US Congress approves first step for repealing Obamacare

WASHINGTON - The US House of Representatives on Friday joined the Senate in passing a critical measure that marks the first major step toward repealing outgoing President Barack Obama's landmark but controversial health care reforms.

The House's near party-line vote of 227 to 198 approved a budget blueprint which provides Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, with a framework for dismantling the Affordable Care Act.

But one week before Republican President-elect Donald Trump takes office, a sense of urgency has swept over Washington about what his party will put forward as a replacement for the law, with Democrats warning of disastrous consequences should Republicans act too hastily.

"This resolution essentially fires the starting pistol... for repealing Obamacare," said Representative Bill Johnson, an Ohio Republican.

"This is a critical first step to deliver relief to Americans struggling under this law," House Speaker Paul Ryan told fellow members, describing as a "rescue mission" the latest effort to unwind Obamacare.

"This experiment has failed," and "we have to step in before things get worse."

The Senate passed the resolution Thursday. It received no Democratic support in either chamber, highlighting the intensely partisan fight that lies ahead.

The resolution provides Republicans with a powerful tool, called reconciliation, which allows repeal legislation to proceed through the 100-member Senate with a simple majority, protected from a Democratic filibuster that requires a 60-vote threshold to overcome.

Trump made repeal of the law a central plank of his insurgent campaign, and he sounded triumphant ahead of the vote.

"The 'Unaffordable' Care Act will soon be history!" he tweeted early Friday.

Days earlier he said the Republicans ought to repeal and replace Obamacare quickly and "simultaneously."

During a Thursday town hall style event Ryan said he was on board, and that he envisioned action on a plan "within the first hundred days."

'CUT' AND RUN?

Unwinding Obamacare will be a monumental task. Republican leadership is moving carefully, stressing it does not want to "pull the rug out from anyone" who might lose coverage if there is no replacement plan on offer.

But there is debate among Republicans about how -- and how fast -- to proceed.

Charlie Dent, one of nine House Republicans who voted against the resolution, expressed "reservations" about quickly repealing parts of Obamacare without a credible replacement at the ready.

"I think the repeal plan needs to be fully developed and better articulated prior to moving forward," he told CNN.

The White House touts Obamacare as a success, saying more than 20 million Americans have gained health insurance through the law.

The Affordable Care Act forbids insurance companies from denying health care due to pre-existing conditions, abolishes lifetime caps on care, and allows children to stay on their parents' plans until age 26, three provisions that have proved popular nationwide.

Ryan insists the Republican plan that moves forward will include its own versions of such provisions.

Democrats warn that scrapping the law could result in tens of millions of Americans losing coverage.

"They want to cut benefits and run. They want to cut access and run," House minority leader Nancy Pelosi said of Republicans, and accused Ryan of peddling "mythology" about the law.

House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries offered harsher criticism about Republican efforts to swiftly dismantle the reforms, despite not formulating a viable replacement plan in the last six years.

"All you have is smoke and mirrors, and the American people are getting ready to get screwed," Jeffries said on the House floor.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Obama to meet tech chiefs on surveillance

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama will Tuesday meet bosses of tech giants including Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter to discuss US spy agency surveillance and his notorious health care reform website.

A White House official said Obama would talk to the Silicon Valley chieftains about progress in repairing the glitch prone website Healthcare.gov which has hampered the rollout of his signature domestic initiative.

"The meeting will also address national security and the economic impacts of unauthorized intelligence disclosures," the official said, adding that Obama also wanted to discuss how the tech sector could help unleash new economic growth and job creation.

Top executives at the talks will include Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook, Tim Cook of Apple, Marissa Mayer of Yahoo, Eric Schmidt of Google and Dick Costolo of Twitter.

Obama is familiar with many of the people who will be in the meeting -- a number are high profile and wealthy supporters of his political campaigns.

But the revelations of a massive US spy snooping program on the Internet, leaked by fugitive US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden, have strained ties between the White House and the US tech sector.

Eight leading US-based technology companies last week called on Washington to overhaul its surveillance laws following the revelations of online eavesdropping in an open letter to Obama.

"The balance in many countries has tipped too far in favor of the state and away from the rights of the individual -- rights that are enshrined in our Constitution," they wrote.

Obama was last week handed a report by a panel he charged with examining the National Security Agency spy programs and aides say he will propose some restraints on snooping on Internet and telephone data in the New Year.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Red State or Blue, Obamacare Pricing Seems Apolitical

NEW YORK -- For Americans who are able to check out new insurance plans launched under President Barack Obama's health care reform, the price differences from state to state may be surprising.

Residents of Minnesota, a Democratic-led state, are likely to pay the lowest monthly premiums in the country. Just two states away, some residents of Republican-dominated Wyoming might be surprised to find they will pay among the highest.

