Make America Sick Again

Some things never change. U.S. Representative Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, stated that lower-income folks will need to choose between "getting that new iPhone that they just love" or to "invest it in their own health care."

Huh. This statement is understandable because the Congressman doesn't have to pay for his own health insurance. And he doesn't understand Health Insurance. Neither does the Republican Congress, nor does The Trump Administration. And a wide swath of lower-income Trump voters do not, either.

Part of their cognitive problem may be the sheer magnitude of the consequences that occur if the ACA ("Obamacare") is replaced by the AHCA ("Trumpcare"). The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that 24 million people will lose their health care over the next decade with AHCA - 14 million in the first year! This is actually a bit better than the Trump White House's own estimate of 26 million by 2027.

In addition, Trumpcare will raise premiums for "lower-income Trump voters" and reduce Medicaid availability. In fact, Trumpcare even proposes to cut revenue for the Medicare trust fund that pays out hospital benefits. This threatens hospital reimbursements and narrows the window to keep Medicare solvent. It will close hospitals all over Greater Trumpistan. However - and this is Big - the Federal Government will save $880 billion over the next ten years. And that makes Speaker Paul Ryan a happy Ayn Rand-er.

Essentially, Trumpcare is a Tax Cut program and not a Health Care one. Instead of subsidies for those who cannot afford insurance, tax credits will be provided ("And how will you be paying your bill today?" "Oh, why with my tax credit!"). And Medicaid, the current safety net, is planned to be gutted by the AHCA. Here is a nice graph on who loses with Trumpcare:

Again, Huh. Here's another way of looking at it. Going forward, the more one earns in income, the greater the Tax Breaks! The lower the income, the more one loses in current ACA benefits.

In fact, if you earn a million, you will receive up to $50,000 in benefits. If you are poor, you stand to lose $1420 in benefits. Another fun fact is how Health Care CEOs will profit. Trumpcare will allow Health Care companies to fully deduct their CEOs' entire salaries. Yes, the rich do get richer. But this can't be right, right? This isn't what our President said before and after the election:

Well, this is just all a lot of harrumphing by Loser Liberal Pointy-Headed Snowflakes, right? Indeed, the sound of harrumphing has been heard all across the land, and it is not a happy harrumph. Here is a list of the groups that oppose Trumpcare:

Geez. Could there be something wrong here? Maybe lawmakers should dig into the weeds a bit and dig into the details. Oh, right... details. Not too many of those pesky things. Enough for the CBO to generate its report on how bad the whole thing is, but not enough to stand up against the hated ACA/Obamacare. Just look at Press Secretary Sean Spicer showing us the obvious improvement with Trumpcare's lean and mean bill of goods versus the old Brand O. Just look!

This is the bill that offers the least details. That's the one we want.

Health Care is Hard. It's complicated. Anyone like Paul Ryan should know this, after having spent the last seven years leading the Republican charge to repeal Obamacare. Paul Ryan is usually credited with being the "brains" of the GOP caucus. If this is so, the GOP is in worse shape than I suspected.  Here's a lovely comment I read about Ryan and Trumpcare. Please close your eyes and cover your ears if you are squeamish:

"That moranic fuck puke wrote a lame assed healthcare bill that achieves all of its savings by letting insurance companies sell stripped down plans that will end up under insuring the vast majority of the public.

The result of people being under insured (or not having insurance at all) is that a large number of people will start having to declare bankruptcy due to their medical bills, and hospitals will end up taking huge losses, just like before the ACA was passed.

Oh, BTW, do you know what happens when hospitals take losses on patients who don't have insurance, or are under insured? First off, they write some of those losses off, so there's less federal tax revenue coming from the hospitals. Then they jack up the rates of the rest of their services to compensate for the losses, which means insurance companies pay more, which means the insurance companies will jack up your insurance rates to cover their losses..."

While that comment may qualify for the most cogent of analyses, I strongly urge you to take a couple of minutes to read the following articles from the Washington Post. The first is a good general review of how the AHCA will negatively affect our citizens:


How Much People Will Lose With Trumpcare

The next article is just terrific. It really gets down deep into the West Virginia dirt, where Trump voters' sense of "magical thinking" presents a definitive challenge for what lays ahead for them. And it explains what they will miss when the ACA is gone. Poor, sick and voted for Trump:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/west-virginia-tug-river-obamacare/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_tugriver826pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

One could laugh if it weren't so awful. It's important to note, too, that Medicaid expansion is being blocked by a number of Red States, preventing those in need from receiving full subsidies. As we move forward, with Medicaid becoming cut back, premiums going up and real insurance coverage getting hollowed out, this article should become a standard read for historians. Taxpayers in Blue States should be happy - it's a fact that Blue States provide the tax revenue for governmental beneficiaries in Red States - but I suspect this won't happen. It will become an American Tragedy. What would Ayn Rand say?