Profile picture
Margot Sanger-Katz @sangerkatz
, 11 tweets, 4 min read Read on Twitter
It is hard to know what is in people’s hearts. But most Congressional Republicans voted for bills last year that would substantially weaken current protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
Trump has *said* he supports pre-existing conditions protections for a long time. But he also supported the GOP efforts to repeal Obamacare last year, all of which would have undermined current protections. He pressured lawmakers to vote for the bills.
Trump's Justice Department is also currently arguing in court that Obamacare's pre-existing conditions protections should be thrown out as unconstitutional. nytimes.com/2018/09/04/hea…
At political rallies, Trump continues to complain that Obamacare was not overturned by Congress.
There are possible ways to protect people with prior illnesses other than Obamacare, but Trump has not proposed or endorsed a specific policy to do this.
Trump's tweet, and similar statements from prominent GOP candidates in the last week show that the issue has some political poignancy. Here's my piece on why Democrats are running on the issue: nytimes.com/2018/08/01/ups…
Republicans are in a difficult spot on this issue. Many of their voters still want them to repeal Obamacare--and they've been vowing to do so for years. But voters are also worried about pre-existing conditions protections. It will be hard to keep both promises.
More context for Trump’s tweet in my inbox second ago. mediaproject.wesleyan.edu/releases/10181…
For more on where individual Republican lawmakers stood on health care when legislation was live, here are the vote counts from last year.
House: nytimes.com/interactive/20…
Senate: nytimes.com/interactive/20…
On Trump’s Medicare claims, my colleague @YLindaQiu has a helpful fact-check. She judged similar statements “false.” nytimes.com/2018/09/07/us/…
The polling team at @KaiserFamFound is out with new results today. Health care is the top issue nationally and in battleground states. Pre-existing conditions protections are particularly important to voters. kff.org/health-reform/…
Missing some Tweet in this thread?
You can try to force a refresh.

Like this thread? Get email updates or save it to PDF!

Subscribe to Margot Sanger-Katz
Profile picture

Get real-time email alerts when new unrolls are available from this author!

This content may be removed anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime, convert it as a PDF, save and print for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video

1) Follow Thread Reader App on Twitter so you can easily mention us!

2) Go to a Twitter thread (series of Tweets by the same owner) and mention us with a keyword "unroll" @threadreaderapp unroll

You can practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @sangerkatz see all

Profile picture
This @sarahkliff story is wild: She reports on a public hospital in SF with a trauma center that doesn’t take ANY private health insurance, and then sends huge bills to people unlucky enough to be taken there by ambulance. vox.com/policy-and-pol…
@sarahkliff This is how a hospital spokesman at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital defends this policy. vox.com/policy-and-pol…
@sarahkliff We’ve reported on ER doc staffing companies that routinely stay of network. (nytimes.com/2017/07/24/ups…) But I had been unaware of this business strategy among *hospitals* to refuse insurance. Twitter friends: Are there other examples? @ReedAbelson @julie_creswell
Read 3 tweets
Profile picture
This new report on national health expenditures in 2017 is a great occasion to bring back the term “slowth,” which I believe to be a @ddiamond coinage. healthaffairs.org/doi/abs/10.137…?
"Slowth" stands for slow growth. Health spending went up last year, but by a lot less than health spending has grown historically--and by less than the overall economy grew. This is good news.
.@JeffYoung has a great piece on this trend, our recent slowth experience, generally, and why it probably doesn't feel like health care spending is on a good trajectory for a lot of Americans. bit.ly/2G5DunT
Read 7 tweets
Profile picture
CMS is suggesting some ideas for states that want to refashion their individual health insurance markets.
These new templates build on new guidance for how states can pursue “innovation waivers.” Under Obama-era rules, most of these approaches wouldn’t be allowed. nytimes.com/2018/10/22/us/…
Full text of Seema Verma’s speech on these concepts at ALEC is now live: cms.gov/newsroom/press…
Read 6 tweets

