By SJ Otto
Once again President
Donald Trump and his minions are attempting to gut and render useless the Affordable
Care Act (known by most as Obamacare). The Republicans are coming up with
changes to their own health care plan that will make Obamacare seem more and
more like the system we had before Obamacare was passed. In other words, no
system of helping poor and lower working class people to get the insurance they
need to prevent them from dying of disease. The plan probably does not get rid
of all the protections, but it will make them far too inadequate to do any good.
The latest glitch
is a Republican plan to roll back the rules to force insurance companies to
cover people with pre-existing conditions, such as cancer. They already plan to
eliminate coverage for some of the poorest Americans. Once they eliminate
protection for pre-existing conditions, they really have no health care plan at
all. We are back with the status quo before Obamacare was passed.
According to CNN:
“The bill would also
significantly curtail federal support for Medicaid and allow states to require
able-bodied adults to work. After 2020, states that expanded Medicaid would no
longer receive enhanced federal funding to cover low-income adults, and those that
hadn't expanded would be immediately barred from doing so.
And it would allow states
to relax some key Obamacare protections of those with pre-existing conditions,
which are among the health reform law's most popular provisions. States could
apply for waivers to allow insurers to offer skimpier policies that don't cover
the 10 essential health benefits mandated by Obamacare. Also, insurers would be
able to charge higher premiums to those with medical issues if they let their
coverage lapse. States requesting waivers would have to set up programs -- such
as high-risk pools -- to protect insurers from high-cost patients.”
While this new
action takes a lot away from poor Americans it showers generous benefits on
America’s wealthiest people and businesses. The Republicans have let everyone
know whose side they are on. Money puts them in power and they take care of
those moneyed interests:
“The GOP health care bill
would eliminate Obamacare taxes on the wealthy, insurers and others, and get
rid of the individual mandate imposed by Obamacare, officially known as the
Affordable Care Act. Instead of the Obamacare subsidies that are tied to income
and premiums, the GOP plan would provide Americans with refundable tax credits
based mainly on age to purchase health insurance.”
One important
factor in all of this is the so called Freedom Caucus. This group of
Republicans is blatant in their attacks on the rights of poor people. The name “Freedom
Caucus” seems more like a sick joke. The only freedom they care about is
the freedom for rich people and businesses not to have to pay for any taxes or
suffer any inconveniences from our government. For poor people, especially the
working poor, they want no freedom at all, unless they believe the poor have
freedom do die early and freedom from health care.
They talk about
people’s choices, but for the less wealthy there is no freedom. A better name
would be the Fascist Caucus.
It amazes me how
nasty these Republicans are towards our poorest citizens. Many of these poor
people work full time, or more. They contribute to the economy and yet they don’t
have the basic rights to health care. Their lives are meaningless to the
Republican Party, especially the so called Freedom Caucus.
The rest of the civilized
western world provides health care to their citizens. Many nations consider health care a human right—but not here in the US. Here in this country the
right of profiteers—insurance companies that profit off of the suffering of the
sick and dying, are the only ones the government cares about. The Republicans
are running a pogrom to kill off poor people in this country. Each day we watch
the Republicans on TV finding new ways to help insurance companies make money
at the expense of our less wealthy citizens and each day they find new ways to
kill off poor people.
Each day the drama goes on. The
bill should be called “The Republicans Don’t Care!”
Pix by RoseAnnDeMoro on Twitter, Heron Foundation.
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