Accessible doesn’t mean affordable…
Believe me, I want to give Mr. Trump a chance. At least he speaks out against the Washington insiders. In spite of disgruntled naysayers, he is our legitimate president. He played by the rules and won fair and square. Yes, I understand these rules are rigged: the GOP has twice lost the popular vote in recent memory and won in the Electoral College. But those are the rules; he won.
Mr. Trump, a newcomer to the political scene, is an unknown factor, although we’ve had strong and troubling hints in his rhetoric. This business mogul and reality TV star goes his own way. Unfortunately, unlike on “The Apprentice,” the American people can’t fire him very easily. First among my worries about the new administration is his role in foreign policy and as commander-in-chief. A person who shoots from the hip doesn’t belong in that role. That said, I find Congress and the Supreme Court more worrisome.
Congressional Republicans have been waiting to wreak revenge on liberal policies for years. Now that they control both houses, the Supreme Court, and the White House, expect fireworks displays of pent-up anger. They might even go against Mr. Trump who has occasionally shown signs that he will stand up against congressional rancor. The bullies in Congress, though, are the most vociferous about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) AKA Obamacare. Their mantra has been to repeal it in spite of having zero viable alternatives. In many ways, they now should be called congressional death squads.
McConnell and Ryan are their leaders; Price their hired assassin, and maybe Trump; and they’re all sycophants of the insurance companies and Big Pharma. I’m talking about a Republican takeover of our government that is going to result in early and needless deaths for millions of Americans as the ACA is dismantled and Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid become dismembered. The GOP administration will be willing agents of the Grim Reaper marching to battle with their scythes swinging. Here are the estimates, courtesy of the Urban Institute:
22.5 million will lose their healthcare. Why is that more than the 20 million who received new coverage under the ACA? Because the full onslaught will add even more people to the list of uninsured. Remember, so far the GOP has offered no viable option that will cover these people. The standard tax deduction or proposed vouchers won’t cover the costs now, let alone rising insurance and drug costs when the GOP removes caps and opens the floodgates to enrich insurance companies and Big Pharma. No coverage will mean more early deaths—first laughs for the Grim Reaper and his cronies.
Obamacare increased Medicaid coverage. This expansion will be rolled back. 12.9 million will lose Medicaid coverage…and that’s not double counting! We’re now up to 35.4 million. The GOP’s solution: states’ rights AKA pass the buck to the states! Many states don’t have the budget for taking up the slack…or the will because state legislatures have their own death squads. The second laughs for the Grim Reaper and his cronies are now evil cackles.
Trump might say he likes those two ACA rules about pre-existing conditions and children on their parents’ insurance; he might even like other specific rules that protect consumers. The Grim Reaper’s sycophants in Congress do not. The special ACA dismantling bill that makes a budget end-around Senate filibusters can’t change these rules—Trump signed it on his first day—but you can bet the GOP will hack at them with their scythes too. They will eliminate the mandates to insurance companies in ACA too, including the minimum coverage that has to be offered to do business. Huge copays, large initial deductibles, and high or no out-of-pocket limits will become the norm, causing people to return to the rolls of the uninsured.
They will also eliminate the tax benefits for employees receiving insurance from their employers resulting in more costly insurance for them. That 2.5 million difference discussed in my second paragraph might be much larger—consider it an optimistic estimate. Screw the consumer; protect big business. The third laughs from the Grim Reaper are loud enough to reach the ISS and beyond.
The GOP’s attacks on the ACA affect Medicare as well as Medicaid. Medicare saw improvements with the ACA–for example, limits on what’s paid to doctors and hospitals. The GOP wants to do away with these so doctors like Trump’s SecHHS nominee Price can become even richer; you can expect the cost of hospital stays and prescription drugs to skyrocket too. Medicare will become a skeleton of its former self with desiccated flesh hanging from its bones even if the GOP doesn’t succeed in dismantling it completely. The Grim Reaper is now rubbing his hands in anticipation as he laughs uncontrollably.
With the GOP death squads, the U.S. will move farther away from the goal of universal healthcare, the only major industrialized nation not to have it. The GOP will perhaps conjure up a plan that makes healthcare “accessible for all,” but accessible does NOT mean affordable! Medical care has always been accessible for the rich. The problem is that too many couldn’t afford it. The GOP will exacerbate that problem. Many people won’t be able to afford the inflated premiums and costs, they will not be covered, and they will die. Other countries are far more enlightened than we are, adopting single-payer systems that guarantee affordable, quality healthcare as a right and not just a privilege for the wealthy. Even Third World countries have single-payer systems that guarantee rights to a minimum healthcare. Here our country, led by the GOP death squads, will be writing millions of obituaries for early and needless deaths.
While the attack on ACA is only part of the congressional GOP’s overall evil onslaught on the American public, it is one of the most insidious. We’re talking about Americans dying, folks! Cancer patients in treatment who are no longer able to afford that treatment. Patients who will forego necessary surgeries that could save their lives because they’re too costly and will bankrupt them. Emergency services denying you care when you have a serious accident because no hospital or doctor will attend you. The Grim Reaper is delighted by this GOP attack. Those in the GOP death squads are selling their souls—or maybe they don’t have any!
I find the GOP’s attitude inhumane, immoral, and deplorable. They are going against public opinion on this one, striking out at the ACA and all so-called “entitlement programs” in their haste to get rich from helping the Grim Reaper. If you are humane and moral, whether Dem or GOP sympathizer or independent, write your Congress people and tell them not to participate in these death squads. Remember, you could be their next victim. If you get your health insurance from your employer, all it would take is to lose your job. Think about that: your death sentence might already be written!
But back to the new president: let’s see what he will do. Will he thwart a vengeful GOP Congress? Will he show compassion for sick Americans rather than be a hitman for the congressional death squads? Time will tell. I’m not hopeful.
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Coming real soon! Gaia and the Goliaths. Climate control and environmental issues are on everyone’s mind right now. They’re on Chen and Castilblanco’s minds too when they’re called in to solve the murder of an environmental activist. A Big Apple case soon becomes national and international, though, with Russia and an old nemesis of the detectives become involved in a multi-country hunt for the activist’s boyfriend. This is #7 in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series.” It will be available in all ebook formats, as are the first six books in the series. Don’t miss it.
And so it goes…
