Don’t people who vote Republican get sick?
I wondered that this week as I watched President Trump and House Republicans high-fiving in the Rose Garden after passing a bill to undo Obamacare.
Presumably, the people who elected them were thrilled, too: “No more Obamacare! Whoo-hoo! Isn’t it great?!”
Yes. Great. Except for this: Millions and millions of people – 24 million, in fact, by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s assessment of this bill’s forerunner – will lose health insurance.
Presumably, half of those people identify as Republicans, or at least as non-Democrats.
So I ask again: Don’t they get sick?
Aren’t they ever injured?
Don’t they grow old?
Don’t they ever need care?
And if they don’t, doesn’t anyone they know – their parents, their kids, their friends, their neighbors?
Or this: Haven’t they ever lost a job and with it health insurance? Don’t they worry about losing their life savings because of one illness?
Or can they all afford health insurance so to hell with anyone else? If so, as the bracelet goes, “What would Jesus say?” I ask because the GOP is His party, or so we’re repeatedly told. My guess, if I can be presumptuous, is He’d say: “Love one another, and that includes helping each other stay healthy.”
Just a guess.
I don’t understand any of this, to be honest. I don’t understand the GOP’s glee at the notion of killing something that – while truly flawed – is helping people. Why don’t they just fix it? Or better yet, pass universal health coverage, like most major nations?
I don’t understand why replacing something that they perceive as “bad” with something that is clearly worse is a good thing.
I don’t understand how grown men and women can – without a trace of shame – pass a bill without reading it after hounding Democrats for the past seven years for doing the same thing. Are they irony-challenged? Do they think we’re stupid?
I don’t understand why they equate “access” to health care with “the ability to afford health care.” These are not the same thing. We already have universal “access” to care. We’ve always had that. We always will have that. What we don’t have is the universal ability to pay for it. I like to think people are smart enough to know the difference between the two, but so far that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Above all, I don’t understand why anyone would support a health care bill that allows insurers to charge more for pre-existing conditions.
Don’t a lot of us have those?
It’s largely a myth, by the way, according to the Washington Post’s fact-checkers, that rape and domestic violence would be considered pre-existing conditions.
But it’s not a myth that pregnancy, heart disease, cancer, mental disorders, Parkinson’s disease, AIDS and a host of other maladies would be.
So I ask again: Don’t Republican supporters have any of those illnesses? Don’t they have babies? Don’t they suffer depression? Wouldn’t they freak out if they lost a job and their coverage then went to the Trumpcare exchange (and, by god, that’s what it’s going to be called from here on out) to buy a replacement policy only to be told, “Sure, but it’s gonna cost you a lot more if you’ve ever been sick”?
Wouldn’t that infuriate them? Wouldn’t they think “How is right to charge someone more for being human?”
We all get sick, after all. None of us – except for the wealthy – can afford modern health care without insurance.
I think we can at least agree on that.
So tell me again how this bill is a good thing?
Image credit: DonkeyHotey
Great article Andy again you have a very good way to express a issue that I think most of us would agree with you 100 per cent .
It isn’t a good thing, and they know that and YES they think we’re stupid.
Trump has a failing grade on many of his campaign promises and “over-the-top” executive orders. We better find a way to start shaking that “stupid” image we have, or he and his puppets will just keep on going……
Good article as always.
It is simply mind-boggling, and ‘morally repungnant’ . (Robert Reich) Great article yet again, Andrew.
I honestly believe that republicans passed this piece of crap legislation because a) the president needed a win, and b) they needed to free up funds for that tax refund that they promised the top 1%. What is best for their constituents was clearly not as important.
Agreed. I also believe the Senate, whose members are currently voicing opposition to this bill, will pass their own version, after “allowing” the Senators from Alaska and Maine to vote against so Pence can once again feel important and break the tie. This Republican Congress is a well-oiled, corporation-greased machine of destruction.
I like it when you pretend to be naive with “don’t understand”. We all know the answer is simple, they just can’t handle letting Obama have the credit for improving health care. Its that petty childish reason that drives their agenda and votes.
The GOP is not about making life better for anyone, they are about asserting their will on people who make them uncomfortable. Just about every GOP supported measure is in someway designed to restrict equal rights of: women, minorities, non-christians and the LGBTQ community, rather than improve the lives of all Americans.
The GOP valididates the beliefs of insecure white men that they are the kings of the world. That is one of the primary reasons they still get votes. Insecure white men and their submissive wives make the GOP a success, and the primary reason they do this is because it makes them feel powerful. How the policies might affect them is irrelevent.
They flocked to trump, because he is an authoritarian figure who reminds them of their fathers, whom they may had feared, but the familiarity is irresistible for those with self worth issues. They need to be lead by the loudest, angriest bully to feel safe and they never question him. This effectively makes them sheep.
I couldn’t have diagnosed or said it better Fred.
I may not always agree with you Fred, but this time you nailed it.
My thoughts exactly.
Yes, they DO think we’re stupid. As Congressmen, they have healthcare for life – they don’t care what becomes of us. If you aren’t a rich,white male you can go screw yourself, as far as they are concerned. I hope this will wake people up, but I doubt it. #IAmAPreexisting Condition
Good article Andrew, I have a better understanding of the GOP’s “health bill” when I view it as a tax bill. In order to secure the next major give away to the wealthy and corporations they needed to get the first few billion dollar into the health bill. These dollars do not go against the revenue neutral requirements of the tax bill and will make billions more available for their tax scheme.
The Republican Party is wholesale party first, country last.
The only original idea I have is that all these benighted Republicans believe things used to be better in the USA back when they were kids, and they want to go back there. They ignore the facts that back in those days, many Americans suffered and died and went bankrupt, due to lack of decent health care and health insurance. It was not a topic of conversation back then, so they believe it was not a problem.
These people, our leaders, are brutal. Inexcusable.
Andrew, I love seeing a non-bullet-pointed post from you. And, multiple posts this week. Hooray! Please try to keep it up.
WOW! Look at all the liberal heads explode! I love it! Can’t wait to see what the next 4, 8, or, I imagine, 16 years bring. Sic um President Trump.
sic um? Please elaborate.
He probably means sic ’em. It is a thing people supposedly used to say to their dogs. I bet if we ever actually spoke with Ernie, his favorite word would be, “Um.” (sic)
I agree with Fred completely. And because it was called “Obama Care” it had to go!! Yes, they think we are all idiots……….and due to the fact that he got elected with all his lies and promises makes me think maybe they’re right! This whole thing is scary to me.