Tens of thousands of Americans have sent petitions, taken to the streets and turned up at town hall meetings to tell lawmakers loud and clear: They must not destroy the Affordable Care Act.
But the Republicans who have captured the House, the Senate, and the presidency seem determined not to listen. They have been overtaken by fanaticism, heedless of the harm they may do, even to their own constituents.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, in his recent pronouncements, sounds as though he’s seeking to justify a rash act.
“The time is here. The time is now. This is the moment,” Ryan declared, calling for his party to end the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, and replace it with the GOP’s hastily drafted alternative, the American Health Care Act.
The GOP bill would hurt millions of people. It provides much less assistance to the poor, the elderly and the mentally ill than does the ACA. A 60-year-old making $20,000 a year would receive $4,000, instead of $9,900 under ACA, to help with health coverage.
But because the Republican plan eliminates tax levies on high income Americans that are necessary to pay for assistance to the needy, Americans earning more than $774,000 a year will enjoy a huge tax cut. Americans earning between $500,000 and $1 million will receive a tax break approaching $55 billion over the next ten years.
Obamacare was committed to funding 90 percent of every state’s expenses for Medicaid services to the poor, the disabled and the elderly. “Trumpcare” isn’t. Obamacare expanded coverage to vulnerable Americans. “Trumpcare” turns the clock back. A report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concluded that, under this bill, 24 million Americans will lose health coverage.
The vulnerable Americans include people like myself. I am fifty years old, and for many years worked in jobs that didn’t provide health insurance. To avoid debt, I would skip regular checkups.
Under the ACA, I finally became eligible for low-income Medicaid assistance. That has allowed me to control my blood pressure, obtain affordable prescription drugs, and have regular appointments with physicians to monitor my prostate cancer.
My positive experience is shared by millions of others, including faithful Republican voters. Obamacare has benefited poor, rural coal miners in West Virginia and elsewhere who suffer extraordinary high rates of heart disease, diabetes and other illnesses. Snatching their Medicaid benefits away would be catastrophic.
Though Trump recently pledged that the Obamacare replacement would “lower costs, expand choices, increase competition, and ensure healthcare access for all Americans,” that isn’t verified by the content of the bill, nor the opinion of many experts.
The American Health Care Act provides the most for the top wage earners who need assistance the least. It replaces Obamacare with fewer services for most middle-income and poor Americans. If this bill becomes law, it will throw millions of households into crisis, while proving how crass, partisan and uncaring right-wing politics has become.
Darryl Lorenzo Wellington is a poet and essayist living in Santa Fe, New Mexico.