Trumpcare 2.0: The Coalition of American Oligarchs Loves It!

Well, thank god. The Republicans are started down the road (or maybe across the Bridge to Nowhere), on the way to repealing and replacing Obamacare.

The Affordable Care Act was terrible, right?

Okay, maybe it did reduce the number of uninsured Americans to an all-time low, cutting the total from 16%, or 1 in every 6 of our neighbors, to 8.6% of the nation’s population, or 1 in 11. 

Who cares about uninsured neighbors? Unless they crawl over to your property and die on your lawn.

Obamacare is imploding. President Trump says so. According to Speaker Paul Ryan, U.S. health care was perfect until President Obama started messing around. From the days of smallpox and the Founding Fathers to passage of the ACA people with preexisting conditions were never able to get insurance. 

Just as Jesus intended!

(I’m not sure about right-wing theology in this matter. My understanding of Jesus and his message would be: Heal the sick and help the poor.)

As of Thursday we know Trumpcare 2.0 is going to be fantastic even though House Republicans dared not wait to let the Congressional Budget Office score it. In fact, according to Mr. Trump every American is going to have better coverage, at way lower cost, and all nurses will be Victoria’s Secret models.

If you don’t believe any of that—because you actually understand math—well, you must listen to “fake news.”

I know. You might be conservative. You know someone who had to pay for maternity care in their insurance package and they’re 93 years old. Or you know someone who couldn’t choose their own doctor back in 2010.

Or you, yourself, saw premiums spike.

We liberals get that. That does sting.

And remember when America was great, before President Obama, and premiums never went up!

And benefits were never curtailed, until the Affordable Care Act was enacted!

And Big Pharma priced drugs fairly because executives who run the companies love the sick so much they wish they could give them drugs free. But legally they can’t, so they jack up the price of live-saving insulin by 700%.

Yes! Let the Big Business folks shape the entire health care system again. Big Business folks are saints.

Big Government? Always evil! Always.

Just ask Mitch McConnell.

No, scratch that. Senator McConnell made sure in a budget deal last week that money would be there to cover retired coal miners and widows who lost health insurance when mining pensions failed.

As a liberal, by the way, I’d say, yes, we can afford to cover unfortunate miners and widows. 

We can also afford to cover five-year-olds who suffer from leukemia. 

To be fair, we all know, except maybe for President Trump, that health care is a maddeningly complicated business. Every honest person knows this issue has a thousand moving parts—and honest people may disagree about details and cite competing examples. But if you believe Trumpcare is going to be way better and cost way less, you’re being played for a sucker.

Consider the opinions of those who know the system best. Below is a list of groups that came out against the first GOP plan in March.

That plan was so terrible, only 17% of Americans approved. You might as well have asked people: “Do you approve or disapprove of cholera?” 

Cholera would have polled higher.

Anyway, these groups opposed the first version:

American Medical Association

American Hospital Association

Catholic Health Association

Association of American Medical Colleges

Children’s Hospital Association

AARP

Oh, yeah, also:

American Nurses Association

American College of Physicians

National Nurses United

National Physicians Alliance

Association of American Physicians and Surgeons

American Academy of Pediatrics

These groups joined in opposing the second iteration of Trumpcare:

American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network

American Diabetes Association

American Heart Association

American Lung Association

Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation)

March of Dimes

National Multiple Sclerosis Society

National Organization for Rare Disorders

WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease

Then again, there were a few groups that did come out strongly in favor of Trumpcare 2.0. So let’s not forget them:

Coalition of American Oligarchs

Trump Family, Inc.

Koch Brothers Family Reunion

Mar-a-Lago Supper Club

—and—

The Walton Family Foundation for Not Insuring Our Own Workers

All across America this weekend, the top 25 billionaire hedge fund managers, the seven members of the Walton family, worth a combined$134 billion according to the Forbes 400 list, and the two richest Koch brothers, who suffered so deeply under Obama that their wealth only increased to $42 billion each, are celebrating. So are big Trump backers like Sheldon Adelson and Carl Ichan, assorted members of the Trump cabinet (Wilbur Ross, Betsy DeVos) and, of course, the President, himself. With a personal fortune estimated to be $3.7 billion, he is #156 on the Forbes list—and if this plan goes through, he’ll save a bundle.

In other words, it’s a great day for freedom (to develop lung disease and die if you’re poor), to be an oligarch in America.

At Mar-a-Lago (membership fee: $200,000; annual dues: $14,000), they’ll be partying hard in weeks to come. I think all the members will now be able to afford second helpings of beautiful chocolate cake.

Got a child with cancer! Too bad for you.