Dr Oz Has A Cure For Complaints About GOP Plan To Double Healthcare Costs, And It's Not Even Green Coffee Beans
Surprise, it is denial.
As of today, the federal government has been shut down for exactly one month, and the main thing keeping it from opening back up is the fact that the terrible murder budget resolution that Republicans have put forth would still allow the Obamacare subsidies to expire, which would cause the premiums paid by millions of Americans to more than double next year.
Some Republicans have chosen to address this dilemma by ignoring it and insisting that the issue is that we want to give free healthcare to undocumented immigrants, which is not a provision in any bill anywhere.
Others have dealt with it by being uncharacteristically correct about things.
OK, it’s just the one, but it’s Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Still, others have insisted that if Democrats just pass the bill now as it is, they’ll totally do something about the subsidies right afterwards. Just trust them! Though, as Marjorie has pointed out (seriously, are we in an alternate timeline?), they have not mentioned what their plan for doing so would be.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, however, is trying something just a little different.
On Wednesday, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) was asked about this issue, and instead of opting for one of the previous examples, decided to forge a new path — straight up denial.
“Unless those tax credits are extended, the subsidies, the average plan will increase for Americans by somewhere around 115 percent. Do you believe that Congress should extend those subsidies so that most Americans do not receive significant increases in their premiums?” a reporter asked him, specifically referencing the figure estimated by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF).
“They retracted that. That data was run inappropriately. They changed the messaging on it. Go back and look at the website. Here’s the truth. The window-shopping is already revealing that the average American who’s on the ACA (Affordable Care Act) between 100 and 400 percent of the poverty level is going to pay $50 total next year. It’s going to be $13 more than this year, $50 total next year. It’s gonna be $13 more than this year.”
So, did the Kaiser Family Foundation retract that figure? They definitely did not! Indeed, they restated the figure on Thursday after Oz’s assertion.
Damn, who would have thought that a guy who claimed green coffee bean extract could help you lose weight, that homeopathy can heal what ails you and that you shouldn’t drink apple juice because of all the arsenic in it would be so careless with the truth?
It is also, for the record, categorically untrue that people will only pay thirteen dollars more for their health insurance premiums. Aside from the fact that those at 400 percent of the poverty line will no longer receive any subsidies and others will receive far less than what they are getting now, again, paying around 115 percent more for their current plans. It is true that many of them could get a lower-cost bronze plan for not much more than they are paying now for their silver plans — but that would also mean that their deductibles would go from $100 to $7,000, which not too many people would even get to.
“There can be a lot of hair pulling and scratching, mud-slinging, but the fundamental reality for most Americans is that although it is an increase in spend, that’s not the big issue,” Oz continued, “The big issue is the fundamental flaws within the ACA as they were created 15 years ago. We want the government opened so that we have people working, running the numbers, trying to help experts, actuarials, insurance companies, try to figure out more holistic ways of dealing with the bigger challenges that we face in America with increasing costs.”
Ah yes, holistic ways. Perhaps instead of worrying about those costs, we can all “reduce stress” by utilizing spiritual mediums to communicate with our dead relatives, as he has previously recommended.
Given that Republicans have had 15 years to “run the numbers” and figure out their “concepts of a plan” to replace the ACA, and have yet to land on one, it does beggar belief that they would be able to get that together before people actually have to start paying these premiums.
Oz chose a particularly awkward day to issue this denial, as it was the same day that the ACA prices for next year became public, revealing that, subsidies aside, the average cost of a plan in states managed by the federal government increased by 30 percent, while the average plan in states that run their own marketplace has increased by 17 percent.
That is going to cost people a whole lot more than thirteen dollars a month.
The darkly amusing thing here, I suppose, is that — in the event that things do not go our way and the subsidies expire, Oz’s absurd claims will make things a tad difficult for Trump when people’s premiums do go up exponentially. I guess he, like most Americans, including, again, Marjorie Taylor Greene, is counting on Democrats to be successful, so as to avoid that very awkward scenario.
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
I can understand why Trump wants to destroy the economy and crush the Republican Party forever, but as a person with some intellect and no ego, the willingness of these other bastards to go full Marie Antoinette doesn’t make a lick of sense to me. There *will* be a tomorrow, boys.
“ going to pay $50 total next year. It’s going to be $13 more than this year, $50 total next year. It’s gonna be $13 more than this year.”
A lie so nice he told it twice.
Back to back.