After six years of complaining about President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare bill, the Affordable Care Act, the Republican Party has finally got their chance to repeal the bill and create something different. Led by President Donald Trump, the party of Breitbart and Russia rolled out their bill on March 7, but the reception has not been good. Democrats, obviously, hate it, but some Republicans have complained about its structure, even going as far to call it “Obamacare Light.” But is it? Has “Agent Orange” and the physical incarnation of mediocre whiteness (the GOP) really created a softer version of Obamacare?Â
Let’s examine
Before we go any further, let’s get one thing straight: The American Health Care Act ( aka Trumpcare) is not “Obamacare Light.” They have only one thing in common, they were both written with the intention to impact health insurance. However, it all goes downhill from there. If Obamacare is a tall glass of Coors Light, Trumpcare is a bottle of horse piss with two tablespoons of racism and a dash of income inequality.
Now let’s discuss the policy.
Under Trumpcare, six horrible things would happen:
- 24 million people would lose their health insurance coverage by 2026.
- Insurance companies would be allowed to charge older people higher premiums
- Healthcare subsidies would be prioritized for older people, but the amount of assistance you could get from the government would be decreased significantly, capping out at $2,000. That’s a nice start, but it’s definitely not enough to pay for a $10,000 insurance policy.
- The individual mandate under Obamacare would be eliminated. Although this is a component that many Republicans are bragging about, the kicker here is that there is still a penalty for not having insurance. You won’t get penalized for not having insurance, but if you go more than 63 days without coverage and then decide to pick up insurance because you get sick, you will be forced to pay 30% more on your premiums. That surcharge will go directly to insurance companies.
- Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion plan will be eliminated after 2020. This means that people that made too little to purchase their own insurance will have fewer– if any–options when looking for coverage.
- The Republican bill slashes state funding for the regular Medicaid program by radically changing the way it is funded. States will be forced to end coverage and eliminate healthcare services for seniors, people with disabilities, children, and working families.
As you can see, Trumpcare is anti-affordable coverage. Everything about it makes it harder and more expensive for poor and working class people to find coverage that won’t break the bank and provide the kind of support we need. While Obamacare raised taxes on the top 1%, Trumpcare would be a windfall for the richest people in America. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, “the top 400 highest-income taxpayers–whose annual incomes average more than $300 million apiece–would receive an average annual tax cut of about $7 million.†Meanwhile, people making less than $200,000 wouldn’t see a dime from these cuts.
Obamacare was a bill with many flaws, but it accomplished its basic mission by expanding affordable health insurance to the poor and working people. After six years of progress, Donald Trump and the GOP want to decimate the closest thing we have ever had to universal health insurance. The only people that will suffer are the ones they claim to be fighting for.
I recently talked about Trumpcare in depth on my radio show. Take a listen to the podcast below and let me know what you think!
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Stanley Fritz is the communications associate at Citizen Action of New York, and the engineer/co-host of “Let Your Voice Be Heard! Radio.â€
Tune in every Sunday at 11 a.m. EST, or subscribe to the podcast via iTunes.
You can also follow him on Twitter at @StanFritz.