The clock is ticking for Republican leaders in Washington D.C. to pass their latest ObamaCare repeal bill. There is a September 30th deadline to have a new law in place before the budget reconciliation.
And the U.S. Senate is set for a possible vote next week on a bill sponsored by Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.
If passed and signed into law by President Trump the Graham Cassidy bill would create winners and losers among the 50 states. Each state would implement their own health care plans with block grants of federal funding.
It would also end federal funding for ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion and the subsidies that help people afford coverage, as well as the law’s individual insurance mandate.
Instead, states would be given pots of money, and would get to decide how to spend it.
The bill takes federal dollars from high-spending Medicaid expansion states — like California — to states that rejected the Medicaid expansion — like Texas.
And states like Texas could decide to take away protections for insurance consumers like the guard for preexisting condition.
How would this impact Texas health insurance consumers? Texas continues to lead the nation in the number of uninsured but more people have gotten health insurance under Obamacare.
Stacey Pogue is a senior policy analysis for the Center for Public Policy Priorities.
She says Graham Cassidy could have both short term and long term impacts on health care in Texas – and both are negative and harmful for Texans.
Segment #2
Drew White at the Texas Public Policy Foundation is also not a fan of the legislation abet for different reasons. He says it doesn’t go far enough to eliminate the regulations of the Affordable Care Act.
Segment #3
“Border security” is a topic that fills the news these days – but when problems at the border are mentioned rarely does anyone ask – which border? There are two lines of demarcation that cleave the United States from it’s neighbors to the south and north. Both are explored in “All the Agents and Saints” – the latest book by Stephanie Elizondo Griest. Yvette Benavides has a review.