Related threads

Profile picture
Last year, I was thankful that we stopped Republicans from ripping health insurance away from over 10 million people. This year, I'm thankful we did it again by retaking the House.
Taking the House also has prevented them from:

1) block granting SNAP, which helps 40 million people, lifting 8 million of them out of poverty
2) block granting Medicaid, which helps 76 million people
The social safety net lifts 44 million people out of poverty, and 130 million people have pre-existing conditions, and all of our hard work protected them all. There's a lot we should all be thankful for.
Read 3 tweets
Profile picture
Trump is doing a rally in Georgia. Tweets in this thread. (Only three or four more of these in the next two days, I promise)
Right Side Broadcasting, my favourite Trump-streamer, informs its loyal viewers that the "ultimate dream of any reporter" is to fly on Air Force One, "or at least of this reporter."
Trump dutifully reads his line about how this is one of the most important elections of our lifetimes, then ad-libs, "I wouldn't say it's as important as '16, but it's right up there."
Read 51 tweets
Profile picture
The American people are confronted with a #GOP Congress and Administration that are relentlessly ransacking the futures of American families and seniors, all to further enrich their lobbyist and special interest friends, big corporations and the wealthiest one percent. /1
From health care, to taxes, to good-paying jobs, to critical consumer protections, President Trump and the #Republican Congress are selling out the American people at every turn: /2 #ARawDeal #CultureOfCorruption #RepublicanGreed
#Democrats must be ready to drive home our case to the American people about how a Democratic majority will fight For The People:/3 #ForAll #ForThePeople #ABetterDeal #PrincipledDemocraticLeadership
Read 11 tweets
Profile picture
Republicans say they want to protect people with pre-existing conditions. But this is like saying you want to reduce gun violence -- while also advocating legal concealed carry and the elimination of all background checks for gun ownership 1/ huffingtonpost.com/entry/republic…
To make affordable insurance available for people with preexisting conditions, you need guaranteed issue -- insurers can't turn you down -- and community rating -- they can't charge you high premiums because of your medical history 2/
But even these steps aren't enough by themselves, because they can lead to a situation in which healthy people don't sign up, so you have a sick risk pool and prohibitively high premiums. So you need more: incentives for the healthy to buy insurance 3/
Read 8 tweets
Profile picture
Last night, I listened to a tele townhall with my MoC, Rep. Ann Wagner. She has not held an in-person townhall since she took office in 2012. I've participated in several of these in the past two years. Last night's left me particularly disturbed. /1
A caller, let's call her Alice, is a small business owner in St. Charles. She and her husband get their insurance from through the ACA and pay about $1700 a month with $6500 deductible. Alice professes to be healthy but her husband has diabetes. /2
Alice has a 30 y/o daughter-in-law with breast cancer. Alice's son and DIL vote Democrat because "they don't think the Republicans have a plan for healthcare". /3
Read 20 tweets
Profile picture
⚠️ THREAD: According to the HHS Dept., appx. 130 MILLION non-elderly Americans have pre-existing conditions which would likely get them either denied coverage or charged so much for coverage they’d be effectively priced out of the market. 1/
Last year, @EmilyG_DC of @amprog broke these out by Congressional District: americanprogress.org/issues/healthc… 2/
I then took that data and recompiled it into individual states infographics: acasignups.net/17/05/14/cap-d… 3/
Read 65 tweets

Trending hashtags

#Republican #Russia #ncpol #Florida #Republicans #Nevada #NeverAgain #NVSEN #PreExistingConditions #ACA #EqualityInHealthcare #GOPTaxScam #Maine #Louisiana #Kansas #GOP #fakenews #Missouri #KremlinAnnex #SandyHook #TXSEN #Utah #Georgia #ForAll #MondayMotivation

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just three indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member and get exclusive features!

Premium member ($30.00/year)

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!