Proposed TrumpCare, “Mean,” Cruel and Really Really Bad
The Republicans are trying to dismantle Obamacare by passing a mess of a law they call the American Health Care Act, also known in the draft Senate version as the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017.
It is NOT a healthcare bill. It is a TAX CUT bill for the rich and corporations—it cuts federal funding of healthcare benefits for working and non-working Americans to fund a fat tax cut for the wealthiest 1%.
It will keep changing as they try to find enough votes in the Senate, and then enough common ground with the House to end up with a bill the President will sign.
Highlights of the bill:
No more individual mandate—lots of young healthy people will drop insurance, making it more expensive for the rest of us.
No more employer mandate—you are on your own, your employer may or may not offer insurance.
Lower tax credits and subsidies at the Exchange/Marketplace where individuals buy insurance, so premiums are higher and benefits cost more.
It will slowly strangle Medicaid to death, over a period of the next eight years, so that the 70+ million Americans who depend on it will find benefits disappearing just when they need them most.
It will permit States to waive: annual limits by insurance companies on insurance paid, lifetime limits, limits on out-of-pocket costs for individuals, and the 10 essential health benefits requirement. In addition, it will make these waivers available if any governor (even without the support of a state legislature) asks for them, and then it will make them irrevocable for a period of up to 8 years, no matter what the State does or does not do with the waiver.
There’s only one fair way to summarize what this bill will do—it will leave millions without health insurance, it will result in the deaths of an untold number of Americans, but it will provide for massive tax cuts for wealthy individuals and health care corporations. Another way to say it? The President himself said it best in reference to the House bill—it’s “mean, mean, mean” and “a son of a bitch.”
To take what action we can in the face of TrumpCare, in addition to calling senators and asking them to procedurally resist, consider talking with your labor leaders about organizing planning meetings, a Letter to the Editor writing party, a phone call drive, or perhaps district office visit sit-ins coordinated across states.
Stay tuned, it’s going to get worse. We are in the race back to yesterday when we expected that without Obamacare, America would have 60 million uninsured citizens—that’s the obvious result of this “slash and burn” approach to people’s health—or, to be crude, “if you aren’t rich enough to pay for it yourself, or you’re not a member of Congress with great health care that the American people pay for, just get sick and die.”
Author: Bill Sokol