But the ideological debate between Obamacare's supporters and opponents seems to have had little relevance when it comes to the affordability of care, the main goal of the Democratic president's signature program, health economists and actuaries say.

Instead, they point to regional differences in medical costs, the relative health and age of local populations and competition among insurers as having greater influence over the monthly premiums. Those differences lead to a wide variance in prices between states, and even within states.

Of the 24 states that fall below a national average of $328 in monthly premiums, laid out in a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services analysis last month, at least half are dominated by Republican state governments.

The affordability of the plans will likely determine whether enough uninsured Americans, particularly young and healthy ones, sign up to make the program successful.

The new insurance plans became available for enrollment nationwide on Oct. 1. But technical problems with the federal government's health care.gov website serving 36 states have blocked millions of people from accessing the information.

In Wyoming, the cheapest mid-tier plan, or "silver" plan, costs $307 for a 27-year old in Laramie County, one of the state's only two counties considered "urban" and where the state capital Cheyenne is located. It has 60,000 residents with an average age of 37 years old. Venture outside those two counties and prices rise by $25. Change to the one other insurer offering a plan, and prices climb $100.

In Minnesota, a 27-year old in Minneapolis could pay $126 for a silver plan. Its population is 393,000, and the median age is 34. Go out to Traverse County, with the oldest population in the state, and that starting price rises to $153. In Minnesota, residents can choose from four insurers.

"It seems that basically the eligible populations in those areas, and the relative negotiating power of providers and insurance plans seem to really be the driver" of prices, said Matthew Buettgens, a mathematician at the Urban Institute, a social and economic research, "not necessarily politics."

Maryland, a staunchly Democratic state with an active insurance department, emphasized its ability to reduce premium rates by about 30 percent overall on the new products. But the average price on its mid-tier "silver" insurance plan is $299, only $6 less than in Republican-led Texas, whose leaders have been at the forefront of an effort to kill the health care law, culminating in a federal government shutdown.

Even within a state, there are variations. In Georgia, a 100-mile difference can mean hundreds of dollars in the monthly cost. Monthly premiums in rural regions cost much more than in more populated areas.

According to the data on the federal health care.gov website, the cheapest "silver" plans in the state are in the counties surrounding Atlanta -- about $185 a month -- where five insurers sell plans. The most expensive are in Georgia's southwest corner, where only Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, a unit of WellPoint (WLP), sells Obamacare plans at a minimum of $200 a month higher for a comparable plan.

Florida and Texas Rates

To be sure, politics historically has played a role in how states regulate insurance. Many of the Republican "red" states have had a laissez-faire attitude towards regulation compared with activist Democratic, or "blue," states.

And to a lesser degree, that regulation did affect Obamacare prices. Many Republican states have deferred to the federal government to run their exchanges, while Democratic states that support Obamacare have taken an active role in running their own exchanges.




Leaders in Texas and Florida also blamed Obamacare for skyrocketing health insurance costs, arguing that the new plans will take a toll on individuals and businesses.

In Florida, the Republican-led legislature and governor suspended the state insurance department's rate review authority for 2014 and 2015, saying they didn't want the state to participate in the overhaul.

But even without official authority, Florida still conducted "informational" reviews of rates for 2014 insurance products, and the federal government examined premiums there.

A Reuters review of insurance filings in both states showed their insurance departments played an active role in examining the plans proposed by insurance companies before they were submitted to the federal government. In at least one instance in Texas, the review led an insurer to lower prices for their plan, the insurer said.

In Florida, the average monthly premium matches the national average at $328. In Texas, it is lower at $305. A check of the benchmark mid-tier, or "silver," plans shows Texas is among the least expensive, costing $108 to insure a 27-year-old.

Florida's silver plans start more than $100 below the national average price, with prices at around $200 for a 27-year-old available in much of the state. The figures are before government subsidies for people earning less than 400 percent of the federal poverty level, or $94,200 for a family of four.

Standardizing Benefits

Obamacare requires all insurance policies for individuals to cover 10 standard health benefits, including maternity and emergency services, making the estimated cost of covering an individual the single biggest factor in premium rate. Regional differences play a role in making those estimates, experts explain.

"Colorado is purportedly a very healthy state and knowing people who live there, I understand why. They are always out there climbing mountains," said Jim O'Connor, a principal at actuary firm Milliman in Chicago.

Spending also varies by the price of medical services rendered in each region -- the cost of an X-ray in Topeka versus Miami, for example. A third factor is how often someone living in the region typically goes to the doctor when they are sick, which can be heavily influenced by social norms.

Other wild cards involved in setting premiums include how many of the very sick people in their state will buy a particular insurer's plan, and how many of the previously uninsured population will come in with pent-up demand for doctor visits and new treatments -- one of the true tests of Obamacare.

source: dailyfinance.com