If Obamacare was out and Trumpcare was in, 24 million more U.S. citizens would have been uninsured by 2026, not making America great again.
When House Republicans withdrew Trump’s health care bill March 24, Americans were saved a great deal of damage.
The American Health Care Act, or Trumpcare, was the proposed replacement to the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.
The goal of Obamacare was to make accessing health insurance easier. It mandated all U.S. citizens to have health insurance, which would in turn lower the cost. Obamacare came at the expense of the highest earners in America with an increase in their taxes. Right away, Republicans strongly opposed it, and Trump promised to get rid of it early in his campaign.
Trumpcare was proposed earlier this month, marking a huge change from Obamacare. Unlike Obamacare, the goal of Trumpcare was not more insured Americans.
Changes would have included employers no longer being required to offer health insurance to their full-time employees. Health insurance prices could have been raised for some because insurance given through jobs is often cheaper than that for people getting it individually.
In addition, women, specifically low-income women, would have gotten a slap in the face as Trumpcare would’ve forced Planned Parenthood out of the Medicaid program for one year. This would have made it harder for low-income women to access cancer screenings, STD testing and treatments and birth control.
Trump’s health care proposal would have frozen Medicaid funding after 2020. States would have had the option to require Medicaid able-bodied recipients to work a job or attend job training programs or do community service.
States could have opted for block grants for Medicaid funding for adults and children as opposed to being given money for each person using Medicaid. This set amount of money would have been too restrictive for states and could lead to people who need coverage not receiving it.
On the very small plus side, Trumpcare would have kept price transparency, where health insurance shoppers can see exactly what they are paying for in detail.
Also, Trumpcare would have kept the policy that health insurance companies cannot deny a person for a pre-existing condition. However, health insurance companies would have been allowed to charge more for people having pre-existing conditions.
The only people who would have benefited from Trumpcare are the wealthy who paid higher taxes under Obamacare.
If any more revisions are to be made to health care in America, Republicans need to realize as much as the wealthy want those tax cuts, some people need doctor visits, a breast exam at Planned Parenthood or affordable medications. This country is not the one percent, and Trumpcare shouldn’t cater to their bank accounts at the expense of the other 99 percent.
Health care laws should help the majority, and any adjustments to health care should represent just that.
