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Galindez writes: "Lowering taxes on the wealthy should not be the focus of Congressional reform of healthcare. But that is the focus of this legislation."

President Trump with Speaker Paul Ryan. (photo: Getty)
President Trump with Speaker Paul Ryan. (photo: Getty)


ALSO SEE: David Dayen | The New Republican
Health-Care Plan Is Single-Payer for Dummies

New GOP Health Care Plan Is Dumb

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

04 May 17

 

o for five years the federal government will pay insurance companies 1.6 billion dollars a year to cover patients with pre-existing conditions. While that sounds nice, it is a drop in the bucket and will do nothing to control health care costs.

So what happens in 5 years? Oh, are they punting to the next president? Has the Donald already decided that this job is too hard for him to consider running for re-election? I have many other questions about this bill. They are questions you should be asking your members of Congress, who might just pass the dumbest health care legislation ever proposed. The House may have already voted on this disastrous bill before you read this article. We must stop it in the Senate or people will die.

The Affordable Care Act is flawed and needs repair. Something has to be done to control the rising cost of health care. That is what we should be trying to address. Lowering taxes on the wealthy should not be the focus of Congressional reform of healthcare. But that is the focus of this legislation. They want to lower taxes and lower the standards that health insurance companies must meet.

Republicans think the way to reduce healthcare costs is to allow insurance companies to cover less. Obamacare succeeded in improving the level of coverage insurance companies would have to provide. That is one of the things we should not change. We have to find another way to lower premiums and other costs.

The American people deserve the best treatments available. We have to figure out how to make that affordable. There are models around the world that point us in the right direction. Countries that have single payer health care have succeeded in controlling healthcare costs.

We must eliminate the middlemen. Insurance companies are death panels that decide if someone can have a procedure or not. Obamacare forced them to cover more. The current GOP bill would reverse that. The Freedom Caucus opposed the GOP plan because it provided too much. To win them over, Trump and the Republicans will allow states to get waivers and not adhere to the guarantees we won under Obamacare.

So to get the votes they needed, they made it easier for insurance companies to cover less. Just like junk bonds were a business dream, insurance companies would be allowed to provide junk policies again.

Instead of scrapping the progress we have made under Obamacare, the smart thing to do would be to try to fix the flaws in Obamacare. The solution could be a public option where the government would negotiate plans directly with providers, eliminating the cost of the middlemen who have to build in profit into their plans.

Why do some doctors choose to refuse Medicaid payments? Medicaid pays less. Doctors who do accept Medicaid don't lose money; they just don't make as much for the procedure. The free market is a nice concept, but when it comes to healthcare there is an unfair advantage for health providers. The value of life. We need a tough negotiator at the table who will say this is how much that operation cost you, and we will pay this. That is what Medicaid does. The problem is Blue Cross comes in and agrees to a higher price, then Aetna even more. Get rid of the private insurance companies, and doctors and hospitals will have to accept what our representatives will pay.

Why are they rushing to break the healthcare system even more? They are not even waiting for the Congressional Budget Office to estimate the impact of their latest plan. If this dumb bill passes the House, we must stop it in the Senate.

Ask your senators, Why the rush and why not address the problems with Obamacare instead of making it worse by lowering standards?



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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