Donald Trump Still Wants to Kill Obamacare. Why?
nytimes.com
Why this renewed assault? “Obamacare Sucks!!!” declared the former and possibly future president. For those offended by the language, these are Trump’s own words, and I think I owe it to my readers to report what he actually said, not sanitize it. Trump also promised to provide “MUCH BETTER HEALTHCARE” without offering any specifics.
So let’s discuss substance here. Does Obamacare, in fact, suck? And can we believe Trump’s promise to offer something much better?
Obamacare does suck. It's a shitty half measure that leaves thousands to die from lack of health insurance every year and costs us a ton of money that goes straight to middle men that provide no health care.
It's better than what we had before. But we need universal healthcare.
Sure, but everyone needs to be reminded that Trump wants to make it exponentially worse
We need healthcare reform. Trump is not equipped for this job, however.
Also he is not capable of appointing someone to work for him who is equipped for this job.
Agreed.
Medical billing is a pachinko game that provides no health benefits. I've overseen things and had things like medicaid/medicare billing mapped out and it's terrifyingly stupid. It makes our tax laws look rather simple.
We can't even trust cost plus models because of the for profit games like:
Hey we need 1000 bandaids at the hospital. Ok, how about 1000 for $100 bulk? Uh...no we need special ones. Um okay how about 1000 individually packaged bandaids hand prepared atop Mt Olympus by golden haired virgins during intense thunderstorms for 1000 bucks each? Perfect!
Because they have to defend only making cost plus a fixed percentage of profit so better to make 15k than 15 bucks. Jackassery
I'm not against financial rewards for superior products but there's nothing like that in healthcare here. Financial incentives for better outcomes might be good, but instead every incentive begs for bad things.
Trump promised a plan, teased it constantly, never released one. No plan except getting rid of Obamacare.
What about Jared Kushner??!
The GOP has been talking 'repeal and replace' the ACA since the day it was passed. Over a decade and they are still trying to come up with a better plan.
They aren't trying to replace. They're trying to kill. If it has Obama's name anywhere near it (or anything Democrats do), they want it to die. Including Obama himself.
Just like Social Security, they were worried about having the problem of a good example of yet another government service that people like. It doesn't matter if it is overwhelmingly popular, they want to kill it.
They 1) think free market is better by definition and 2) don't believe in social programs. So they don't need to replace, just repeal.
They may pretend that they think that. Some small few may even think that they think that. But they don't actually think that.
The easiest way to see what people believe is to observe their actions.
Republicans are absolutely fine with handing out big juicy government contracts to a select few contractors, for example, instead of letting the market decide.
Republicans are absolutely fine with banning books from libraries instead of letting the market decide.
Republicans are absolutely fine with starting a trade war with China, instead of letting the market decide.
Republicans are absolutely fine with banning women's access to medical care, instead of letting the market decide.
Republicans are absolutely fine with interfering with the free market and giving tons of cash to large corporations.
No, Republicans do not think free market is better by definition. They simply lie and say that when the alternative is to admit that their policy is rooted in bigotry.
Except for the military, that's a social program.
Trump called them suckers and don't give them healthcare.
There's a lot to unpack in that statement.
Point is they don't give two shits about the people in the military. Use and discard. But they like the concept of a military because rah rah USA USA we can win wars. Not because it can be argued as a social program, that part they can do without.
Again, I'm inferring that the social program is for the military weapons manufacturers because they get a shit ton of money and it helps the economy..
Military spending doesn't help the economy, it hurts the economy. Look up peace dividend.
How’s that working out in Texas this winter coming?
I couldn't believe when that storm happened and some Republican (Texan I think) got on TV and says "what are you the people doing to solve this?" They bought hard into private market solves everything.
They also blamed wind and solar for the problem, as if the grid totally relied on them.
Which they can't, because it's already the most conservative plan that had any chance of working. It doesn't even work well, it just had some kind of chance.
Apparently, Obama himself told Trump that he, Obama, would not call Trump out if he decided to label it 'Trumpcare.' All Donnie had to do was change a few lines in the ACA and then declare victory! He could have plastered his face all over the site and made plenty of his voters happy. No one hates Trump's voters more than Trump.
Because it doesn't have his name on it. He's made a career of slapping his name on things other people created.
I remember him doing everything in his power to not have his name attached to the proposed ACA replacement, which is really saying something
Trump, and Republicans in general, love destroying anything Obama did or cares about.
Remember though that Trump often says things just because they make his crowds cheer. Also, although he had almost 5 years he never even managed to release an outline of a plan, though I do think they are preparing much more for a second term.
Donald Trump has an inferiority complex to Obama and I'd wager its emboldened by his racism. This was kind of a big feature of his presidency, he showed the desire and capacity to un-obama everything he could.
