No single group has a lock on being harmed by Trumpcare. There’s going to be plenty of harm to go around, while the only group that will really benefit is the very wealthy. But if you check out what the Republican health plan does and who it affects, there is one pattern that becomes hard to miss. Boy, does Trumpcare ever screw over women.
Check it out:
- Wednesday night’s rewrite of the bill targeted Essential Health Benefits, which include a lot of important types of care. But it’s hard not to notice that while some of the essential benefits that would be lost apply evenly to pretty much everyone, a few of them would hit some people much harder than others. Like maternity care and newborn care—hmm, who would lose out there?
- On Thursday, the House Freedom Caucus, which had pushed for those changes, met with Donald Trump and Mike Pence, and it was hard not to notice that this meeting of people pushing this bill that would make life so much worse for so many women was … a room full of men.
- Trumpcare would force new moms on Medicaid to go back to work after 60 days.
- No worries, ladies! You can get maternity coverage … if you're married and on a family plan, and able to pay extra for maternity coverage on that family plan.
- Alternatively, since maternity coverage is a “local problem” that the federal government shouldn’t have a role in requiring, according to Trump’s budget director, you can organize to change your state’s entire government and laws. While you’re pregnant or have a new baby and are struggling to pay the medical bills that Trumpcare would leave you with.
As Nancy Pelosi says, this is all an effort to make being a woman a preexisting condition and institute a pregnancy tax.