Tag: Trumpcare
GOP health care bill would make rural America’s distress much worse
The following article by Claire Snell-Rood and Cathleen Willging was posted on the Conversation website June 26, 2017:
Much has been made of the distress and discontent in rural areas during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Few realize, however, this is also felt through unequal health.
Researchers call it the “rural mortality penalty.” While rates of mortality have steadily fallen in the nation’s urban areas, they have actually climbed for rural Americans. And the picture is even bleaker for specific groups, such as rural white women and people of color, who face persistent disparities in health outcomes. In every category, from suicide to unintentional injury to heart disease, rural residents’ health has been declining since the 1990s.
While some have blamed these gaping disparities on “culture” or “lifestyle” factors – such as a supposed fatalism or overconsumption of unhealthy products like Mountain Dew – the truth is that the biggest culprit is limited access to health care and challenging economic circumstances. Continue reading “GOP health care bill would make rural America’s distress much worse”
Senate GOP healthcare bill CBO report
See where the Senate health-care bill’s subsidy cuts will affect Americans most
Kim Soffen with the Washington Post has written an article with the above title posted on the Washington Post website June 24, 2017. It has great charts showing the Senate GOP’s healthcare bill’s impact on people across the country. With all the charts, it’s difficult to reproduce here. So, we’re providing a link to their post.
Senate GOP’s Obamacare repeal bill will cost lives, but fatten the wallets of millionaires
The following article by Michael Hiltzik was posted on the Los Angeles Times website June 22, 2017:
Senate Republicans finally revealed on Thursday why they’ve been crafting their Affordable Care Act repeal in secret. As the newly released draft shows, it’s a rollback of health coverage for millions of Americans that could cost the lives of tens of thousands a year.
But make no mistake: This is not a healthcare bill. It’s a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans, paid for by a reduction in government funding for healthcare. The measure would constitute one of the largest single transfers of wealth to the rich from the middle class and poor in American history. Continue reading “Senate GOP’s Obamacare repeal bill will cost lives, but fatten the wallets of millionaires”
Shifting Dollars From Poor to Rich Is a Key Part of the Senate Health Bill
The following article by Margot Sanger-Katz was posted on the New York Times website June 22, 2017:
The Affordable Care Act gave health insurance to millions of Americans by shifting resources from the wealthy to the poor and by moving oversight from states to the federal government. The Senate bill introduced Thursday pushes back forcefully on both dimensions.
The bill is aligned with long-held Republican values, advancing states’ rights and paring back growing entitlement programs, while freeing individuals from requirements that they have insurance and emphasizing personal responsibility. Obamacare raised taxes on high earners and the health care industry, and essentially redistributed that income — in the form of health insurance or insurance subsidies — to many of the groups that have fared poorly over the last few decades. Continue reading “Shifting Dollars From Poor to Rich Is a Key Part of the Senate Health Bill”
Cutting Insurance from Working Families to Give Tax Cuts to Millionaires
The following article by Alex Rowell and Ryan Erickson was posted on the Center for American Progress website June 16, 2017:
Republican health care plans, including the House-passed American Health Care Act (AHCA), would repeal taxes on the wealthy, including the Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT)—a tax on combined capital gain, dividend, and interest income applicable to individuals making more than $200,000 or couples filing jointly making more than $250,000 in adjusted gross income. This tax cut is paid for by eliminating health insurance coverage for millions of low- and moderate-income Americans. Approximately 90 percent of the benefit of repealing this tax goes to the top 1 percent of households.
Below is a table that shows estimates of the average tax cut for households earning more than $1,000,000 in annual adjusted gross income by state if proposals to eliminate the NIIT succeed. Continue reading “Cutting Insurance from Working Families to Give Tax Cuts to Millionaires”
President Trump’s mangled ‘facts’ about Obamacare
The following article by Glenn Kessler was posted on the Washington Post website June 15, 2017:
“Americans were told that premiums would go down by $2,500 per year. And instead, their premiums went up to levels that nobody thought even possible.”
“It was just announced yesterday that 2 million people have dropped out of Obamacare — 2 million additional. They are leaving fast.”
“Insurers are fleeing the market. Last week it was announced that one of the largest insurers is pulling out of Ohio — the great state of Ohio.”
–President Trump, remarks to Republican senators, June 13, 2017
Not a day goes by without President Trump bashing the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, as he tries to urge the Senate to pass its own version of a repeal-and-replace bill. He’s become a torrent of statistics as he has tried to make the case that the law is “dead,” as he puts it. Continue reading “President Trump’s mangled ‘facts’ about Obamacare”
The GOP Will Free You from Having Health Care
The following article by Jim Hightower was posted on the Creators.com website June 14, 2017:
When I think of freedom, I think of it in positive, aspirational terms — our First Amendment freedoms, for example, or FDR’s “Four freedoms” or the uplifting songs of freedom sung by oppressed people around the globe.
But right-wing, corporate-funded ideologues have fabricated a new negative notion of “freedoms” derived from individual choice. You’re free to be poor, free to be politically powerless or free to be ill and uncared for — it’s all a matter of decisions you freely make in life, and our larger society has no business interfering with your free will. Continue reading “The GOP Will Free You from Having Health Care”
Senate Repeal Bill Would Still Eviscerate Coverage and Protections for People with Pre-Existing Conditions
The following article by Thomas Huelskoetter and Emily Gee was posted on the Center for American Progress website June 9, 2017:
A doctor checks a patient in a primary care clinic located in a low-income neighborhood, March 2017.
Recent reports indicate that the emerging Senate version of the American Health Care Act (AHCA) may not include the House version’s provision permitting states to waive the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) community rating provision, which prevents insurers from charging sick people higher premiums than healthy people.
Even without community rating waivers, the Senate bill would still critically weaken protections for people with pre-existing conditions. By allowing states to waive the ACA’s essential health benefits (EHB) requirements, it would enable insurers to effectively screen out sick people by excluding certain services. Continue reading “Senate Repeal Bill Would Still Eviscerate Coverage and Protections for People with Pre-Existing Conditions”