Republicans continue to prove that they have absolutely no shame when it comes to the terrible health care plan they want to turn into law. We’ve already seen how the bill will impact new mothers, poor people and Trump voters. And now, we can add veterans to the list. On Thursday, Democrats weighed into the debate about the ridiculous proposal for the American Health Care Act (ACHA), stating that the bill would also marginalize millions of veterans.
“Veterans would end up worse off than they are today under this plan,” said Iraq War veteran Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill. “This is sloppy and irresponsible, and it makes you wonder what else we don’t know about this bill.”
Previous versions of the bill allowed for veterans eligible for medical services from the Department of Veterans Affairs to qualify for tax credits to cover the cost of buying private health care insurance if they were not using VA services. But, after several changes in the bill, those options were dropped. Therefore, as it stands now, the bill blocks any veteran eligible for VA services from obtaining the tax credit—which means that if they aren’t using the VA, they get no assistance in obtaining private health insurance, whether they are using the VA services or not. What a way to say thank you for your service on behalf of a grateful nation, no? This just gets more and more repulsive.
And what’s the commander-in-chief, who spent almost two years talking about how he would make the military great again, got to say about all this? Absolutely nothing—because his incompetent administration seems to have no idea what’s actually going on!
On Wednesday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said he wasn’t aware of the veterans problem in the bill. House Republican leaders have promised to fix the confusing provisions, but Democrats protesting the bill said it’s dangerous to move ahead with the measure without first correcting that problem.
Clearly, the right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing. And we’ve got to put some grown ups back in charge. It’s not too late.
Let's make this failure complete. The vote is happening TODAY. Even if you already called your member of Congress, do it again by calling the Capitol Hill switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Jam the phone lines, urge them to vote NO.