GOP moves bill for extra ObamaCare funding on Boston Massacre day, Boehner said a year ago he wanted this-GOP has loved ObamaCare since day 1

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4/16/13, "GOP fast tracks bill to fortify ObamaCare's high-risk pools," The Hill, Elise Viebeck

"House Republicans are moving quickly on a new bill to strengthen ObamaCare's temporary insurance plan for people with pre-existing conditions.

The Helping Sick Americans Now Act (H.R. 1549) was introduced late Monday and is scheduled for a mark-up Wednesday in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. 

The measure seeks to shore up the Pre-Existing Conditions Insurance Plan (PCIP), a struggling program designed to offer insurance to vulnerable patients while the Affordable Care Act is fully implemented.

The Obama administration announced earlier this year that it would suspend enrollment in the PCIP, citing cost concerns.

GOP lawmakers have since mounted a push to transfer money from the law's public and preventive health fund — disparaged as a "slush" fund by Republicans — to reopen the PCIP's enrollment.
The new measure follows a letter from House GOP leaders to President Obama asking him to make that move without congressional action. 

Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), who leads the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Health, slammed Obama late Monday for ignoring the letter. "Sick Americans without insurance face lots of hurdles to find good coverage," said Pitts, lead sponsor on the new bill.

"Since the White House hasn’t answered our appeal, we’ve introduced legislation that would ensure that Americans with pre-existing conditions can once again have access to this program," Pitts said in a statement.

The bill would use funds from health reform's Public Health and Prevention Fund to keep the PCIP open through the end of the year.

The law's ban on pre-existing condition discrimination takes effect Jan. 1, eliminating the need for PCIP.

The policy will prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to people based on their health status." via Mark Levin

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3/8/13, "GOP Leaders: Refashion Obamacare To Address Preexisting Conditions In The Short-Run," tpm.com

"House GOP leaders say they want to help people with preexisting conditions....

So this week, Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and five others wrote a letter calling on President Obama to support the transfer of money from Obamacare’s prevention and wellness fund to a temporary program designed to protect sick people before the law’s preexisting condition guarantee takes effect in 2014.

“We believe allowing those with pre-existing conditions access to health insurance is another worthy reason to reprogram these funds,” the GOP lawmakers wrote. “With your support, we could help these Americans get the care they need.”

Three weeks ago, the Department of Health and Human Services closed the law’s state-based high risk pools to new applicants after deciding that it was too costly and underfunded..... 
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Read the House GOP letter to Obama, signed by Boehner, Cantor, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Energy & Commerce Chair Fred Upton (R-MI), Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee Chair Joe Pitts (R-PA) and Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX)."

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A year ago Boehner said he wanted pre-existing conditions covered:

5/16/12, "Yes, Many Republicans Supported Obamacare All Along," Daniel Horowitz, RedState.com

"Many of us have taken it for granted that all Republicans would work for full repeal of Obamacare.  After all, not a single Republican voted for it.  However, it is always important to understand the reasons why politicians support or oppose a piece of legislation.

When you listen to many prominent Republicans voicing their disdain for Obamacare, you generally hear the following complaints: it raises taxes, it cuts Medicare, it contains death panels, it is 2,700 pages long – and most notably – the individual mandate.

The problem is that these are all ancillary to the crux of what is so offensive about Obamacare.  The overarching concern about Obamacare is that it harnesses the factors that have already driven up the cost of healthcare and health insurance, most prominently, the mandates and subsidies, and multiplies them to the nth degree.  The tax increases, Medicare cuts, and individual mandate are merely tools to fund those interventions.  Many Republicans never had a problem with them.  This is why they were never repulsed by Romneycare, which doesn’t contain tax hikes and Medicare cuts.  As for the individual mandate of MassCare, they contend that there is nothing wrong with a state mandate.

As such, it comes as no surprise to read these tidbits in Politico:

"If the law is partially or fully overturned they’ll draw up bills to keep the popular, consumer-friendly portions in place — like allowing adult children to remain on parents’ health care plans until age 26, and forcing insurance companies to provide coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. Ripping these provisions from law is too politically risky, Republicans say. […]

On Tuesday, the major options were discussed during a small closed meeting of House Republican leaders, according to several sources present.

Then on Wednesday, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) gave the entire House Republican Conference a preview of where the party is heading. His message: “When the court rules, we’ll be ready.”
But Boehner warned that they’ll relegislate the issue in smaller, bite sizes, rather than putting together an unwieldy new health care bill.

“If all or part of the law is struck down, we are not going to repeat the Democrats’ mistakes,” Boehner said, according to several sources present. “We have better ideas on health care — lots of them. We have solutions, of course, for patients with pre-existing conditions and other challenges.”"

If Politico was the only source promulgating this, I wouldn’t be worried.  Unfortunately, top GOP leaders have expressed their desire to keep the slacker and pre-existing mandates in place on numerous occasions.  This sentiment has also been evident in the GOP’s partial repeal strategy in which they target the most “unpopular provisions.”  These mandates are emblematic of the worst provisions in the law – the ones that will drive up the cost of private insurance and force everyone into government-run healthcare.

I’ve long struggled with the question of whether Republicans lack a full understanding of the free market or whether they simply lack the communication skills and fortitude to articulate free market positions to the public.  I suspect that with most members there are elements of both....

Whatever piece-meal approach we take must reflect a conservative free market view, and it must only take place after full repeal of Obamacare, especially of the slacker and pre-existing conditions mandates.  It is better to give out pure subsidies to the real sick for healthcare than to destroy the entire system with the paradoxical pre-existing insurance mandate.

We better pray that the Supreme Court rules in our favor on severability and strikes down the entire law."