Plan B Forum

The US House of Representatives has taken the first step toward demolishing President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law, known as Obamacare.

Republicans passed a budget measure to introduce a bill - which Democrats cannot block - to roll back the law.

But members of both parties in Congress are concerned about a lack of replacement for Obamacare.

The political showdown raises a big question mark over medical coverage for more than 20 million Americans.

The measure passed in the House nearly on a party-line vote, 227-198, delivering a blow to President Obama's legacy a week before he leaves office.

It instructs four committees on Capitol Hill to draft repeal legislation by 27 January.

The Senate passed the resolution by 51-48 on Thursday.

"By taking the first step toward repealing Obamacare, we are closer to giving Americans relief from the problems this law has caused," House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement following the vote.

"This resolution gives us the tools we need for a step-by-step approach to fix these problems and put Americans back in control of their health care."

Obamacare has provided healthcare subsidies and medical coverage for millions who are not covered through work.

It has banned insurers from refusing coverage to people who are already ill, and curbed medical charges to the sick and elderly.

But the law has been rocked by rising premiums, large fees and national insurers exiting the marketplaces.

Egged on by Donald Trump, Republicans have vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act but conservatives have not yet agreed on a new plan.

The above map shows, in green, countries that administer some sort of universal health care plan. Most are through compulsory but government-subsidized public insurance plans, such as the UK's National Health Service. Some countries that have socialized and ostensibly universal health care systems but do not actually apply them universally, for example in poverty- and corruption-rife states in Africa or Latin America, are not counted.

What's astonishing is how cleanly the green and grey separate the developed nations from the developing, almost categorically. Nearly the entire developed world is colored, from Europe to the Asian powerhouses to South America's southern cone to the Anglophone states of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. The only developed outliers are a few still-troubled Balkan states, the Soviet-style autocracy of Belarus, and the U.S. of A., the richest nation in the world.

Scooter wrote:

"And we'll be able to keep getting it after I leave/quit/get voted out."
And that right there just about sums it up, all right.

-"BB"-

It's one (despicable) thing that they're repealing the ACA, but it's abhorrent that they are dismantling the CHIP.

If there was any justice in this life, all their kids and grandkids would get cancer and suffer agonizing deaths. Yes, I mean that.

If there was any justice in this life, all their kids and grandkids would get cancer and suffer agonizing deaths. Yes, I mean that.

sorry BSG, you lost me there; I don't wish bad on any children, regardless of who their parents or grandparents are.

Yeah...that is rube-level nasty.

Well, I think she said it more out of frustration (a frustration I understand) than nastiness, but it is still a horrible thing to say.

Big RR wrote:

If there was any justice in this life, all their kids and grandkids would get cancer and suffer agonizing deaths. Yes, I mean that.

sorry BSG, you lost me there; I don't wish bad on any children, regardless of who their parents or grandparents are.

Wow.

I try very hard not to ill-wish anyone (and definitely not kids) no matter how much they've angered or hurt me. I'm just superstitious enough that I believe that kind of stuff has a way of boomeranging on people.

It's a far more horrible thing to take away people's healthcare and sentence them to death unnecessarily. Sorry! I would wholeheartedly endorse any horrible tragedy that life should visit upon such heartless pieces of shit, including the experience of losing their children and grandchildren to incurable illness. Because why? Because they clearly don't give a shit about anybody but their own. So they're complete fuckwits who shouldn't be in public service and are only there to further their own well being.

Does this sentiment make me horrible in your eyes? Fine then. I've watched people die for lack of healthcare, go bankrupt for lack of healthcare while fighting devastating illness, etc.

I'm fucking angry, and my freedom to fantasize awful miserable heartbreaking torment for the selfish evil fucks who are dismantling child health insurance is all I have. It's not like there is some actual spaghetti monster out there who will grant my wish - but I'm free to vent my anger in wishing it and you're free to judge me an asshole for having passionate feelings about the millions of children who will be seriously harmed by this. If the sacrifice of a few privileged children and grandchildren could actually change it and I had the power to smite them with cancer, i wouldn't think twice. They never think twice about sacrificing other people's children to disease or ignorance or war for their own benefit, that much is clear to me after 46 years' observance.

Guinevere wrote:

Big RR wrote:

If there was any justice in this life, all their kids and grandkids would get cancer and suffer agonizing deaths. Yes, I mean that.

sorry BSG, you lost me there; I don't wish bad on any children, regardless of who their parents or grandparents are.

Wow.

I try very hard not to ill-wish anyone (and definitely not kids) no matter how much they've angered or hurt me. I'm just superstitious enough that I believe that kind of stuff has a way of boomeranging on people.

There's not much more life could do to fuck me over, and all of that came before I ever wished ill on anybody. At my current state of health, I have more days than not that death would be a welcome blessing.

Thanks for the kind thoughts though - sadly karma doesn't work that way and too many people enjoy blessings they don't deserve, and vice versa.

If the sacrifice of a fewprivilegedchildren and grandchildren could actually change it and I had the power to smite them with cancer, i wouldn't think twice.

FTFY.

They never think twice about sacrificing other people's children to disease or ignorance or war for their own benefit, that much is clear to me after 46 years' observance

And what you're saying you'd do is different, how?

No, these children/grandchildren don't deserve to be sacrificed because their forebearers are assholes; they're just kids. Curse the legislators and politicians all you want, but kids?

We'll agree to disagree.

Sadly, I think we'll have to leave it at that.

bad health and insanity are no excuse, bsg

I have my share of both

you know the difference between right and wrong

grow up, accept your station in life and get on with it

there is always time enough for suffering, never time enough for living, I know, but don t throw good time after bad

I hope that we end up with some kind of single payer system as trump has endorsed before

be hopeful

I also support the virtual destruction of health insures (financial that is)\

I also support ending the ACA

I consider it state mandated extortion

and you wish cancer on my kids?

what the fuck is wrong with you woman

heal yourself, and pronto!!!

....and maybe get a little jesus in your life.

BoSoxGal wrote:We'll agree to disagree.

Perhaps if you actually had children, I'm sure you would feel differently?

btw: visited my daughter and three grandchildren today on MLK day.

What a blessing!

So much energy, I don't see how my daughter can keep up with them.