The American HealthCare Act is in the Senate: OPINIONS

Opinions on the 13 Senators Working On The Health Care Bill Are All Men, and All Republicans, Generally Don’t Agree With Each Other or the House… Which is Whatever, Because I Don’t Agree With them Either

13 Senators are now working on the American HealthCare Act (the GOP repeal and replace bill that passed the Senate); we offer opinions.

These Senators notably are:

• All rich, white, men with health insurance. This isn’t to say that there is anything wrong with being an older rich, white, man with health insurance (I hope to be one someday personally), this is only to say there are no women, people of color, people living in poverty, or people who will ever have to worry about getting covered working on the bill.
• Generally not in agreement with the House, or with Each other. Thus, the bill is likely going to see some changes and be on the back-burner while changes are discussed (this also lets the liberal rage die down).

This means that once again, there is a lot of uncertainty, but for all the uncertainty: it is very likely the end result will be something that liberals don’t like (tax cuts to Medicaid, tax breaks to the wealthy, and tons of uninsured with a little dash of deregulation; all under the guise of “choices”).

NOTE: The above is generally fact, the rest of this page is opinions from a moderate liberal who is a little disillusioned with politics right now, and specifically healthcare.

I want to say here something like, “remember how Trump said insurance for everybody and Australia’s system was better?”

Well, can we please do a single payer or public option with an HSA, and for that, fine, you all can have your tax breaks for the rich… I mean, we can do this with a work requirement, roll Medicaid into it, whatever you need to do here… there are countless options that are better than the AHCA.

But, I’ve been around long enough to know, they WILL take the tax breaks, but they WILL NOT do the catastrophic coverage + HSA version of a single payer / public option.

No GOP Senator will even consider that Bernie essentially already has a great answer, or that one could construct a free-market version of it.

There is no historical precedent for Tories being good people, I don’t expect it here of course, but jeez is it aggravating.

They will, and mark my words, circle around like vultures until people are less stressed about healthcare, and then they will magically swoop in with a plan (that will still look like Ryan’s Better way but slightly worse).

Rand won’t get his way, Cruz won’t get his way, but honestly I can’t even tell who wants what and why any more. All I know is that the plan will be junk + tax breaks and will be sold as “Choices” because “death spiral.”

I know we don’t like giving things to “lazy moochers” (AKA poor people) in America, but maybe if we didn’t treat them like this, maybe if we focused on educating all citizens, then there would be no moochers to scapegoat? Anyways, the policies that are passed don’t just stick it to the “moochers,” they hurt hard working “Real American” families.

Maybe if we taught ALL our citizens to be highly intelligent and hardworking capitalists, helping them to manage HSAs and invest in IRAs, instead of oppressing them under strange laws, then they would not need the handout?

Maybe they would not need to be locked away with mandatory minimums and kept from voting?

Maybe if we didn’t smear the terms “liberal” and “democratic” we would know what values we were defending (or not, depending on the weather I guess) from authoritarians.

The system we have right now is sort of a pile of quasi-socialism for the poor, the AHCA is quasi-socialism for the rich, and meanwhile I am struggling to see any actual fix in our country.

Yet, when we look at other countries, or say Bernie’s plan, we find that there are a ton of good ideas floating around.

A TRUE fiscally conservative free-market single payer (with a public option, HSAs, and public hospitals that compete with a private system; a true mix with flexibility at the state level) would really help Trump, but my guess is that Trump could never get the GOP to pass it, and instead the GOP will take their tax breaks and then, once they have them, introduce Trump to that same sort of respect they offered Obama.

I think the reality is that the conservatives in both parties love the tax breaks for employer health insurance and don’t want to truly repeal all the spending and assistance.

I think they just want the tax breaks they promised industry (so they can get their pat on the butt from Norquist and ALEC) and that is that. I think this because a Tory is always a Tory, thus it reasons that a Tory will act like a Tory again (so that is handouts for the wealthy, but punishment for the poor and for “labour”).

But why be so simple and loyal to very specific large employers (who often don’t even want that degree of loyalty publicly) when we could actually fix things?

At least John Stossel has principles (I keep thinking Rand does, but I really do think I’m most confusing him with his father).

Stossel at least suggested getting rid of employer tax breaks along with everything else. At least that would treat people equally.

When I look at a plan that wants to just take away everything and think it is better than the AHCA, I wonder why more people don’t feel the same?

Like Stossel says [paraphrasing], “if you are going to repeal it, repeal it all.”

That means Medicare for Grandma, that means all tax breaks for Walmart, that means all of it. Rip that bandaid off, they shouldn’t be costing $5 anyway.

Why just hurt some poor minorities? Hurt everyone equally, and then we can deal with it at that point.

Let the Moochers, both poor and rich, suffer. At least that stops the debt from piling up. The market will bow to the demand.

When no employees have insurance, the prices of private insurance will surely drop.

Or, you know, go with a more reasonable option, which is a form of universal coverage that maximizes the free-market. If everyone has HSA dollars to spend, and everyone has the very basics of a plan, then everyone is a customer. The pump is primed for a true free-market system to work.

Of course, there is no K-street suit to tell you to do this, this solution can only be gleaned by actually talking to those in healthcare.

It isn’t political or part of the strategy that created Fox News (thanks Roger and Rupert), but it is a strategy that could work to actually fulfill the ideology of the Powell memo.

We have drifted far away from smart free-market principles and toward pure Toryism, but things can technically always change.

The eight years of purposefully breaking ObamaCare and slandering Obama has really created a nasty environment, it made healthcare sort of broken, it made TV rather unpleasant, it made Russia our close ally (always nice to have friends, but just seems a little hypocritical; well whatever).

Not everyone gets the full gambit of what happened, they probably never will, but many do rightly hold the conservatives responsible for a bit of this mess.

Not everyone gets the difference between a Know-Nothing, Southern Conservative Democrat (er, um, I mean Republican), or a Tory, but like, history does.

This unholy union is bad enough, but does it really have to come wrapped in a bow that is the AHCA? Can we not add insult to injury and instead offer people a way to protect from injury in an accident?

One has to wonder if it isn’t time for someone, I don’t know maybe that is Trump, maybe it is the lucky 13, but someone, to actually try to create a good healthcare bill.

Until then, I’m very certain everyone will remain miserable (minus the Republican base; at least until the GOP healthcare bill kicks in and they realize “wait, I AM the lazy moocher”), stressed out, and holding the ruling party responsible.

#somehow being disappointed your deadbeat dad who literally never showed up for your birthday didn’t’ show up for your birthday again.