Quote Originally Posted by UTEopia View Post
For those who believe there was divine guidance/intervention on behalf of the colonies during the Revolutionary War, do you believe that God through John McCain might have also had a hand in preventing the removal of millions of people from health insurance?
I know you were joking, but the idea that millions of people are going to be "removed from health insurance" is a canard that has been allowed to become far too well accepted. The people that would have been affected by the now-dead Republican bill are those in what is called the "expansion group." Those are the folks who are able bodied and whose income is at a certain level above the poverty limit. (130%, I think.) They did not have Medicaid before Obamacare, and it was expanded to them. The federal government is still paying 90% of the cost of that expansion for those individuals. It is what policy wonks call a "open-ended entitlement, meaning it will expand every time in a state wants to add individuals to its Medicaid roles. The Republican bill would have transitioned those people off of Medicaid between now and 2024. Somehow, the bill would have made funds available to them to purchase insurance on their own. That at least was the concept. There has been hysterical complaining from people on the left, stating that millions of people will die, insurance will be wrested from the hands of needy people, and so forth. There were flaws in the bill, but being cruel and heartless was not one of them.

Sorry to rant. This has been bugging me for a while, and you happen to be in my line of fire!