GOP Rep. Chaffetz: Americans may need to choose between "new iphone… they just love" and investing in health care https://t.co/5Hxwn2uOl5
— New Day (@NewDay) March 7, 2017
… if by ‘sausage’, you mean ‘used tube sock full of dog turds and broken glass.’
The Washington Post Wonkblog rebuts (in case you need a link for your low-info social media contacts):
… Chaffetz’s remarks comport with messaging from Republican leadership that frames their health-care proposal as a victory for consumer choice… But framing the consumer “choice” as one between an iPhone and health coverage ignores the massive gap between the price of an iPhone and what Americans spend on health care…
…[A]cross the typical life span of an iPhone, we’re spending 12 times as much on health insurance as we are on the phone.
But this, too, is an overly rosy scenario for many of us. Those individual market plans don’t just involve monthly premium payments, they also have high deductibles, too — $4,328 in a year, per eHealth. That represents out-of-pocket spending you need to cover before your plan even starts kicking in.
So let’s say we get sick. We break a leg. We have to get lab work done. Our health isn’t great, so we need a lot of medical care and max out on our deductible each year. Under the standard individual plan referenced above, that works out to about $18,000 in premiums and out-of-pocket expenses over two years. Or, for that span, the price of 23 iPhones.
This all involves a lot of speculation because we don’t really know yet how the GOP plan would reshape the out-of-pocket expenses landscape. But it seems pretty clear that, by virtue of the huge disparity in pricing, smartphones and health care don’t really fall within the same decision-making framework for most of us.
Jason Chaffetz says his comments that Americans will have to choose between buying an iPhone & buying health care didn't come out “smoothly” pic.twitter.com/XDDwjH8Rzh
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) March 7, 2017
"If you like your Obamacare, you can keep it, but the American people want change" @vp after Senate GOP lunch mtg
— Tom LoBianco (@tomlobianco) March 7, 2017
Pence on Capitol Hill: House GOP bill is "framework for reform." WH is "certainly open to improvements."
— Matt Flegenheimer (@mattfleg) March 7, 2017
Today in ruh roh: When asked twice if the White House supports every element of the bill,Tom Price said, "This has been a work in progress."
— jennifer steinhauer (@jestei) March 7, 2017
Kochs and AARP on the same side https://t.co/4LXtDR8ron
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) March 7, 2017
AFP, FreedomWorks, Heritage Action all against this bill. It doesn’t sound like the leadership has a big outside coalition for this bill https://t.co/V0rEfGMZo4
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) March 7, 2017
Hug the staff assistants today. Heritage just put out an email urging supporters to call their lawmakers over the new health care bill pic.twitter.com/8v75umk85p
— Abby Livingston (@TexasTribAbby) March 7, 2017
GOP Sen. Roy Blunt: House GOP health care plan 'may not be a plan which can get a majority of votes to pass' https://t.co/5iG0lOxGqP
— andrew kaczynski ?? (@KFILE) March 7, 2017
2010: Elect us to stop Obamacare.
2011: Can't stop it without Senate.
2015: We need the WH to stop Obamacare.
2017: We can't stop Obamacare.— Philip Klein (@philipaklein) March 7, 2017
Open Thread: The GOP Manufacturing Its Healthcare SausagePost + Comments (166)