A Deeper Look: Health Care
Let's just be honest here, this new health care bill is pretty terrible.
It cuts Medicaid, a program that covers 1 and 5 Americas, half of all U.S births, two-thirds of people in nursing homes and so on, by billions of dollars. This bill allows insurance companies to discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions, and cutd funding for planned parenthood. Not only that but this bill allows states to drop benefits required by the Affordable Care Act like maternity care, mental health treatment, and prescription drugs. This bill will also give a 33 Billion dollar tax cut to the wealthiest families in America.
It's bad for poor people, working people, the elderly, the sick, college students, mentally disabled individuals, pregnant women and women in America in general. This bill takes everything Trump supports hated about Obamacare and puts it on steroids.
The problem with Obamacare was people couldn't afford the insurance. Trump promised to lower deductibles, the fixed amount of medical costs you are responsible for paying before your insurance coverage starts picking up the bill, and premiums, the monthly cost you pay to an insurance company. This bill does the opposite of that essentially raising the cost of both making it more unaffordable.
According to health care expert Larry Levitt, "Under the Senate bill, low-income people would pay higher premiums for bigger deductibles." Basically the poor will be spending money they don't have on health care plans that don't benefit them.
As former President Barack Obama wrote on Facebook “It’s a massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest people in America. It hands enormous tax cuts to the rich and to the drug and insurance industries, paid for by cutting health care for everybody else.”
Republicans had a chance to improve Obamacare. They knew everything voters hated about it, and even talked about the issues themselves, however when presented with an opportunity to make the change they've been clamoring for, they failed. This bill does nothing Trump promised and will leave 22 million people uninsured.
There has been massive outrage over this bill and as U.S Senate lawmakers return from recess this weekend, only time will tell if this thing actually passes. It's looking pretty bleak for republicans, but as the recent election told, anything can happen.
You can learn more about this bill from this amazing video by Vox
