Trumpcare is DOA!
Speaker Ryan, at the request of President Trump, has withdrawn his legislation to repeal Obamacare and replace it with the American Health Care Act of 2017 (AHCA). The battle has been a spectacle both terrifying and disgusting.
It’s been terrifying because 24 million Americans were on the brink of losing their only access to affordable healthcare.
It’s been disgusting because the only reason Trump lost was because the AHCA wasn’t bad enough for the House Freedom Caucus, the most conservative Republicans in the US House of Representatives.
Trump’s Race to the Bottom
To win enough votes to pass the AHCA (and protect his reputation as a dealmaker), Trump was willing to remove virtually all consumer protections from the bill, even after the Congressional Budget Office had analyzed the bill and concluded:
- By causing 24 million people to lose their health insurance, more Americans would die and wouldn’t be able to collect their Social Security.
- By allowing insurers to charge seniors higher premiums, while at the same time cutting back on Medicare and Medicaid, mortality rates would also go up. More for the rest of us, right?
- By cutting funding for Planned Parenthood, more Americans would accidentally get pregnant and need Medicaid to cover the cost of giving birth. Oh, that would actually increase federal and state costs. The irony!
- By cutting back the essential benefits required by Obamacare, such as hospitalization, health insurance premiums would go down. Of course, insurance policies wouldn’t cover anything.
Old? Sick? GOP says “Die!”
As Vann R. Newkirk II grimly points out in his March 2017 article in The Atlantic:
The entire mechanism of the AHCA’s savings and premium reductions for healthier and wealthier people lies in making coverage too expensive for older, sicker people with less money….
[AHCA] would deeply weaken health-care coverage and health for near-elderly people even as future policies delay the promise of guaranteed care past the age of 65. The end result of that system would be—simply—more deaths.
The Bottom Line
More deaths – that’s what we can expect from the Trump Administration and the GOP Congress.
In their rush to save taxes for their billionaire buddies, Trump and the GOP are willing to kick the rest of us to the curb. They tried to repeal Obamacare and today they failed. What about the next time? Because they are not going to give up.
That’s why we need a healthcare solution that is consistent with our values – California values. Guaranteed, comprehensive, affordable, high-quality health care!
We have our answer: SB 562, the Healthy California Act, introduced by Senators Ricardo Lara and Toni Atkins! We need to get this bill passed, folks, before our family members, friends, co-workers and neighbors start suffering and even dying from the BS coming out of Washington DC.
You can bet Terri Carlson has something to say about this! Check out her latest Terri Talks Healthcare video for the straight story:
What YOU Can DO
Support HEAL California’s educational campaigns by joining us on Twitter and Facebook, and
If you agree that California should take the lead with guaranteed healthcare, take action!
- Join us on Twitter and Facebook.
- Support our educational campaigns with your tax-deductible donations.
- Sign our Open Letter to Governor Brown and Our Legislative Leaders!
Dear Governor Brown, Senate President Pro Tem DeLeón and Assembly Speaker Rendon:
Californians need and want guaranteed healthcare that covers everybody for everything for life!
We support the Healthy California Act introduced by Senator Ricardo Lara and co-sponsored by Senator Toni Atkins.
Help all Californians fight the heartless and cruel threats to our healthcare from Washington DC.
Let’s HEAL California with SB 562, the Healthy California Act!
Single payer health care is the only common sense solution..! I lived 17 years in Sweden which has one of the best health care systems in the world! Health care should only be looked at as a “right” not a privilege.
Let’s get this done once and for all!
Eric Platten
We agree completely, Eric! Would you be interested in writing an article about what you know of the Swedish healthcare system? It wouldn’t have to be a thesis or anything – maybe 500 to 1,000 words? With the upcoming hearings on The Healthy California Act, and the inevitable disinformation campaign that the health insurance industry will launch, we would like to inform people about how great health care could be! We would love to post it to our site and push it out through social media. We would appreciate it very much. If not, no worries. Thanks for your comments!