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Donald Trump continues to show that he really does not care about the people who voted for him.

One of Donald Trump’s first acts as President was to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). A move that will hurt millions of Americans including the very people that voted for him in the first place.

After a disastrous vote and some strong push back, the first attempt at passing a new healthcare bill failed. However, with some regrouping the Freedom Caucus got the bill it wanted with more draconian cuts to healthcare.

What is being dubbed “Zombie Trumpcare” keeps on coming back for more. 

The only difference between this bill and the previous bill is that states can opt out of a person’s health status if they have a preexisting condition. A pre-existing condition like pregnancy or being the victim of a sexual assault can make it difficult to get insurance.

According to RAINN (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network) there are 321,500 victims of rape and sexual assault in the United States a year.

Under the AHCA it is estimated that 24 million people will lose their health insurance by 2020 according the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report and an estimated 54 million by 2026.

There are provisions that could benefit the country and there are underlying issues that need to be addressed. However, AHCA is just an attempt to undermine the ACA that the previous President, Barack Obama put into law. However, members of Congress want to keep the pre-existing condition provision for themselves with a clause in the newest bill proposal. Proving that deep down, like most of America, Republicans like the ACA too.

If the ACA has to be abandoned it should be for something that is better, and a potential solution would be single payer health care, a plan proposed by Bernie Sanders as well as Trump. As impractical as that sounds, it is the best solution for Americans who need health care and cannot afford it. With Medicaid-For-All no one would have to pay out of pocket expenses for health coverage, saving people thousands of dollars and most importantly their lives.

Those that would have been covered otherwise will now have to face the possibility of bankruptcy if a medical emergency comes up, due to having to pay out of pocket. That means that people with chronic conditions can potentially get worse due to not having insurance and needing to see a doctor to get a check up.

The AHCA is just a means to provide tax cuts to the rich and massive corporations while putting money into the pockets of the insurance companies with massive rate hikes that are no longer limited, as they were under the ACA.

Written in this legislation are tax cuts by cutting the financial assistance that helps low income people get health insurance; those that write the checks for the politicians behind this bill get a break.

Ironically, those that voted for Trump over Hillary will be negatively affected as they will no longer get tax credits that would allow them to pay for their insurance, according to a recent study. States like Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas will be among the most affected and they are all Trump states.

Another group hit hard by the ACA repeal would be the elderly. The new bill proposes that insurance companies can charge premiums up to five times more to an elderly person over a younger applicant than they could under the ACA, which limited that to three times the amount. Medicaid recipients would also get a major cut from this bill and up to 30 states would be affected in the future.

A major talking point from the last election was the defunding of Planned Parenthood. With this bill, the federal funds that are distributed to Planned Parenthood through Medicaid would cease for one full year affecting 60 percent of patients that rely on their services.

The AHCA isn’t all bad. It would actually lower the deficit by an estimated $337 billion by 2026. This is mostly due to the fact that federal funds will no longer be spent on grants for health insurance and those that didn’t want insurance in the first place can now opt-out of getting insurance due to the mandate being removed.

This is a double edged sword because even though the mandate is removed, premiums will increase costing people more money in the long run. Younger people around the age of 21 would have average premiums up to 10 percent lower for being just that, young and healthy.

This is far removed from when Trump promised that, ”We’re going to have insurance for everybody,” After he found out that insurance is more “complicated than anyone could have known,” we got this as the cure all to the ACA.

The bill can not please all of the small factions within the Republican party. The more conservative a bill, moderate republicans are going to take a step back from it and vice versa.

That however, failed and the subsidies are still in place.
It is clear that this version of the bill may have some difficulty passing. It did make it through the house today but the bill is not expected to pass the senate. Our great leader has a backup plan and that is keeping the ACA until something can be worked out that Republicans can agree on. I think it’s safe to say, “Don’t threaten me with a good time.”

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