{"id":265,"date":"2017-05-05T17:27:43","date_gmt":"2017-05-05T23:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.irenenorth.com\/writings\/?p=265"},"modified":"2024-04-22T02:46:16","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T02:46:16","slug":"health-care-benefits-the-rich-takes-from-the-poor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/2017\/05\/05\/health-care-benefits-the-rich-takes-from-the-poor\/","title":{"rendered":"Health care benefits the rich, takes from the poor"},"content":{"rendered":"

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For nearly a decade, Republicans complained the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, had been shoved<\/a> down their throats. They said it was passed too quickly and no one had time to read the bill. On Thursday, May 4, the Republicans in the House of Representatives did the same thing, throwing the entire health care system into chaos.<\/p>\n

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The American Health Care Act (AHCA) was passed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 217-213. It is a $300 billion tax cut for the richest 2 percent of Americans. It is not health care reform<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After the vote, Senator Bernie Sanders said:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bill that Republicans passed today is an absolute disaster. It really has nothing to do with health care. It has everything to do with an enormous shift of wealth from working people to the richest Americans. This bill would throw 24 million people off of health insurance \u2013 including thousands of Vermonters \u2013 cut Medicaid by $880 billion, defund Planned Parenthood and substantially increase premiums on older Americans. Meanwhile, it would provide a $300 billion tax break to the top 2 percent and hundreds of billions more to the big drug and insurance companies that are ripping off the American people. Our job now is to rally millions of Americans against this cruel bill to make sure that it does not pass the Senate. Instead of throwing tens of millions of people off of health insurance, we must guarantee health care as a right to all.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you are a Trump and\/or Republican supporter, you were conned. You now have a hard, and difficult, lesson to learn. For two years, I’ve been patient when speaking to you. I’m sick and tired of heartless bastards who don’t want to help their fellow man.<\/p>\n

You are going to lose your health care because you didn’t want to take the time learn how the ACA works, nor did you appreciate its benefits and protections. Rather than fixing and improving the flawed ACA, Republicans are dismantling it, returning America to a time when medical bankruptcy was common and tens of thousands died each year because they could not afford care. Republicans who still believe this won’t affect them will not receive any sympathy when it happens to them.<\/p>\n

You are uneducated. You consistently vote against your own interests. Voting for people who told you they were going to take away your health care is only one drop in the ocean of lies you have believed. They don’t care about you<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To the family with the autistic child who said their child would always be taken care of. I told you so.<\/p>\n

To the family with the child with cerebral palsy who said they weren’t racist and Trump was going to make sure their child would have health coverage and special education classes, I told you so.<\/p>\n

To the cancer survivors. You now have a pre-existing condition and the ACHA won’t cover you. I told you so.<\/p>\n

Political Commentator Robert Reich also commented<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica has the only healthcare system in the world designed to avoid sick people. Private for-profit health insurers do whatever they can to insure groups of healthy people, because that\u2019s where the profits are. They also make every effort to avoid sick people, because that\u2019s where the costs are.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Affordable Care Act puts healthy and sick people into the same insurance pool. But under the Republican bill that just passed the House, healthy people will no longer be subsidizing sick people.<\/p>\n

\u201cHealthy people will be in their own insurance pool. Sick people will be grouped with other sick people in their own high-risk pool \u2013 which will result in such high premiums, co-payments, and deductibles that many if not most won\u2019t be able to afford the cost.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tom Edsall’s column<\/a> in the New York Times explains why it is unlikely Trump supporters will listen. They don’t respond to evidence. They respond to emotion. Trump and the Republicans know how to manipulate those emotions so the people they harm will still point their fingers and place the blame on the liberals.<\/p>\n

Fox News has been quick to jump on that bandwagon, stating that health care for people with pre-existing conditions is a luxury<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to CBS News<\/a>, the top 11 states with the highest percentage of people that have pre-existing conditions all voted for President Trump. In Louisiana, 30 percent of people under the age of 65 have a pre-existing condition.<\/p>\n

Larry Levitt, of the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation, says the bill “does not automatically eliminate coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.”<\/p>\n

“What this bill would do is unleash debates in 50 state capitals around the country about whether people with pre-existing conditions should really be covered and protected,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The AHCA also eliminates the 10 essential benefits<\/a> of Obamacare – outpatient care, emergency room trips, in-hospital care, pregnancy, maternity and newborn care, mental health and substance abuse disorder services, prescription drugs, rehabilitative and habilitative services, lab tests, preventive services, and pediatric services.<\/p>\n

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If you’re a man and you don’t want to pay<\/a> for pregnancy, maternity and newborn care because you’ll never use it. Yeah, you did. Your children had this care. Your wife had this care. You were once a baby. Your mother made sure you had the best start in life and now you want to wave a big \u201cfuck you\u201d to anyone else who’d like the same thing you had.<\/p>\n

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Anyone still curious why erectile dysfunction is covered in Trumpcare\/AHCA but sexual asslt, rape, C-sections & postpartum depression r not? pic.twitter.com\/jlpdDNF0HS<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Amy Siskind (@Amy_Siskind) May 5, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n