TRUMP SAYS THE SENATE BILL IS VERY GOOD: JUST ANOTHER LIE

…Donald Trump and this man……both major liars

 

It took almost two full years for the ACA to become the “law of the land”, and it is not in a death spiral.

 

I wonder how the Republicans would have reacted if the Democrats did the following when they decided to offer the ACA or “Obamacare” to the American public.

 

·       To write the bill in secret.

 

·       Only have 13 white male Democrats, and no women on the bill’s development committee.

 

·       To not obtain advice from health care experts or health economists.

 

·       To not obtain any advice from the hospitals.

 

·       To not obtain advice from many doctors or hospitals’

 

·       To not hear any advice from the public and to not hold any public hearings on the bill.

 

·       To eventually remove 23 million Americans from having health care coverage.

 

·       Give a Trillion dollars in tax breaks to the top 2% of wealthy Americans over ten years.

 

·        And finally, to attempt to pass the bill after only a few weeks from taking on an issue that represents 1/6th of the US Economy.

 

I can guarantee you that if the Democrats did this, the Republicans would have raised holy hell, but the aforementioned list is exactly what the GOP members in the Senate are doing today for passing their 142 page Senate Health Care Bill.

 

So, what did occur for passing the of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)....?

 

·       The concept of the ACA was offered to the public by President Obama in the Fall of 2008.

 

·       In March of 2009, the Democratic president held a “Health Summit” to obtain input from Doctors, Insurers, Pharmaceutical Companies, consumer advocates, and lawmakers.

 

·       The bill was debated in both parties in congress for a year where there were many revisions and amendments offered and passed by both parties.

 

·       It was finally presented as a 1,000 page plan in July 2009.

 

·       It was not signed into law until March 2010.

 

So, from concept to signing into law, it took an approximate 2 full years to become a law.  The Republicans then had that last 7 plus years to come up with a real and comprehensive replacement, but all they did was attempt to repeal Obamacare, without a replacement, over 50 times. 

 

With all that time, one would think that they would at least have tried to come up with a workable replacement.

 

On top of all this, the now Republican President Trump promised the people attending virtually all of his gigantic campaign rallies that he: “Would not touch Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security!”  It is these same folks that put him into office that he is now threatening to remove from two of the long-time US health care programs he had listed he would never touch.

The first health care bill that was presented by the Republican House of Representatives was passed with only Republican votes, and it was universally disliked by many lawmakers from both parties.  In fact, many of the Republicans that voted for the bill, did so by holding their nose when they voted.  The only improvement to this former bill with the up-coming Senate bill is that it will take longer to drop the 23 million Americans out of of their health care coverage, than the original House bill.  Other than that, the Senate bill is as bad or worse than the House bill.

 

The reality is that the United States of America is the only industrialized nation that does not guarantee health care to all of its citizens as a basic right.  In addition, Americans pay more for their health care than any industrialized nation.  In the US, the health care organizations cannot negotiate drug prices or hospital rates.  This is not the case for other countries and their health care programs.

 

And the Republican plans still don’t allow these important negotiations.

 

The Republican Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, is now trying to get his horrible bill passed later this week and Trump has praised the health care bill.

 

Last week Trump said, “It’s going to be very good.  A little negotiation, but it’s going to be very good.”  But Trump has previously promised it would “have heart”, be better than Obamacare and it would cost less.  This bill does none of these.

 

“Very good” Trump says…..?  McConnell wants the bill passed with no public hearings, or opportunities for health care experts or advocates to have any say.  The ACA took a year to even develop, and it took on many changes and amendments and many experts and advocates had their say.

 

Yes, it passed on a party-line vote, but not for the lack of trying to get others on board.  And even though it was not very popular at first, by the time most Americans got used to it, it was quite popular at the time the Republicans took over the government.

The other issue is that the president and the Republicans keep saying that “Obamacare is in a death spiral”.  The experts say that is a lie.  Yes, it has problems with the insurance exchanges and the health insurers, but it has problems that could be fixed “if” the GOP would only agree to work with the Democrats.  But the Republicans have been promising to repeal the ACA for years, and they won’t even consider trying to fix the ACA.

 

Just as all the other US programs such as Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid, they had problems when they were first passed.  None of these programs are what they were when they were first passed.  They have all been changed, up-graded and fixed throughout the years, just to make them work better. 

 

For America’s health care costs, which is 1/6^th of our nation’s economy, you can’t try to force thru a plan as you would an insignificant budget issue.  But that’s what McConnell is trying to do.

 

Hopefully, the latest Senate plan will be “Dead on Arrival”, but with this GOP Congress, anything is possible.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2017