It is now inarguably clear that healthcare reform in America was never about people or morality for (C)onservatives, it was all about hating Barack Obama. The cancelled House of Representatives vote yesterday was a date picked because it coincided with former President Obama signing the Affordable Care Act bill seven years prior. House Speaker Paul Ryan(R-Wisc.) and his cohorts sat down and probably said to themselves, how can we do this and really stick it to Obama? Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, lets repeal it on its anniversary. So, they presented a shiny blue folder held up for public consumption by Paul Ryan, rushed the bill through two midnight hearings and mark up sessions and voila, garbage in garbage out.
In an effort to appease the hardline Republicans who think the stripping of healthcare for an estimated 24 million people is not quite cruel enough, Paul Ryan has made a last-ditch effort to save face. Below is the list of essential benefits that may be eliminated to get enough votes to pass through the House of Representatives:
Under the ACA or Obamacare, every health plan must cover the following services:
- Ambulatory patient services (outpatient care you get without being admitted to a hospital)
- Emergency services
- Hospitalization (like surgery and overnight stays)
- Pregnancy, maternity, and newborn care (both before and after birth)
- Mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment (this includes counseling and psychotherapy)
- Prescription drugs
- Rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices (services and devices to help people with injuries, disabilities, or chronic conditions gain or recover mental and physical skills)
- Laboratory services
- Preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management
- Pediatric services, including oral and vision care (but adult dental and vision coverage aren’t essential health benefits)
- https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/what-marketplace-plans-cover/
My seventy-four-year-old uncle dislocated a finger recently, that is outpatient care…GONE!
I was taken by ambulance to an ER with abdominal pain February 28th– Emergency care…Gone!
Thatpain by the way, was from a surgical procedure I had last November, that surgery may not have been paid for under the new proposal- Surgery, Overnight stays…Gone!
My Cousin and his wife had premature twins a month ago, he had better rob a bank- Maternity and new born care…Gone!
I could go on but you can probably write your own stories. You may not have suffered an unexpected illness, pregnancy or had emergency care but we all know someone who has. That is why we have insurance pools and safety nets for the poor, because we care. What is so perversely appealing about seeing people worry or bankrupt themselves because of illness?
I am lucky. I have two sons, the oldest a Navy veteran, his wife and kids have military insurance. My youngest son has a wife and five children their oldest just entered college. Without Obamacare and the ability to have her covered until she is 26, coupled with the cost of tuition, if she got sick I shudder to think. Their lives and the well-being of their other kids would be in jeopardy.
Lab work, prescription drugs, pap smears, mammograms all gone if the House Republicans prevail. Trump railed about the scourged of opioid addiction. Care for substance abuse is on the chopping block. I often talk about my pride in being a liberal, not a progressive, new age thinker or all the other titles good people use to run away from the moniker Liberal. I am proud to call myself a liberal and what the (C)onservatives want to do to the poor, the hungry and the sick is precisely why.
’18 and Change’