TrumpCare Near Life Support, Republicans Work to Harm the Poor Even More
34% of Medicaid recipients are blind or disabled. 19% are children. 14% are elderly. Less than one-third, just 32%, are adults, many of whom are single parents or caring for a sick relative.
In an effort to get hard core conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus to support and vote for TrumpCare, Republicans including Paul Ryan overnight altered the bill that was already passed by three committees to include a provision allowing states to force some Medicaid recipients to work.
Speaker Paul Ryan calls these “improvements.” Ryan admitted last week he’s been “dreaming” of cutting Medicaid since his kegger days.
Meanwhile, it’s unclear exactly who on Medicaid states are going to force to work.
“Only 13 percent of adults covered by Medicaid’s expansion are able-bodied and not working, in school, or seeking work. Of that small group, three-quarters report they are not working in order to care for family members and the rest report other reasons, like being laid off,” Health Affairs Blog reports.
This is, of course, just another outcome of the GOP mindset, that believes safety net programs like Medicaid are just handouts to lazy people. Republicans would rather continue their programs of handouts to the rich and to corporations, which, of course, the American Health Care Act, aka TrumpCare, does.
Charles Gaba, who tracks ObamaCare, concludes that “Ryan’s latest scheme … would completely wipe out the $336 billion in savings which the CBO is currently projecting the AHCA to save…which is the only positive bullet point they can brag about at the moment.”Â
Of the Republicans’ latest attack on the American populace, Gaba writes: “The bottom line is that these changes would actually be better for several million people…but in a completely ludicrous way, while also being even more hurtful to millions of other people, and adding several additional layers of paperwork and bureaucracy to boot, which Republicans supposedly can’t stand. Amazing.”
TrumpCare, the Republican plan to repeal and “replace” ObamaCare, is in major trouble. It may not pass the House, leading to a huge loss of power for Republicans, especially Speaker Paul Ryan and President Donald Trump. If it passes the House, chances right now don’t look good for Senate passage.
But Americans cannot afford to be complacent. We must continue to take action to ensure ObamaCare is not repealed.
In Alabama, a Twitter campaign highlights some of the people ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion helps:
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