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Sam Berger @SamBerger_DC
, 3 tweets, 1 min read Read on Twitter
Trump is letting insurers cheat people by selling junk plans that discriminate against those with pre-existing conditions.

The result: premiums go up and taxpayers pay tens of billions of dollars more, all so insurance companies can make $ without having to provide coverage.
This is sabotage, plain and simple. Patients groups, hospitals, doctors, and even many insurers explained to the Trump administration how bad junk plans would be. HHS's own analysis says it will raise premiums and cost taxpayers billions. Yet they moved ahead with it anyway.
States need to step up and defend their residents. Here's model legislation states can pass to ban junk plans and protect people with pre-existing conditions.
americanprogress.org/issues/healthc…
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I think this aspect of Trump's proposal to order DoD to illegally build a wall has not gotten enough attention: it would require the military to *seize a massive amount of property* from states, tribes, and private citizens.
Trump is proposing to use emergency authority to make DoD build a wall. This raises a whole host of legal issues b/c it's not, in fact, legal. One of them is that the military can only build things on property "under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of a military department."
So if the military is going to build over 1,000 miles of border wall, then it needs to have "jurisdiction" over that land. And that's where Trump's "military version of eminent domain" comes in. It's the sort of thing you expect to hear in a dictatorship, not America.
Read 3 tweets
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Great scoop from @KFaulders, @Santucci, and @Elizabeth_McLau. As a lawyer at OMB, I worked on appropriations issues all the time. What the Trump administration is discussing here is illegal, plain and simple.
Thread 👇
Under the Anti-Deficiency Act, it's a crime for federal agencies to spend $ on something Congress hasn't authorized - it's the statutory means for enforcing Congress' constitutional power of the purse. The Trump team is trying to sidestep the law by using emergency powers. /2
How? 10 USC 2808 says that w/ "a declaration of war or...a natl emergency...that requires use of the armed forces, SecDef...may undertake military construction projects...not otherwise authorized by law that are necessary to support such use of the armed forces." /3
Read 10 tweets
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I helped manage the 2013 shutdown at OMB, so believe me when I say that they get exponentially harder to manage as time goes on. Agencies run out of carryover $, grant recipients able to cover a short time w/o federal funds can't any more, and unexpected issues crop up.
This type of management challenge is hard enough when you have a competent, committed group of people doing their best. But when you're relying on the most incompetent administration in modern American history...that's a recipe for disaster.
Great ex. from @meghanncuniff, John Waters, and @JoelAchenbach: to limit political blowback, Trump is keeping parks open w/o enough personnel. It exposes parks to damage and visitors to danger. But WH put politics over safety and our national treasures.
washingtonpost.com/national/in-sh…
Read 4 tweets

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Someone should really tell Republicans to buy their domain names before someone else does. 🤣

Here are all the ways #ME02 @BrucePoliquin has lied about his stance on saving the ACA, including coverage for pre-existing conditions. Let's have a look. 1/

brucepoliquin.com/health-care
Bruce knows that Mainers’ number one priority these days is access to healthcare. That’s why he repeatedly voted to eliminate the Affordable Care Act, thus stripping healthcare directly from thousands of Mainers and making it unaffordable for tens of thousands more. 2/
Less sophisticated minds might not understand such counter-intuitive genius, but Bruce had a plan all along. He wants Mainers to care as much as he does about health care policy, and what better way to make someone care very deeply than to take away their healthcare?? 3/
Read 20 tweets
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Mr. President: Look in the mirror, and you’ll see the person you need to speak with. Pull back your lawsuit fighting to undo protections for pre-existing conditions.
And of course, every Republican SAYS they support protections for pre-existing conditions, but then they vote against them. If you are making calls, here’s who’ll you need to speak to:
You should speak to Senator McConnell. Because just this week, he defended the lawsuit that would end protections for people with pre-existing conditions. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Read 35 tweets
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A new bill would require insurers to guarantee access for people with pre-existing conditions and prohibit premiums based on health. But, it would allow insurers to exclude any coverage of the pre-existing conditions. A bit of a catch.
tillis.senate.gov/public/_cache/…
This new Republican bill would prohibit insurers in the individual market from varying premiums based on health. But, premiums could vary based on age, gender, occupation, or leisure activities. Small business premiums could vary based on the health of their workers.
So-called "pre-existing condition exclusions" were common in individual market insurance policies before the ACA, and are also typical in current short-term policies. The new Republican bill would allow them, making guaranteed access to insurance something of a mirage.
Read 11 tweets
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NEW @CAPAction Memo: On Pre-Existing Condition Protections, Reconciling Rhetoric with Reality Proves Difficult for GOP Senate Candidates. #INSEN #WVSEN #MOSEN #AZSEN #NVSEN #FLSEN #NDSEN #TXSEN #PASEN #MTSEN
2/ GOP candidates are running for office saying that they support protections for people with pre-existing conditions, but lawsuits, administrative actions, and legislation supported by these candidates could lead to these individuals being denied coverage or charged more.
3/ Beyond lawsuits and votes that explicitly undermined these protections, candidates do not support pre-existing condition protections if they refuse to endorse the policy levers that make these protections possible: guaranteed issue, community rating, and EHBs.
Read 15 tweets
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BREAKING: Republicans in the Senate have just released a bill to make discriminatory junk insurance plans permanent called ICHCCA (ich-hah). 1/
ICHCCA junk plans (Improving Choices in Health Care Coverage Act) aims to take a lousy idea and make it even worse.

Plans designed to be 90 days
Trump would allow for a year
GOP wants to make permanent insurance

Here’s what would happen...2/
Here’s a fact sheet on junk insurance plans Trump is proposing. 3/

protectourcare.org/fact-sheet-sho…
Read 4 tweets
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BREAKING: White House kills any potential for any ACA bipartisan deal by putting in place more details to hurt people w pre-ex, low income and older Americans.

Details coming here. Follow if interested.
Here is the White House memo on the terms they are asking for in exchange for doing anything to bring premiums down for even 1 year.

I will explain the three items below in this thread. 2/
Item 1: The White House is asking Congress to codify the junk insurance policies highlighted in this column I wrote yesterday. This says let insurance companies create fine print policies that can discriminate against ppl w pre-existing conditions. 3/

usatoday.com/story/opinion/…
Read 7 tweets

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