From The
Idiot Factor:
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!”
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