government shuts down

[Lantern2814]

Originally Posted by Eaton Beaver

No side has "lost" yet. There is an impasse.

And it isn't just about the Medicaid cuts. It is just as much about extending the subsidies for the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. You know, those credits that make make health insurance cheaper for millions of Americans? Millions. As in 24 Million. People. Most of them in Red states that voted for Trump.

KFF estimates the average premium will go up 114 percent. Pricing a lot of people out. Doesn't matter who they voted for.

Speaking of percentages, also according to KFF, 78 percent of voters across the political spectrum are in favor of maintaining these subsidies.

Those all expired as of September 30. And the Republican controlled Congress had all fucking year to do something about it. And they didn't. And here we are. And there ain't no way that anyone believes their bullshit about "just pass a clean bill and we will deal with this other stuff later." They didn't deal with it before. Why would anyone believe they will now?

Those subsidies were supposed to go away. YOU and YOUR side kept preaching that costs were going to go down so much. Oops. Costs have doubled since Obozocare got rammed through. People can't afford those garbage plans without subsidies because there's no competition in many areas. The Dems didn't help the problem, they created a bunch of dependents who rely on the government to steal money from others to pay for their stuff. People are rightly fully blaming the Dems for this. Doesn't help your cause when Dems go on national television and ADMIT they shut this down over free health care for illegals.

[1blackman1]

Yeah. Ok.

[VitaMan]

This article from Rolling Stone seems to contradict everything Salty and the usual MAGA Republicans are spewing:


House Speaker Mike Johnson continued to blame Democrats for the government shutdown, using misleading Republican talking points that insist that Democratic leadership is pushing to fund health care for undocumented immigrants.


Johnson said Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation that Democrats "want to spend $1.5 trillion, and they want to return hard-working taxpayer dollars to fund health care for illegal aliens. It is in their bill. Go to speaker.gov and see it for yourself. Page 57, Section 2141. They're using this for political games, and it is shameful, and real people are getting hurt."


"I have looked at that text," host Margaret Brennan replied. "It doesn't explicitly say what you are indicating."


As the shut down over these issues approaches its second week, according to a Washington Post poll, nearly half of Americans blame Trump and the Republicans for the government shut down - with 47 percent blaming the GOP and president - while less than a third (30 percent) believe congressional Democrats are responsible for it.






We went to the Speaker's site, which links to the Democratic proposal. The specific section Johnson mentioned - section 2141 on page 57 - repeals the changes to Medicaid made by Trump and the Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which Johnson admitted.


"It's a compelling talking point to say that Democrats want to provide health care to undocumented immigrants, but it's just not true in terms of the cuts they're trying to reverse," Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF, a nonprofit and nonpartisan health policy information organization, told the Associated Press.




It's important to note that undocumented immigrants broadly do not qualify for Medicaid, Affordable Care Act subsidies, or other federally-funded health care coverage.


"Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for federally-funded health coverage," Drishti Pillai, director of Immigrant Health Policy at KFF, wrote. "The GOP's Big Beautiful Bill didn't change that. Overturning the health care provisions in the law won't either."


Further, under the OBBBA, many lawfully present immigrants who are eligible for Medicaid - such as asylum seekers, refugees, and survivors of human trafficking - will be rendered ineligible for the program in 2026 thanks to a section of the law titled "Alien Medicaid eligibility." If that provision stays in place, then next year, approximately 1.4 million immigrants lawfully in the U.S. will lose health coverage because Republicans severely restricted access to lawful permanent residents, Cuban and Haitian immigrants, and citizens of the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau. Democrats are pressing to reverse that.


Johnson also claimed on NBC's Meet the Press: "What the Democrats are demanding is that illegal aliens that care for them in an emergency room should be reimbursed at a higher rate."






Hospitals may be reimbursed for emergency room care given to undocumented immigrants due to a Reagan-era law (the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act) that requires emergency rooms provide screening exams and stabilization care to everyone who comes through their doors seeking care, regardless of immigration status. Under the OBBBA, those reimbursements will decrease. Hospitals would still be obligated to deliver care to everyone, but they will not receive the same amount as they would have before OBBBA, also known as H.R. 1.




"H.R. 1 reduces the federal matching funds for states for some of this emergency care," explained Leonardo Cuello, research professor at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy's Center for Children and Families. "This provision does not actually change coverage for immigrants, and indeed the CBO scored it as having no impact on coverage, because hospitals must still provide the health care, and states must still pay them for the health care, it's just that the federal government will pay a smaller share of the cost. In other words, it's just a cut to federal funding for states to reimburse providers furnishing emergency services (which is still required)."


Democrats are also insisting on extending federal subsidies for people who purchase coverage through the ACA marketplace. If Republicans get their way, and those subsidies are lost, then ACA premiums could more than double. An estimated 10 million Americans, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, could lose their health insurance between the GOP's Medicaid cuts and the loss of subsidies.