to internalize risk” ended in the 1980s when Ronald Reagan decreed that hospital emergency rooms (the absolute most expensive form of health care) could not deny service to anyone just because they couldn’t pay. All the ACA mandate did was force people who were pretending to internalize risk but were actually maximizing the risk to everyone else to act responsibly.
Mark says
Tim Scott, I agree with most of what you post! Thank you!
I no longer live in the AV, or California for that matter. Moving from Palmdale when I was 23, politics weren’t in my forethought. I never realized how conservative the AV is. I love reading your commits. You don’t argue, you settle the conversation with facts. I can tell that drives some people crazy. Even to the point where they don’t feel comfortable in their identity. They have use the user name “anti tim scott”.
Tim Scott says
If you are ever back in town drop me a line and we’ll catch a beer by the pool.
William says
What other business is required to provide its services whether or not it’s compensated besides hospitals with emergency rooms?
Since health care is like no other business, doesn’t that argue for universal health care beyond emergency treatment?
The gop wants everything to be market based ,blah, blah, blah, so profit comes first. That doesn’t work well with insurance when you are the patient and the insurance company’s incentive is to deny a claim.
Then, there’s the foolish mentality that if you are young and healthy, you don’t need to have insurance…………………until you get sick or injured.
Susan says
@William
Heart Care is not a right it’s a privilege. Universal one payer system is socialism. People need to stop relying on the Federal government for everything.
William says
Health care is a right if we say so, Susan.
All of our rights are rights because we said so. They weren’t always that way.
Do you remember that some Americans didn’t have always voting rights?
Slowly, health care in this country is becoming a right not a privilege.
You are simply in the way just as if you fought against women’s suffrage. Maybe we should take away your right to vote since you don’t want to rely on the Federal Government. You shouldn’t have a say.
How’s them apples?
Tim Scott says
Given that the constitution OPENS with the right to LIFE it is pretty easy to make an argument that health care is a right.
Laughing says
What William and Tim Scott said.
Jeff says
… a subtle, clever end-around on your 2nd amendment privilege, the Obama-Pelosi Affordable Care Act was a far reaching attempt by left-wing extremists, to establish precedent for eventual criminalization of anti-insurance behavior (e.g., the act of being born compels mandatory insurance compliance). Once the policy community could set precedent, effectively leverage and criminalize your attempt to internalize risk, an argument could then be leveled, if your healthcare was fully externalized, then so too should be your right to protect yourself (e.g., your right to bear arms). You know the drill, once our 2nd amendment’s effectively dissolved, so goes our 1st –
Laughing says
Uh no.
It was a step towards socialized medical care much like prosperous countries in northern Europe enjoy.
William says
So, Jeff. At least tell us where you copied and pasted that post from.
Rochelle says
No one saw the judicial implication lurking, skin deep, beneath Obama-Pelosi’s ACA. For 30 years Barack Obama hung around with the Saul Alinsky crowd, cooking up clever ways of gnawing at the weak link in its chain, America’s 10th Amendment. Obama really wasn’t that smart a guy. But, darned if he didn’t do exactly that, after all. So busy splitting hairs dissecting Pelosi’s ACA provisions, everyone was blind-sighted. Decimating America’s 10th amendment, Obama duped everybody.
William says
Rochelle, where did you get your information, such as it is?
Seems you are the only one who saw the judicial implication lurking skin deep. Skin deep isn’t very deep. It should have been obvious to everyone then besides just little ol’ Rochelle.
You’re so funny. Keep up the mediocre work.
Laughing says
It is blind-sided, as in you were hit from your blind side where you did not see the blow coming.
If we extrapolate as Tim Scott did earlier that the opening of the Constitution can be used to infer medical/health rights then the 10th was not decimated at all.