Remember when changing your doctor was the worst thing Republicans could say about Obamacare? Trumpcare will kill people.
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Here’s President Trump this morning, using the stale, tired Republican whine that some people didn’t get to keep their doctor under Obamacare — a line that was evidence of entitlement and not a real criticism, by the way.
Democrats slam GOP healthcare proposal as Obamacare premiums & deductibles increase by over 100%. Remember keep your doctor, keep your plan?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 24, 2017
Obamacare is being sabotaged by Donald Trump’s own cabinet and the Republicans in Congress, so any rise in premiums that occur now are quite possibly due to deliberate Republican undermining, although Republicans also like to pretend that premiums won’t rise over time when they’re criticizing Obamacare.
Which is weird, because they also pretend they’re for the free market.
But back to this very serious issue. On March 23, former President Obama issued a statement about Obamacare , taking aim at Republican claims, “No premium hike for ‘vast majority’ covered on government exchanges.” PolitiFact gave him a “mostly true” for this. They said “The actual numbers are that about 64 percent of enrollees saw their out-of-pocket premiums stay the same.” But they noted that he brushed over the reality of rising premiums.
Trumpcare is set to throw at minimum 18 million people off of healthcare. Insurance companies will not longer be required to provide things like maternity care and emergency services. It will impact insurance you get from work. This will impact everyone.
It revokes the essential health benefits requirement. Poor people will pay more for worse insurance. Preexisting conditions will once again be a death sentence, and cancer treatment could be cut off midway through as insurance decides to stop paying for chemo.
Nurses, doctors and clinics are saying that Trumpcare is making things worse than the House bill. Small business don’t like it. Insurance companies don’t even like it because it lets people drop insurance.
Under the House bill, 23 million Americans would lose insurance and tens of thousands will die. Under the Senate bill, which has not been scored yet by the CBO so this is a developing story and the numbers will change, it is estimated that 17 million-ish will lose insurance.
One of the reasons you will see numbers changing in articles about the super secret Senate plan is that as Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) tries to get to the 50 votes he needs to kill tens of thousands of Americans, he will be making more deals with Republicans, some of whom think the bill is too nice as it stands.
For all of their talk about a “death spiral” with Obamacare — a spiral Republicans are doing their level best to create by kicking Obamacare in the gut and head at every turn while snarling to the camera that for some reason the thing that saved your kid’s life is just not working — under the Senate bill, insurance companies only have to pay 58% total consumer costs and there is no coverage requirement. Experts say this is pretty much the definition of a death spiral.
Trumpcare transforms Medicaid. “Transforms” is the word people use to avoid being called liars when they are trying to tell you that it will basically undermine the program so that it doesn’t function as you know it right now. The program that helps with nursing homes (it pays for 60% of nursing home coverage) and people with disabilities will have even less ability to help people. It cuts $800 billion from Medicaid. This is to say, they’re not trying to “improve” it.
Andy Slavitt said on Twitter, “Medicaid could get decimated using waiver process. With incentives to. You should be in shock. And then action.”
READ THIS: it's amazing. Medicaid could get decimated using waiver process. With incentives to.
You should be in shock. And then action. pic.twitter.com/ckn8yqNB3L
— Andy Slavitt (@ASlavitt) June 22, 2017
According to a HuffPost/YouGov poll just 5% of Americans strongly favor the AHCA/Trumpcare.
When Trumpcare is going to kill people and radically undermine insurance as we have all come to know it, it might be smart to shut up about not getting to keep your doctor under Obamacare.
Republicans lied about Obamacare for years, earning the “lie of the year” for their “Death panel” claim. So it’s particularly telling that their bill will actually cause the death of tens of thousands of Americans, and when this is pointed out, they claim Democrats are being hysterical and then pivot to their entitled talking points about keeping your doctor, while people are trying to keep their lives.
All of this death and destruction is so Republicans can get a political win for a president who is sinking in the polls and get a tax break for the wealthiest Americans. This has nothing to do with “health care.”
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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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