I already talked of health care in a previous post, but wanted to continue the topic.
When I talked about the individual mandate on my last healthcare post, I forgot to mention that the penalty for not having healthcare goes to the government and pegged to healthcare. The insurance companies get none of that penalty. The people do. The cost goes to defray future costs.
Republicans have no issues with the concept, as they force people to do things all the time. Even in Massachusetts, Republicans implemented the Affordable Care Act by a different name complete with individual mandates. A tweet mentioned in this article capsulized the Republican thinking about individual mandates.
GOP sparked legal battle over the mandate, which they called Tyranny. But a larger penalty, paid directly to companies, is Not Tyranny. But now, GOP is totally fine forcing people to buy health insurance. Mandate wasn’t punitive or profitable enough for Insurance firms.
Republicans have always scorned the lower and middle class and favored the top 1%. Raegan-omics, which caused massive taxes, was set described as trickle-down economics, a failed concept, even from a theoretical point of view. Giving money to rich bankers and CEOs will never result in them selflessly giving money to everyone else. We are talking about the same group of people that have multi-million dollar parachutes coupled with multi-million dollar yearly income (in various forms).
These same CEOs launder money and stash money overseas looking for any and every way to pay no taxes. If they were so selfless, these people would pay taxes. We see that they do not. Look no further than Trump, who prides himself on paying no taxes for over 20-years. He refuses to share his tax return, even now that he is in office. He has never done a charitable thing in his life.
I cannot think of a single Republican that helps the lower and middle class. They do everything to push them down making statements like: “If the lower class wants healthcare, they should give up their iPhones and instead buy health insurance.” An iPhone costs $32 per month, while health insurance costs anywhere from $400 to $1200 per month. Republican representatives make statements that poor people are poor, because they are lazy and do not want to exercise or eat healthy. These and other statements are not only ignorant, but arrogant, cruel, and sadistic.
Republicans want to abolish the social safety net at all costs, not because of financial concerns, but because of ideological concerns. Illegal voting is pseudocode for African American and other minorities voting. Polluting the rivers and environment is not a concern, even though that effects every American. We get one-liners talking about “drill baby, drill” without regard to the destruction that it causes.
The individual mandate exists in other forms, like I previously mentioned, in auto insurance. There is an individual mandate to pay income tax. Republican idea for tax reform is tax the poor (12% to 15%) and help the rich (39% to 35% for individuals making $450,000 or more and reduce the capital gains, which only affect the rich). Mandates that help the rich are totally fine and justifiable.
Employer Sponsored Health Care: The intent of the individual mandate was never about the individuals, as Republicans have never cared about individuals. Trumpcare does away with the requirement that large corporations must provide health insurance. That was all the time their biggest gripe. As a side note, companies with less than 50 employees are exempt from this requirement.
Covering More People: The CBO noted that the refundable tax credit would not cover any more people than repealing healthcare outright. Poor people tend not to pay taxes and certainly would not be able to purchase health insurance with a refundable tax credit that Republican would then reduce in time. Compare that to the Affordable Care Act, which augments Medicaid, offsets costs of health insurance if your income is below a certain amount, and has health exchanges, such as the Covered California set up by California. States that implemented the Affordable Care Act worked!
Lower Income and Middle Class Coverage: The Congressional Budget Office today (Monday, March 13, 2017) estimated that the number of uninsured people would grow by 14 million in 2018 as the result of the Republican Trumpcare plan and grow beyond that to 24 million with more years out. Basically, 24 million people, who now have health insurance would lose their health insurance under the Republican plan.
Additionally, these 24 million people would become not only a financial liability on society for providing healthcare, but many, who now work may wind up sick and then placed on the social safety net thereby increasing both the federal and state debt. Moreover, sick people tend to make others sick. So those that vote for the Republican plan or support them might get sick, who otherwise may not have with these sicknesses not necessarily being the common cold. Do not forget that Republicans get rid of regulations and reversing much of the safety that we now have.
My attempt in this and other posts is not to push one ideology, but rather to focus on improving healthcare for all Americans, and of course, at the most reasonable cost. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a huge step forward by any measure in this effort. For those that advocate Universal Health Insurance, and I believe in that, the ACA is a great add-on. Medicaid and Medicare would cease to roll over to Universal Health Care at the bronze level with various options on top of that being offered by insurance companies and covered by the ACA. As I and many others inclusive of the CBO have stated, the Trumpcare (and other plans put forward by the House) are a huge step backwards.
A healthy citizenship along with a functioning federal government is the first step to reducing the deficit and employing everyone. One cannot work if they are sick. Sick people do not work. They are leaches on society. Healthcare is a right, not a function of how rich you are or how old you are.
Let me know what you think and please like, share, follow (Twitter and Facebook), and positively contribute in whatever way to help this cause of taking back and educating America. The American Civil War and WWII must end.