The Trump regime has plans for dealing with the sick, the elderly, the hungry, pretty much everyone who isn't rich, one that's less humanitarian than the old myth of sending them out on an ice floe. And if you really want to see a monster in action, watch his Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price's bullshit in the face of Brian Kline, a working-class guy who has cancer, and who's life is being saved by Medicaid expansion.
Kline tells Price he's working at a retail job, $11.66/hour, and is being kept alive because he has Medicaid. "Medicaid expansion gives me the economic security in knowing that funding is always going to be there for my cancer care," he told Price. "So my question for you Secretary Price is pretty straightforward—why do you want to take away my Medicaid expansion?"
Price just sits there through his story with a shit-eating smile and then starts the lies. First that he "took care of a lot of patients with cancer" in his two decades as a physician, which would be kind of a strange thing for an orthopedic surgeon to do. But here's where the lies really kick in. "We don't want to take care away from anybody," he tells Kline. "What we want to make certain, though, is that every single American has access to the kind of coverage and care that they want for themselves." Right because access to cancer doctors will always be there for everyone. It's just that issue with affording it that Price glosses over.
But then he attacks Medicaid, the program that this man just told him saved his life. "You look at the Medicaid program right now, we have one third of the physicians in this nation, Brian, who are not seeing Medicaid patients. […] Let me just suggest it's because the Medicaid program itself has real problem in it." Clearly, that wasn't an issue for Kline—he got treatment on Medicaid! Lifesaving treatment. He's standing there, alive, to tell Price that Medicaid made it possible for him to continue to in that state, and Price tells him the system that saved him is broken.
Then this: "So what we want to do is, one, reform the Medicaid system, make certain that individuals who are currently on Medicaid or are on the expansion are either able to retain that or move to a system that might be much more responsive to them through a series of advanceable, refundable credits—a way to get coverage that they choose for themselves and for their family, not that the government forces on them." Seems like Mr. Kline doesn't feel that his choice or his liberty has been curtailed by having Medicaid doctors save his life.
What Price doesn't defend is the $880 billion Trumpcare will take from Medicaid. Because he can't defend that. He can't look Mr. Kline in the eye and tell him that the funds won't be there for the rest of Kline's life—for however long it may be—to continue his cancer care. There's no defense for that. But Price is enough of a monster than it clearly doesn't bother him. You can watch the exchange below.
Brian Kline: "Medicaid expansion saved my life, and saved me from medical bankruptcy. I earn $11.66 an hour at a retail job and obviously I can't afford to pay for my cancer care out of my pocket. My life really depends on having access to my doctors and to medical care. Getting a cancer diagnosis is bad enough, but Medicaid expansion gives me the economic security in knowing that funding is always going to be there for my cancer care. So my question for you, Secretary Price, is pretty straightforward—why do you want to take away my Medicaid expansion?"
Price: "Brian, thanks for that question and thank goodness that things are going well from you health care standpoint. As a physician I practiced medicine over 20 years and and took care of a lot of patients with cancer and it was one of those challenges that when it faces you, as an individual or someone in your family you want to make certain that you've got access to the highest uh quality care that that you can receive. Fact of the matter is we don't. We don't want to take care away from anybody. What we want to make certain, though, is that every single American has access to the kind of coverage and care that they want for themselves.
You look at the Medicaid program right now, we have 1/3 of the physicians in this nation, Brian, who are not seeing Medicaid patients. And so if we want to be honest with ourselves as a society it's important we step back and say why is that? Why are those doctors not seeing Medicaid patients? Let me just suggest it's because the Medicaid program itself has real problem in it. And so what we want to do is, one, reform the Medicaid system, make certain that individuals who are currently on Medicaid or are on the expansion are either able to retain that or move to a system that might be much more responsive to them through a series of advanceable, refundable credits—a way to get coverage that they choose for themselves and for their family, not that the government forces on them. So, thanks. It's wonderful that you have received the care that you've received and it's because of the incredible innovations and great doctors across this land, but that's not necessarily true for everybody.