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Galindez writes: "The long awaited CBO score is here for the healthcare plan that passed the House last month. It might on the surface seem slightly better than the original plan that failed a couple of weeks before it. A closer look will reveal that it is worse, much worse. It covers a few more people than the failed bill, but it gives everyone less coverage."

Donald Trump and Paul Ryan. (photo: Alex Brandon/AP)
Donald Trump and Paul Ryan. (photo: Alex Brandon/AP)


Trumpcare Is Immoral and Unsustainable

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

30 May 17

 

he long awaited CBO score is here for the healthcare plan that passed the House last month. It might on the surface seem slightly better than the original plan that failed a couple of weeks before it. A closer look will reveal that it is worse, much worse. It covers a few more people than the failed bill, but it gives everyone less coverage.

I have an idea. Let’s set up a single payer system for everyone who wants it and let everyone else opt out and pay for their healthcare out of pocket. After all, the opposition to Obamacare is from those who believe they shouldn’t be forced to have coverage. Individual responsibility should mean they don’t get a free ride in the emergency room. If they don’t believe in shared responsibility, let’s let them go out on their own. Just don’t come crying to us when you get sick.

I know, I’m not cruel enough to support that. It’s what the greedy “individual responsibility” Republicans are asking for, though. They don’t want to help take care of their neighbors, but we will take care of them anyway.

The GOP is right about one thing. Our current private insurance system is not sustainable. Healthcare should not be a private industry controlled by the markets.

The provider has too high a bargaining chip ... your life. The consumer has no choice. Get the treatment or die — that is an unfair advantage. That’s why the government needs to step in and set the prices. Private insurance companies make the situation worse, since they want to make a profit. Your health is not their priority. The fewer treatments you receive, the better for them.

If the Democrats are smart, they will ride healthcare reform to electoral success. Perhaps it will be on a state-by-state basis. Single payer healthcare has strong support in New York State. If it were to succeed in states like New York and California, then it would be hard to tell people in Peoria why single payer is too good for them.

In the past, the insurance and pharmaceutical industries have blocked other attempts for states to provide single payer. In Colorado, Anthem Healthcare spent a million dollars to defeat a voter initiative for single payer. The healthcare industry outspent supporters by more than a 4-to-1 margin.

The only people the current system is good for are the insurers and the pharmaceutical industry. Well, and I guess the providers can profit at higher rates but, due to the bureaucracy associated with billing in this system, much of that profit is swallowed up by overhead. The providers that are in the healthcare industry to help people also have to face knowing that because of insurers denying treatments, people are dying unnecessarily.

It would be even worse under Trumpcare. One feature of Obamacare is a set of minimum standards that must be a part of every plan. The argument conservatives make is that those rules mean people are paying for stuff they don’t need, like prenatal care for a man. That argument is absurd. Just because a plan covers dialysis, if needed, doesn’t mean you will have to pay for dialysis.

They argue that more people will be covered by plans that they hope will cost less, because they will cover less. Removing things like prenatal care and ambulance service from a policy a young, healthy man purchases saves nothing for the insurance company. It will only save them money if they don’t have to pay for prenatal care for women or ambulance service for the elderly.

Obamacare was only a step in the right direction. Trumpcare is nothing more than a tax break for the wealthy and lowering of costs for insurance companies. They can cover less and still charge whatever they want. How is this a good thing for most Americans?

The only solution is single payer. Everyone would have coverage for everything, with prices negotiated by the government. It works all over the world and is cheaper than the unsustainable, immoral system that we have now.



Scott Galindez attended Syracuse University, where he first became politically active. The writings of El Salvador's slain archbishop Oscar Romero and the on-campus South Africa divestment movement converted him from a Reagan supporter to an activist for Peace and Justice. Over the years he has been influenced by the likes of Philip Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Don White, Lisa Fithian, and Paul Wellstone. Scott met Marc Ash while organizing counterinaugural events after George W. Bush's first stolen election. Scott moved to Des Moines in 2015 to cover the Iowa Caucus.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.

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