An Open Letter To Trump: The GOP Health Plan Wont Work, Replace ACA With Single Payer

[Jimbo101]

Huffington Post

Health care reform is urgently needed. Seven years after the passage of the ACA, 26 million Americans remain uninsured, tens of millions more are underinsured, and health care costs – already twice as high as the average of other wealthy nations – continue to rise. In a recent survey, Americans were more likely to report financial barriers to health care than citizens of any of the 11 other nations surveyed. One-third of Americans, including 43 percent of low-income persons, went without health care due to cost last year.

Unfortunately, “The American Health Care Act” (AHCA) would be a big step in the wrong direction. The bill would shrink Medicaid benefits for millions of poor and low-income families. It would sharply reduce the value of government subsidies, leaving millions of near poor and middle income Americans unable to afford coverage, and shifting millions of others to the kind of bare bones plans that you have decried. Meanwhile, it would give hundreds of billions of dollars of tax breaks to the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans, and reward insurance firms that pay outrageously high executive salaries.

In sum, this legislation will degrade already inadequate coverage, increasing financial barriers to care and endangering tens of thousands of lives, merely to reduce taxes on rich individuals and corporations.

The working people of America are looking to you for something better.

-snip-

In contrast, a single-payer system, essentially an expanded and upgraded version of traditional Medicare, could meet your stated goals of more coverage, better benefits and lower costs. Such reform would drastically cut insurance overhead and the paperwork insurers inflict on doctors and hospitals, saving more than $500 billion annually. Those savings would cover the cost of universal, first-dollar coverage – including dental services and long-term care – upgrading coverage for the vast majority of Americans.

-snip-

Signed,

Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., M.P.H., Co-founder PNHP

David Himmelstein, M.D., Co-founder, PNHP

Carol Paris, M.D., President, PNHP

Don McCanne, M.D., Senior Health Policy Fellow, PNHP

Adam Gaffney, M.D., Board member, PNHP

Janine Petito, Medical student board member, PNHP

Richard Master, Chairman & CEO, MCS Industries, Inc.

[HughBeaumont]

1. "BUT MUH CAPTILALISM!" (Circular Filed)

Fuckers.

[leftstreet]

2. DURec

[Vinca]

3. They should have reminded Dear Leader that single-payer would mean his businesses

would no longer have to pay for healthcare for their employees and since he doesn't pay taxes anyway, it would be a personal win win for him. Remember - he only cares about Don the Con.