Time for bipartisan HC fixes to ACA

[Matty]

1) increase penalties for not having insurance, and include as a new penalty your credit score being downgraded if you don't have health insurance.

2) repeal some essential benefit regulations that would lower the cost of some plans, thus inducing people to buy them.

3) Tinker with the medical device tax.

4) More funding for individual exchanges.

[Santander]

The government has nothing to do with credit ratings outside of basic industry regulations, and I fear any government that does.

Cassidy-Collins is not that bad. Schumer mentioned that Democrats were open to discussing it. That would be a bipartisan place to start.

[Indy Texas]

1) increase penalties for not having insurance, and include as a new penalty your credit score being downgraded if you don't have health insurance.

2) repeal some essential benefit regulations that would lower the cost of some plans, thus inducing people to buy them.

3) Tinker with the medical device tax.

4) More funding for individual exchanges.

1) You really don't...get why most uninsured people are uninsured, do you? If you lose your job, you may not be able to afford to keep your insurance through COBRA. So then you're going to hit that person with a financial penalty that they likely can't afford either, and ding their credit score which could make it impossible for them to, say, move to another city for a new job?

2) Yes, if you make insurance plans crappy, they'll be cheap and people will buy them. But if you have to reach a $10,000 deductible before your insurance will kick in, you, for all intents and purposes, have no insurance.

3) ...

4) ...the reason the exchanges aren't funded better is because Obama bent over backwards to try to get people in your party on board. More funding for the exchanges would have made the program more expensive.

[Trapsy]

honest to god, screw bipartisanship after what the Republicans just did. It's single payer or bust

[ProudModerate2]

I hope they can work together on this, and fix the parts that need adjustment.

[7,052,770]

Most "ideas" to reduce premiums only shave a percentage point or two off while royally screwing over a few people, like cutting maternity coverage or reinstating annual/lifetime maximums.

If we really want to lower the price of insurance, we need to get really sick people out of the pool altogether. Allow anyone with cancer to join Medicare, just like people with end stage renal disease can already do, and you could lower health insurance premiums by 15-20% (My approximate  back of the napkin calculation, not a formal analysis). And it would allow cancer payments to take advantage of Medicare's broad network, rather than many private plan's narrow networks.

[Person Man]

Maybe people can get catastrophic or some sort of Cruz plan and then pay the current penalty and those with none have to pay a double or triple penalty?

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Waiting for bipartisanism is like waiting for Godot. Good luck.

[Badger]

1) increase penalties for not having insurance, and include as a new penalty your credit score being downgraded if you don't have health insurance.

2) repeal some essential benefit regulations that would lower the cost of some plans, thus inducing people to buy them.

3) Tinker with the medical device tax.

4) More funding for individual exchanges.

All these have some Merit, Marty, other than the idea of lowering ones credit score for non-compliance. Even assuming the fair debt collection practices act in Fair Credit Reporting Act or amended accordingly to allow this, there are basic constitutional arguments here under the takings clause and Taxation Powers clause. I suggest just actually enforcing the tax penalty, and perhaps increasing it somewhat for not carrying insurance.

The problem is I think our party is less likely to deal with this kind of a compromise than the Democrats. certainly among the leadership between Mitch Scrooge McConnell and Paul I love a y n Rand Ryan. Not to mention because of gerrymandering many more Republican members of Congress have to fear a primary Challenge from the right than they do a serious general election challenge from the Center.

[Pyro]

1) Medicare for All
2) Oh, well I guess we're done here.

[Adam Griffin]

No deals.

[GlobeSoc]

1) Medicare for All
2) Oh, well I guess we're done here.

[Person Man]

1) Medicare for All
2) Oh, well I guess we're done here.

In a perfect world..

[The Mikado]

At the moment, now that ACA's here to stay, the most sensiblething to focus on are the 18 states still turning down the Medicaid expansion. If the GOP wants to cooperate, that's where it should start.

[windjammer]

No deals.

[Coraxion]

I wonder how the public option would affect all this if it was implemented.