Same reason he wants a 1980s style trade war against Japan. He doesn't think much about issues, so once he decides a soundbite is a good one, he'll use it for decades.
They hate poor people and are being paid by private healthcare companies
And employers. Keep in mind if you can’t afford healthcare without a job paying for it… the. You have to work, and they use that to keep you in line,
And they take it out of your earnings, so, they’re still not loosing anything
This is why "compromise" is a shit strategy when dealing with Republicans, even if it works.
We got a more conservative plan than what Mitt Romeny had drawn up, and now we've got "moderate" Dems who agree with Republicans that it went too far.
If Mitt Romeny had won, we'd unironically be in a better position with healthcare. Because Republicans would have seen the boost from Romney doing it, and wouldnt blindly oppose anything better.
And even the "moderate" Dems would have to support improvements, because they're always just to the left of Republicans. But never further to the right
But since Obama was president at the time, it might be decades till we get something better.
Problem is here than Romney did NOT draw up "Romneycare" and even vetoed eight sections of the bill, even though all of those vetoes were eventually overridden by the Legislature.
Wild take. If Romney was president they would have just ignored health care as an issue like Bush had just done for 8 years.
Interesting take. Are we sure that Romney would press on healthcare?
He wants to repeal it because it's an easy method of getting his base riled up, because they hate (are afraid of) black people.
Simple as that.
Cuz Obama is a Blah and also made fun of little donnie at the correspondent's dinner and he haz a sad about that ever since. Also explains why little donnie is a birther, too.
Because he never gave us a health care plan and knowing Obama did it (using a blueprint from his other enemy, Mitt Romney) makes his pee-pee feel small.
Obamacare has its origins with the Heritage Foundation, which is the same plan Romney used.
If he were to get reelected, Congress should pass a bill renaming Obamacare to Trumpcare before Inauguration Day. It’s so stupid it might just work.
Hopefully instead he’s just grumbling about the world in jail by then, but we’ll see.
It was never named Obamacare, though.
Fair point, lol
it would have to come from republicans who are absolutely bent on dismantling medicare and social security. I don't think the incentives line up, but its a fun thought
Like everything, he dislikes Obama a lot. He needs to blow up something kind of good. Then, "replace" it with something better that is always 2 weeks out from sharing. I'm pretty sure it'll be called "Trump Cares, He Really Doesn't Care"
“I really don’t care, do U?”-care
It's like Nixon's plan for Vietnam, only applies to everyone in the nation.
Aw give the fella two weeks and he'll surely come up with something.
(Well, four years plus two weeks maybe)
Well, give him four years + three weeks, since he'll need room for Infrastructure Week somewhere in there.
My bad. With the sole exception of everybody who has actually seen it, nobody has seen an infrastructure week you know. Tears in their eyes. Huge.
He just need two more weeks. Just two more. He needed two more weeks 6 years ago, but now I really pinkey swear guys, just two more weeks and we'll have the best damn Trumpdoesntcare health plan ever!
He should take a vacation to Mars. I hear two weeks is just perfect.
Because he’s an orange bitch.
This is offensive to female dogs…
… no dog, female or otherwise, would ever consent to go near him. (Except maybe to piss on his sock,). Dogs hate him. Which is how you know he’s among the worst humanity has to offer.
I don't think we have to over analyze it. He tried to repeal it in his last term, and his opinion hasn't changed even though he failed the first time.
No, he doesn't have a plan for an alternative and he never did.
It's just ideology-addiction/prejudice.
That's all it ever was.
_ /\ _
Because it's something from the other side that people like
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Thursday’s report on consumer spending showed the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of underlying inflation getting close to its 2 percent target.)
Nonetheless, over the past few days, Trump has declared that if he returns to the White House, he’ll once again seek to do away with the Affordable Care Act, the reform that has produced a significant decline in the number of Americans without health insurance.
The main point in Obamacare’s favor is simply the fact that the number of uninsured Americans fell sharply after the law went into effect.
We’re still well short of the more or less universal coverage provided by every other advanced country, and the health insurance some Americans have remains inadequate, but the gap has narrowed a lot.
Before Obamacare, Americans with preexisting medical conditions who weren’t lucky enough to get coverage through their employers were in dire straits: Insurers either wouldn’t cover them at all or would charge exorbitant premiums.
is tricky, in part because the law, while offering extensive subsidies, also included many measures aimed at reducing health costs.
The original article contains 880 words, the summary contains 176 words. Saved 80%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Let Trump say whatever he wants about that. It's a losing issue.
Republicans have very successfully poisoned the discussion on this topic. Maybe it will help if I start by saying I don't think private healthcare should exist in any way, shape, or form; I think all healthcare should be public including vision and dental.
