I’m optimistic about the Republican health care plan despite some red flags
Mar 13, 2017, 12:23 PM
(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
We aren’t even a full week past the Republicans unveiling their plan to replace Obamacare and the Democrats already have a few substantially large targets.
First up is something that I haven’t seen in my lifetime: Elected officials rolling back entitlement!
That’s right. When Republicans ditch health care subsidies, they’re rolling back a government handout — one of the cardinal sins of electoral politics. It’s hard to run for reelection when you took money out of voter’s hands.
Ironically, that money was something they took from other voters’ hands but that’s a discussion for another time.
The Democrats are crying foul and claiming that this will hurt lower-income families. You know, the ones they’ve been buying votes from and taking advantage of for decades.
However, the Republican plan does have several pages of the bill dedicated to making sure that poor people that win the lottery are quickly removed from any subsidies. Who came up with that nonsense?
Next, you will continue to hear cries that millions of Americans will lose their insurance. Does that sound familiar? Like the millions of Americans that lost their insurance plans and doctors when Obamacare was launched?
It looks like the Democrats are just hoping that everyone forgot what happened seven years ago.
Next, interstate selling is not part of this plan. What? I thought that was the heart of the new plan? Wasn’t that what most of the Republicans were running on? Speaker of the House Paul Ryan claimed that will be part of phase two and phase three of the new plan.
This makes it easy for the Democrats to pounce and claim that interstate selling is not as easy as everyone thought.
Of course it’s not is easy as everyone thinks it is. This is electoral politics. Their job is to fool us into thinking things are easy.
But that does not mean that it should not happen. It should happen. It needs to happen.
Yes, all 50 states have their own regulations and their own red tape. But trust me, the insurance companies will get it done in the name of their own bottom line. They need to because they are beholden to their shareholders.
Finally, and this one is my favorite, Kellyanne Conway took to the cable news networks this weekend claiming that president Donald Trump doesn’t even want to put his name on this piece of legislation. He does not want it to be called Trumpcare!
That, my friends, is called a very large red flag.
I’m still staying optimistic. There is a slight chance this can work out. But I promise you, if I hear a Republican say that we need to pass the bill to find out what’s in it, I’m gone!