With any piece of legislation, it can be expected that there will be disagreement across the aisle. Trumpcare, however, is a plan feared by both Democrats and Republicans. The House of Representative’s bill known as “The American Health Care Act”, or as many like to put it “Trumpcare”, will cut Medicaid, a health care program that supports 69 million people. The proposed legislation has been widely criticized by many Governors and Senators within the Republican Party. A major concern for many leaders in government is that the health care system proposed would actually raise premiums for individuals with pre-existing conditions and would leave millions of people without care.
Another issue that many have not considered is that in Trump’s rhetoric about healthcare there is a lack of compassion and empathy for families who are most affected by changes in healthcare. He speaks of a new healthcare system that is the best and a better plan than Obamacare. He does not say, “This will help Americans and millions of families.” President Trump sees legislation and his job, really, as personal gains rather than successes for the American people.
In many town halls of local government officials in majority Republican states, many long-time Republican voters are angry and have threatened to not vote for their Senators or Representatives who support Trumpcare. One man spoke and addressed Representative Tom MacArther saying, “You are the single greatest threat to my family…You are the reason why I stay up at night.” The question lingers as to whether or not supporting the president is worth a reelection.
In a tweet on June 22nd, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky tweeted, “Currently, for a variety of reasons, we are not ready to vote for this bill, but we are open to negotiation and obtaining more information before it is brought to the floor. There are provisions in this draft that represent an improvement to our current health care system, but it does not appear this daft as written will accomplish the most important promise that we made to Americans: to repeal Obamacare and lower their health care costs.”
In response to Trumpcare, the Senate has proposed a bill of its own known as the “Better Care Reconciliation Act” that claims to be bipartisan. In an interview with NBC, Senator Cassidy explained that the bill would allow blue states to maintain Obamacare while red states would have a different system. This raises the division between federal and state power, which has been a defining difference between the Democratic and Republican parties. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana is an advocate for the Republican senators’ solution to healthcare. In an interview with Fox he explained, “It is the conservative solution. The conservatives think the power should return to individuals and states. We do that. The power that Obamacare took from states we get back.”
New Jersey Republican Congressman Leonard Lance speaks to citizens about health care at a town hall on February 22, 2017.
However, there has been pushback to the “Better Care Reconciliation Act.” According to Dr. Jeffrey Drazen, the editor-and-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, “The U.S. Better Care Reconciliation Act…is not designed to lead to better care for Americans.” He explained that the number of people with health insurance would dramatically decrease and premiums would increase tremendously. The bill, though, would provide large tax cuts which would aid many Americans.
Generally, most Republicans believe Obamacare should be repealed and replaced. However, the challenge comes in creating two separate pieces of legislation that effectively repeal and then replace it. Because of the breakdown within the Republican party, Trump and other leaders will have to face the reality that healthcare will not be changing as quickly as they would have liked. It is tragic because many Republican politicians fail to see that Obamacare has worked for millions of their own voters. However, it has become the mission of the Republican Party to erase much of what former President Obama accomplished during his eight years in office.
To sum up using the wise words of President Trump, “Nobody knew health care could be so complicated.”
P.S. We all did.