Yes, Obamacare is pretty bad. Just like Romneycare in which the ACA is modeled after, it fucks over every single person in poverty. Studies also show that it caused premiums and OOP costs to rise significantly for people that already had coverage when it passed. The fallout of the ACA passing did also have a lot of short term problems, most of them caused by republicans that supported the bill right up until Obama signed it.
Edit: updated to make it clear when and who was affected by rising costs.
Sources, please? Everything I've seen says that Obamacare successfully reduced the rise of premiums and costs. The double digit yearly increases in premiums from before the act have disappeared.
I've seen the same kind of analysis, IIRC. That ACA effectively held down costs.
Here's an article from NPR where they mention it. I'll edit my post to make it clear that not everyone saw costs rise
In other words, it has flaws that need to be addressed but we've been too busy defending it to have the political capital to do it. We knew there would be some losers, but not nearly as many as before and ten years later costs are actually lower than the CBO projected.
It's undeniable that it did help people. I'm never going to object to that fact. The reason I don't think it's good is because it didn't do much for the poorest people in the country, the people the bill was meant to help
It was also meant to help people with "pre-existing conditions." Which it has, immensely. Prior to ACA one could not leave, or it was prohibitively expensive to leave the health insurer one had when first diagnosed with a chronic condition, and therefore could also be unable to leave an employer if said employer provided health insurance. Further, one could hit a payment cap and then be uninsurable, and if a payment was missed one would get dropped and then became uninsurable. I'm guessing millions if not tens of millions now have insurance who otherwise would not. Plans are subsidized based on income which is helpful.
And I'm not disagreeing with you. I will however point out there is Medicaid for the poorest.
… and some of the most needy who were missed, were a few Republican states refusing money to expand their Medicaid programs
Premiums have risen about $7000 yearly since the ACA, the same rate in the 10 years prior
anything would be better healthcare. other than the 1 piece of legislation forcing insurance companies to insure sick people, 'obamacare' is a love letter to insurance companies.
fucking insurance is not fucking healthcare
Obama called it a 'starter house.' Remember, Obama had both Houses in 2009-2010 and the ACA barely squeaked through.
Conservatives have been poisoning the well on healthcare longer than you've been alive.
'Frame Canada' made me think you were going to be quoting the 'South Park' movie. The actual truth is much stupider.
Yep. Ronnie Raygun put out propaganda on LP, no less, before many of us were born, calling it "socialized medicine". What's that comrade? You want healthcare? Whadaya, a commie? Dying without healthcare is for red-blooded Muricans, because something something FREEEEEDOM (cue the end of Braveheart).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan_Speaks_Out_Against_Socialized_Medicine
The 'socialized medicine' we're talking about here was Medicare. The album came out in 1961, and by 1980 Reagan was a huge fan of that program. [By 'huge fan' I mean that he was smart enough to know that talking bad about it would cost him votes]
Oh, those things that no one can afford?
While I agree with you I'm many ways, the fact is my kid with lifelong genetic disorder has had two major surgeries paid for by marketplace insurance with no trouble at all and without pages and pages of medical history we used to have to fill out every time we changed jobs or renewed, which insurance company's could and often did use not only to avoid paying for pre existing things, but also to try to deny any claim or even kick people off insurance for filling out the form wrong.
That one piece was hard won and worth a lot in my opinion, and I don't trust Trump to mess with it. The guy is gonna be bankrupt, why does anyone think he'll be doing anything other than selling the country for cash?
I think it's a lot like FDR when he wanted universal healthcare.
Moderate Dems and Republicans united despite Dems holding the majority, and forced Social Security to just be for the elderly and those with seriously debilitating health issues.
With the promise to FDR that it would be expanded later into universal healthcare.
Literally the same thing that happened with Obamacare.
Lots of people dont like waiting 3 generations to see that kind of incremental improvement though. Especially when there's no logical reason not to just give it to everyone
We could go back to not insuring people for pre-existing conditions. Obamacare isn't the be all end all of healthcare, and it could certainly be better, but it's not getting better under Trump.
If it was up to insurance companies, they'd classify "being born" as a pre-existing condition. That parameter is just there to protect their assets from the "greedy" sick people who file claims, and they'll push that line of what is and isn't covered as far back as they can. Don't give them the line to move.
Insurance is not healthcare. But we live in late stage capitalism, and without insurance there is no access to healthcare at all. Obamacare took care of some of the more egregious problems we were dealing with, but it was clearly not the final solution.
So who thinks that Trump, or indeed any Republican can be trusted to come up with anything better?
Is there any criticism of the corporate wing of the party that won't be immediately met with a veiled (or not so veiled) accusation that the person doing the criticism is a Trump supporter?
Since I didn't say that here, I can confidently say "yes."
If you say so.
You can try to pick a fight if you want. Just don't expect me to do more than roll my eyes at you and dismiss you as the child you've continued to be.
"If you say so" Is picking a fight now. Ok.