So, healthcare is a serious business. Before I talk about the awfulness of GOPNeglect, let’s look at Affordable Care Act. Democrats sat down and tried to figure out how they could cover more Americans within our existing healthcare structure. (We can argue whether that was a good idea or a bad idea at some other time. I think that all true progressives agree that single payor is the way to go but here we are.) They also wanted to improve how our healthcare is delivered. The ACA passed. It is the law. The reason that I’m using an Electronic Medical Record to take care of my patients (I’m a surgeon) is because of the ACA. The reason that the CT scan from another hospital is compatible with my hospital’s computer system is because of the ObamaCare. Then ObamaCare, through a complex method of revenue enhancements, figured out how to cover 20 million Americans who were not previously covered. ObamaCare is a success.
GOPNeglect comes from the bowels of conservative hatred of the government. There was no thought about how they could help Americans. There was no thought of how they could improve healthcare. Instead, GOPNeglect is designed to deny coverage and dismantle ObamaCare. This is their objective. The fact that CBO said that millions of Americans wouldn’t have healthcare is not a surprise. Republicans shrugged their shoulders and said, “So!” Conservatives do not care. The fact GOPNeglect will allow health insurance companies to offer crappy insurance, which is one of the greatest scams of all time, should be no surprise to us. An American can buy this steaming pile of garbage but when they become sick this policy actually covers nothing. (ACA eliminated crappy insurance like this.)
GOPNeglect offers higher premiums. It will cover less people and gut Medicaid. The GOP will block grant the states money. (Block grant is GOP code for give you a lot less.) So, the ACA expanded Medicaid in order to cover millions of Americans. GOPNeglect effectively ends that. Oh, the best part of GOPNeglect is the tax breaks that will go to the top 0.1%. GOPNeglect is a gift of almost 200,000/yr per millionaire. Now, that’s something to stand up and celebrate. More money for the already rich.
Guys, when you think about the lies that we were told by President Trump. When he told us how great this new healthcare program would be, we knew it was a bold faced lie. We should never call this TrumpCare because this bill isn’t about care. It is about denying care. So let’s call it what it is – GOPNeglect. (I can’t call it TrumpNeglect because Trump has had nothing to do with the design or formulation of this bill. He has been too busy playing golf and tweeting to deal with things like healthcare.)