What parts of the American Health Care Act did Conservatives disagree with?

President Trump posted this tweet this morning calling out the “Freedom Caucus” the Club for Growth (who FAILED at doing everything they could to ensure President Trump lost the election) and Heritage (who published incorrect information about the bill and the Senate process) and I have to say as one of the very few Conservatives who actually read the bill, I am WITH President Trump on this and AGAINST those mentioned in his tweet.

What if anything in the American Health Care Act did you disagree with and if so why?

1.) Repealing the Individual Mandate which requires those who do not purchase overpriced Obamacare health insurance to pay a penalty to the IRS.
2.) Repealing the Employer Mandate so that employers can once again offer FULL TIME jobs instead of restricting their job applicants to 29.5 hours in order to avoid paying for overpriced Obamacare health insurance.
3.) Repealing the Obamacare subsidies, which would be the first time in U.S. history that we actually repealed an entitlement.
4.) Placing per capita caps on Medicaid enrollees.
5.) Block granting Medicaid to the states
6.) Reducing the deficit.
7.) Cutting spending by $1.2 trillion.
8.) Repealing $600 billion in Obamacare TAXES.
9.) Re-creating state High Risk Health insurance pools (which is how health insurance risk in the individual marketplace it was managed for 20 years before Obamacare under HIPAA law). By doing so we would have once again removed the sickest 5% (responsible for 50% of costs) from the healthy pool in order to once again lower premiums for those who are healthy. Remember how much lower health insurance premiums were BEFORE Obamacare?
10.) Granting $128 billion over 9 years to the states to ensure that every state has a well funded high risk health insurance pool so that the 5% who are the sickest are guaranteed coverage. Keep in mind that whilst that may seem like a lot of money, it is MUCH less than the $56 billion we will spend just THIS YEAR on Obamacare subsidies.
11.) Repealing “Community Rating” so that young people pay much less for health insurance than they do now, thereby reincentivizing them to REENTER the health insurance pool and lower costs for everyone.
12.) Providing tax CREDITS (not “entitlements”) so that you can KEEP more of your OWN money so that health insurance costs less for you and your family. A tax CREDIT is NOT an “entitlement”. It just means you pay less to the IRS so you keep more of your own money to spend on health insurance. Is a CHILD tax CREDIT an ‘entitlement’?
13.) A one year 30% underwriting load applied to those who do not keep consistent health insurance coverage and instead wait until they are sick to buy health insurance. These “system gamers” increasing premiums for everyone. This also was how risk was managed in the individual health insurance market for 20 years before Obamacare under HIPAA law.

Understanding what could have happened had we come together

Keep in mind that ALL of the aforementioned features of the “First phase” of the American Health Care Act were included in the budget reconciliation bill and would have passed the muster of the Senate Parliamentarian because they were all budgetary in nature. As such, they could have passed with only 51 Republican votes (not the normal 60 votes to pass a bill). In other words without the help of ONE Democrat. As a reminder we need 8 Democrat Senator’s to vote WITH US in the Senate in order to reach the 60 vote threshold for a FULL repeal bill. We don’t have ONE Democrat vote, let alone EIGHT.

What if “PHASE ONE” is all we could get?

Let’s say PHASE TWO “would never really happen” meaning Dr. Price just simply refuses to exercise his power as our new H.H.S. Director and REFUSES to roll back additional mandates and regulations on health insurers thereby lowering premiums even more.

Let’s say “PHASE THREE” (further legislation) “would never really happen” because we will never get 8 Democrats to agree on repealing the rest of Obamacare by reaching the 60 vote threshold in the U.S. Senate necesary to pass a bill. I find that hard to believe by the way after we STARVE Obamacare of it’s primary funding sources which would have been done in ‘PHASE ONE’ (the Individual and Employer mandate repeal, repeal of $600 billion in taxes etc.). Would that not result in Obamacare dying MUCH faster than it already is resulting in more willingness from Democrats to support an alternative?

ISN’T JUST “PHASE ONE” BETTER THAN WHAT WE CURRENTLY HAVE NOW WHICH IS A DISFUNCTIONAL, BANKRUPT MEDICAID PROGRAM, AN ALMOST NONEXISTANT INDIVIDUAL HEALTH INSURANCE MARKET AND THE HIGHEST HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY?!

Someone PLEASE tell me where I’m wrong!

UPDATE April 26 2017: MacArthur amendment added to allow states to waive both the Essential Health Benefits and Community Rating provision.

UPDATE May 3, 2017: Upton/Long Amendment added to provide an additional $8 billion for states to establish risk mitigation programs for applicants in the individual health insurance market who are otherwise uninsurable and do not keep consistent coverage in place.

See all proposed amendments here. Read the original American Health Care Act here.