In his upcoming State of the Union Address, President Trump owes Americans some straight talk on health care. The reality is that Trump has already broken his many promises on health care. During his three years in office, Americans are paying more for medicine and millions have lost coverage due to cost increases.
In 2015, Trump told a conservative publication affiliated with the Heritage Foundation, “I’m not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid.”
The very first thing he tried was repealing the Affordable Care Act, which included a popular bi-partisan expansion of Medicaid. Here in Arizona, the ACA’s Medicaid expansion is one of Governor Jan Brewer’s proudest accomplishments. If Trump had succeeded, more than 400,000 Arizonans would have lost their health coverage. Thankfully, Senator John McCain put a stop to Trump’s plan.
So much for not cutting Medicaid.
But it gets worse.
Under Trump, we are undergoing a huge spike in drug prices. Trump’s response? Give drug companies billions of dollars in tax breaks and oppose giving Medicare the authority to negotiate lower drug prices—the most effective solution to this problem. Though Trump pretends that drug prices are coming down, the truth is that drug companies have consistently raised their prices and reaped massive profits. In 2017, the prescription drug Lantus, used by patients with Diabetes, cost Arizonans $4,702 annually. It was $2,907 in 2012. Arizonans have experienced so many significant increases in the cost of medication that we are often forced to make the difficult decision of whether to pay for medication or buy groceries. This is just plain wrong.
Last, Trump and many Republican elected officials are pushing a partisan lawsuit to overturn the ACA. While this effort has snaked its way through the courts, Trump has found plenty of other ways to undermine Americans’ health care. His administration championed junk health insurance, claiming that they will expand coverage to more people. In reality, those plans allow insurance companies to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions. Expanding junk plans does nothing but harm Americans who desperately need comprehensive coverage.
Under this administration, attacks on the ACA have left 7 million Americans uninsured. Over 2017 and 2018, 55,000 fewer Arizonans had health coverage. In fact, just about 10 percent of Arizona’s population is now uninsured.
Despite the president’s many promises to release a “phenomenal” health care plan, he has yet to produce one. Polling has indicated that health care is a major topic of concern among Americans. The State of the Union Address will be another opportunity for President Trump to do his job by agreeing to work with Democrats to lower health care costs for families and crack down on the pharmaceutical industry for price-gouging Americans.
Morgan Tucker is with Protect Our Care Arizona.
This article appears in Jan 30 – Feb 5, 2020.
Democrat establishment should address this issue instead of spending their time trying to sabotage bernie sanders campaign.
Just who do you think caused the rapid increase in health care costs? We were paying $400 per month and after Obama “fixed it” we were spending $1200. Insurance companies passed along their losses to older policy holders because Obama lied to them about government bailouts for their losses.
You might also notice that the President has been very busy getting things done and warding off the liars in Congress an the media. (Print included) He still has a year left in this term and then the next four when he wins in November. Would you be OK if he did it in his second term?
https://www.nationalreview.com/2016/06/obamacare-bailouts-billions-billions-billions-cant-keep-insurers-afloat/?target=topic&tid=1330
“The scope of the bailouts put the lie to Joe Biden’s claims just prior to Obamacare’s passage, when he claimed to ABC News, “We’re going to control the insurance companies.” Au contraire, Mr. Vice President. By requiring more than $170 billion in bailouts just to keep the sputtering exchanges afloat,
the insurance companies are controlling you — and us, the taxpayers, as well.”
Now that I hear that line again, it kind of reminds me of what he did to Burisma, and the tax payers.
Affordable Care Act, After the Debacle left by George W. Bush and the Republicans in congress our Economy was in Free fall with the floor much closer than we knew. I wish the Democrats had lost the election in 2008 to see how the Republicans would turn this country into a third world nation faster than you can say Fascist. Franklin D. Roosevelt saved this country after three Republican presidents in a row had ruined it . Deja Vu when George W. Bush caused our Economy to fall . President Obama came in just like FDR and did the same starting in 2008 by saving the Economy. Republicans know how to destroy an Economy but they don’t know a damn thing about saving one. Obama wanted single-payer health insurance for this country but the Republicans and lobbyists worked overtime to make sure that didn’t happen. I can’t wait to see how Trump and his sycophant Republicans wring the life out of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security as well as PRIVATIZE the U.S. Post Office. What I really want to see is the face of frustration, pain ,anger, disgust, and sorrow of the people who voted for Trump and the Republicans when they realize they were stabbing themselves or their loved ones thru the heart at the voting booth.
Wait a minute! What ever happened to you can keep your own doctor and prices won’t go up debacles of the former Administration. The Affordable Health Care Act was anything but affordable. People started dropping insurance due to the exorbitant price raise ever in our Nation. The term affordable was a delusional guise to make people believe someone really cared about this issue. When Trump was first elected he tried to work across the aisle but was not going to happen with the Elites agenda. Clinton negotiated the NAFTA deal that drove prescription drug prices through the roof by selling out medical technology to Mexico and Canada. American’s were forced to go to Canada or Mexico to secure better prices. When the USMCA deal was first negotiated Trump address the issue by putting the drug prescription patents back to ten years, the HOUSE wanted to get on the band wagon but not before they reduced it the medical patents back to zero and then passed it. People are waking up and seeing the truth.
If you are unlucky enough to have to stay in (any American) hospital, you will soon realize that you have entered a ringing casino and you are captive. Charges keep mounting as long as you are stuck inside. Good care may be available, but the bottom line costs are in the works minute-by-minute-by-minute. Your own doctor is not even allowed to visit you in there. As for Trump, once again, he is lying out loud thru his shiny capped teeth when he says he has plans for health care improvements, or even more so for your own personal, real-life pre-existing conditions. Republicans in power have NO plans to improve health care. It is still “Don’t get sick. If you do get sick, just die quickly.”
Five hundred thousand (500,000) Americans declare bankruptcy EVERY YEAR because of outstanding medical bills.