Donald Trump and the GOP celebrate, laughing and drinking Bud Lite, as they make a huge leap toward sentencing innocent Americans to death.
Cancer victims, diabetes patients, sufferers of mental illness, and people subjected to many, many other health issues now have no choice but to look to the Senate to keep their health care affordable. If the Affordable Health Care Act passes the second house of Congress, millions of Americans will have their lives cut unnecessarily short.
Republicans in the House of Representatives have already taken the first step in that direction.
The House passed a bill repealing much of Obamacare, in an attempt to fulfill a long-standing promise from the Republican party. What they failed to do was represent the people of the United States of America in any way.
Instead, they chose to promote a bill that essentially eliminates the affordability of health care for over 24 million Americans, proving once again that they value money over people.
The AHCA is anything but affordable for many Americans. Beyond that, it eliminates coverage for pre-existing conditions, which under this bill now includes domestic violence and rape. That adds to what were already previously considered pre-existing conditions, such as diabetes, cancer, mental health issues and many other diseases that are out of the control of the patient.
Meanwhile, the same bill delivers huge tax cuts to the rich.
The bill was put together clumsily and hurriedly in order to get the vote done before the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office could review the bill, whose purpose is to provide estimates of the number of Americans who would be insured, the impact on the federal budget, the cost of premiums, and other fiscal impacts.
As if that wasn’t enough of a red flag, the stipulation that members of the federal government would be exempt from the new plan and would retain their benefits from Obamacare should have raised suspicions for all citizens. The bill was proposed with the idea that the Senate would fix a lot of the problems. The laziness of this 115th Congress would seem to indicate otherwise.
The AHCA failed to come to a vote earlier this year because it was unlikely to pass, due to the fact that it was so flawed and detrimental to the American people. This bill is worse.
The bill limits employer-provided health insurance as well. Obamacare created a policy that established a maximum amount employees would have to pay out of pocket for health expenses. The AHCA gets rid of that policy.
Instead, it allows employers to take their own interpretation of what they must provide to workers, so they may cut benefits to their employees, depending on how loose state laws are. Yet again, a strike by the GOP against working Americans so that the rich can have lower taxes.
One of the biggest problems with this new health care bill is the fact that it is incredibly neglectful toward women. Unsurprisingly, the plan indirectly aims to defund Planned Parenthood, and guts funding for pre- and post-natal care.
It also cuts coverage for birth control, mammograms, STI screenings, cervical cancer checks, and other essential health benefits. Beyond that, it severely cuts funding to Medicaid, which approximately half of all births are covered by. This comes as no real surprise, as the GOP has been at war with women and their reproductive rights since the initiation of those issues in this country.
Despite thousands of calls and letters to Republican members of the House, the AHCA has been passed by the House of Representatives. Most representatives who were on the fence ended up with completely full voicemail boxes. Still, enough of them voted yes to get the bill passed, proving, once again, they do not truly value and represent their voters.
They represent their party, and they vote for money. They do not represent the American public.
This oligarchic system of government is perpetuating a constant repression of poor American citizens who now will not be able to defend themselves. Republicans are taking off the veil of serving the American people and are showing no shame in demonstrating their allegiance to the wealthiest citizens.
If this bill passes the Senate and is signed into law, millions of Americans will be vulnerable to the tyranny that is the GOP.