Senate GOP health care bill fails America

Mitch McConnell, the blustery leader of the U.S. Senate’s majority Republicans, brought out the frightening Senate health care bill, the ultimate “repeal and replace” of the Affordable Care Act, with typical clumsiness and of course, anger. McConnell and other Republicans are obsessed with Obamacare, the brave, successful and signature accomplishment of former President Barack Obama, and so they talk more, almost, about how bad the former president’s plan was than they do about the virtues of their own plans – the House and the just-unveiled Senate versions are similar.

McConnell pronounced the ACA a “failure” and President Donald Trump, of course, called it a “disaster” hundreds of times on the 2016 campaign trail. But there were problems with Republicans’ criticisms: First, they weren’t accurate and were steeped in the politics of hate, trying to get the conservative GOP base stirred up about the president; second, Trump had no clue what the ACA was or how it worked.

The truth is, 22 million people now have health insurance who might not have had it; the federal deficit didn’t explode, which Republicans predicted; and the ACA was paid for with taxes on the wealthiest Americans and on medical industry companies. The ACA needed fine-tuning, of course. But it was not a failure, and far from it – for example, the millions of Americans who were helped by Medicaid expansion, another benefit of the ACA.

The Senate version of its replacement, which has yet to undergo scrutiny from the Congressional Budget Office, is steeped in reckless disrespect for the intelligence of the American people, and a callous and even dangerous attitude toward the poor and the middle class when it comes to ensuring their health care. Which it doesn’t.

In brief, the Senate would eliminate the penalty for those who don’t sign up for health insurance, a key to lowering premiums for all; the wealthy and health-care-related companies would enjoy breaks as the taxes to help fund the ACA would be eliminated; government help for Medicaid, the federal/state health insurance program for the poor and disabled, would be cut; and in nothing more than a petulant partisan move driven by ideology, Planned Parenthood funding would be cut, after the Trump campaign and others cast the organization, which focuses on women’s health care, as some kind of giant abortion-provider – though that is a small fraction of what Planned Parenthood does.

No wonder McConnell and his mates put this sloppy plan together behind closed doors, prompting a barrage of criticism from even some Republicans. It’s possible that given the Republicans’ small majority in the Senate that McConnell will have to entertain amendments. It’s also possible that the CBO report will find the Senate plan will cut millions of people from insurance rolls – just as it found the House plan would cut over 20 million.

Around 2 million people in North Carolina are covered by Medicaid and CHIP, the children’s health insurance program. Medicaid clearly is in the sights of Republicans, though they claim of course that their plans will pump money into insurance to “stabilize” the market and help the uninsured. But absent a program such as the ACA, promises are subject to change – particularly when some Republicans would do away with all health care safety nets in the name of tax cuts.

This story was originally published June 22, 2017 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Senate GOP health care bill fails America."