Republicans Really Just Want You To Die.

Republicans Are Trying to Take Away Your Health Care

Republicans spent the last several years trying to destroy "Obamacare" and it appears that they may now be succeeding. Amongst other things, the Affordable Care Act's (the ACA's) "mandate" required that all Americans obtain health insurance or pay a penalty for not doing so. Republicans fought against this ACA mandate, claiming it was "unconstituional" to "force" people to purchase something. The mandate was contested all the way to the Supreme Court, where it was deemed "Constitutional". Since then, Republicans have attempted to halt, alter, undo, change, or otherwise "repeal and replace Obamacare" over 50 times- all unsucessfully. Until now. Trump and the Republican tax reform bill of 2017 ammended the ACA to remove the mandate, or tax penalty, for going uninsured (but kept the requirement that all Americans buy health insurance). http://fortune.com/2017/12/20/tax-bill-individual-mandate-obamacare/ Trump's tax reform bill also ended consumer protections in the ACA that disallowed insurance companies to discriminate against those with preexisting conditions, and hundreds of other requirements (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2018/12/15/latest-aca-ruling-is-raw-judicial-activism-impossible-defend/?utm_source=reddit.com&utm_term=.5a1ac3f6431a) such as no-cost annual exams, maternity and newborn care, mental health and substance abuse coverage, prescription drug coverage, and peridatric care. Last June, the Republicans, who decry "judicial activism" and "activist judges" in public but seek them out in private, then searched the country over to find a "special" judge to hear a particular case they wanted to put together regarding the ACA. They found the judge they needed right here in Texas: U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, a "highly partisan" and vocal ACA opponent. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/11/obamacare-lawsuit-donald-trump-midterm-election-preexisting-conditions/ (Judge O'Connor) "had no comment on why the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, filed some of his major cases challenging Obama-era policies in Wichita Falls, Tex., where he is the only district judge who hears cases, and in Fort Worth, where he is the only district judge who is not semiretired." https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/15/us/judge-obamacare-reed-oconnor.html Judge O'Connor has ruled that due to Trump's tax reform bill of 2017 that removed the mandate, that now the whole of the ACA is "unconstitutional". "In (Judge O'connor's) view, (even) the penalty-free mandate still amounted to a coercive exercise of government power." https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2018/12/15/latest-aca-ruling-is-raw-judicial-activism-impossible-defend/?utm_term=.1959ab452c57 O'Connor thinks that because the mandate and the penalty were "inseperable", that removing one part of the equation- removing the the tax penalty, but leaving mandate- the destroys the whole of the law; that even, and even especially, a "penalty-free mandate" is "unconstitutional". The Republicans who brought the suit in June and Judge O'Connor conveniently delayed their (entirely expected) ruling until after the election season, hoping nobody would notice their machinations until after the midterm elections, if then. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/11/obamacare-lawsuit-donald-trump-midterm-election-preexisting-conditions/ Of course, it was Trump's 2017 tax reform bill and House and Senate Republicans who removed the mandate (but, again, not the purchase requirement), and it's now clear they did so with the full intent to have filed this suit and delayed the ruling until post election season since they have been unable to take away health care from millions of Americans by any other means without being voted out of office. And, this ruling also declares that the states that did choose to participate in the Medicaid expansion (Texas did not participate) are now "invalid (too) — which would effectively strip health insurance from millions of low-income people." https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/paulmcleod/texas-obamacare-unconstitutional Trump celebrated Friday's destruction of the ACA by stating ""It was a big, big victory by a highly respected judge, highly, highly respected in Texas," Trump said. "And on the assumption that the Supreme Court upholds, we will get great, great health care for our people." https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/421551-obama-urges-people-to-sign-up-for-health-insurance-after-ruling-striking Of course, Judge O'Connor is not a "highly respected judge". You can always tell when Trump is lying because he repeats the lie several times. https://reason.com/volokh/2018/12/14/breaking-district-court-judge-in-texas-h But now the Republicans have realized that Americans will soon notice and are regretting their decision to destroy health insurance that has helped 21 million families, especially in light of the fact that health insurance was a factor in the last midterm election that lost them many seats, and they are worried about what will happen once this latest news is addressed in congress when it returns to DC in a few weeks. https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/15/republicans-obamacare-ruling-1066659 Well, I guess they should have begun thinking about that several years ago. While there will be no immediate changes to the ACA this year (other than no tax penalty for not purchashing health insurance), this case will likely see years of litigation and will also likely ultimately fail, in the meantime insurance companies, healthcare providers, and most importantly individual Americans, will suffer due to this poor policy planning, poor strategy, and poor decision making by the GOP. This ruling will roil health insurance markets and destabilize both health insurance companies and health care providers of all types when they are unable to make cogent plans for the future. Families will suffer when health care is lost as soon as next year. (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-healthcare-court/no-immediate-health-coverage-changes-from-obamacare-ruling-government-idUSKBN1OE0OQ?utm_source=reddit.com), Republicans have run on "repeal and replace" for many years now but have never offered a "replacement". Ted Cruz, who once "shut down the governement" by reading Dr Seuss in the Senate in opposition to the ACA, and who also in an abrupt about face this last election season suddenly claimed that he was going to "protect" health care for Americans will be forced to once again prove that he doesn't care about or want you to have health care, And Trump's quote today that "we will get great, great health care for our people." is based on nothing but thin air and lies. Trump Tweeted tonight "As I predicted all along, Obamacare has been struck down as an UNCONSTITUTIONAL disaster! Now Congress must pass a STRONG law that provides GREAT healthcare and protects pre-existing conditions. Mitch and Nancy, get it done!" The real solution for the American crisis is healthcare is "Medicare for All".