GOP health-care plan threatens Medicaid
2017John Leslie 2017-07Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 1 →
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As Socialist Action goes to press, the health-care de bate in Washington is on hold. The GOP plan, which was hatched in secret in a Senate back room, is wildly unpopular. Yet the Republicans seem intent on pass ing something that will give the appearance that Trump kept his campaign promise to “repeal and re place Obamacare”—no matter the consequences for working people.
Democrats posture as advocates for the people, but their rhetoric won’t pass the test. The “alternative” they put forward is the continuation of Obama’s neo liberal health-care reform, the Affordable Care Act. Regardless, the health and well-being of working people is in the crosshairs.
The new GOP health plan has stalled in the face of massive opposition, including skepticism among some Republican lawmakers. The stalemate on Trumpcare culminated in the Senate’s going on re cess for the July 4 holiday without any forward mo tion. Frustrated with Senate inaction, Trump tweet ed, “If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date!” This contradicts his earlier promises that there would be “insurance for everybody.”
A couple of weeks before the inauguration, on Jan. 3, Trump spokesperson Kellyanne Conway promised that there would be a replacement plan, saying, “We Timothy D. Easley / AP (Above) Protesters in Elizabethtown, Ky., on June 30 greet Sen. Mitch McConnell (R.-Ky.), a backer of the new health-care bill in the Senate.
don’t want anyone who currently has insurance to not have insurance.” This “repeal now, fix later” no tion has gained some support among Republicans.
The differences among GOP lawmakers are split be tween those on the hard right, who argue that the bill is too much like the Affordable Care Act, and more moderate forces, who worry that the bill will place too great of a burden on states, as well as cutting cov erage for at least 22 million people currently covered under the ACA.
(continued on page 5, in “Protesters: ‘Muslims are welcomed here’”)
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Victor Torres / Democracy Now!
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