Freedom to die
by digby
Via Think Progress we have Trump’s chief economic adviser who just left his job as president and COO of Goldman Sachs to come to the White House to help the president enact his populist agenda talking about the health care reforms:
“The numbers of who’s covered and who’s not covered,” Cohn replied. “That’s interesting and I know that may make some headlines, but what we care about is people’s ability to get healthcare and people’s ability to go see their doctor.”
Wallace noted that coverage “is really important if you lose it” and showed a 2015 clip of Donald Trump as a candidate vowing to “take care of everybody,” even if it cost him votes.
Cohn answered that under Trumpcare, everyone would be offered coverage. He added that the administration does not think anyone will lose insurance at all, and suggested that the plan’s end of the Medicaid expansion would not actually mean cost anyone their Medicaid coverage. He also claimed that because the people buying insurance on exchanges with subsidies would receive less generous tax credits instead, they will all have the opportunity to buy insurance if they want it.
That’s what the Republicans are offering those of us who depend on the private market and medicaid for health insurance. They’ll make sure that some insurer somewhere will offer us some kind of shitty plan at whatever rates they choose and the government will give us a tiny tax break. That’s it. That’s their plan. Smell the freedom.
In other words it’s the same plan Former congressman Alan Grayson described as “Don’t get sick. And if you do get sick, die quickly.”
I happen to be a person who will be affected by this — along with a bunch of other middle class duffers my age who are too young for medicare but old enough to be intensely concerned about getting sick or dealing with chronic illnesses already. We are going to be hit very hard, even the ones who voted for Trump. The Republicans among them will probably believe Trump when he tells them it’s Obama’s fault or crooked Hillary’s fault. But there might be a few Independents or stray Democrats who thought Trump was lots of fun who may have regrets.
Of course, it will be too late then. If they succeed in dismantling this, those of us who are caught in this tangle will suffer greatly. And the whole system will crash and burn eventually. It was unsustainable before the reforms and it’s going to be unsustainable again.
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