Obamacare VS. Trumpcare

Maybe you didn’t follow the day-in and day-out of the Affordable Care Act legislation. It was presented in July 2009 when the silvers were just showing up. It took months of amendments and rewrites and hearings for it to be signed into law. Actually, it wasn’t passed until March 23, 2010. That was what stood for “cramming it down our throats” back then.

I didn’t like “Obamacare.” That’s what the Republicans started calling it before they voted to repeal it more than 50 times. I got quite a few lectures from Democrats in high office about compromise. What’s the point of winning office if you have to compromise? For the love of God and all that is holy, the Democrats had the House, Senate and White House! Couldn’t they have at least made a pitch for single payer for everyone and then negotiate down for the public option? The Democrats really wanted to bring the Republicans along on the bill, capitulating and doing backflips to get them on board. They would pass amendments to water down the bill to try to get votes from across the aisle. It passed the House with a vote of 220-215. The Senate passed it 60-39.

There were some good starts to the bill when it came to extended coverage for children, eliminating the pre-existing condition rules and requiring insurance companies to spend their earnings on their customers. Good grief. It was like they took a library book about knife fighting to a gunfight. Well, it was right there on the television machine for people to watch. We heard all about “death panels” and how Obama just really wanted to unplug your grandma’s breathing machine so he could save money on the alternative energy bills.

One in 10 veterans depend on Medicaid. Military advocacy groups are opposed to the proposed changes. There’s a provision to allow states to opt out of covering pregnancy and new mothers. This is brought to you by the “pro-life” crowd. Opioid treatment coverage can be nixed on a state level. Good thing we have such a good handle on that epidemic. Oh, wait. We don’t. It’s a medical problem that the private prison industry would love to treat for the public.

Compromise and open government was the charging call and the Democrats answered. The current health care bill, well, it isn’t a bill about insurance or access to doctors. It’s a bill about taxes. Why? Well, you only need 51 votes for starters. Talk about lowering the bar! Easy, right? There may be a few problems.

Trading almost $600 billion for the top 1 percent of the country for the health care access of more than 20 million Americans seems like a sticking point for some senators. It’s like their constituents LIKE having the ability to go to doctors without missing their mortgage. The deep cuts to Medicaid in the proposed bill would hurt some of our most vulnerable — including two-thirds of our nursing home population. I’d call it death panels but that’s been done.

The spirit of debate has been put on life support. The bill was crafted in secret, unlike the ACA. When an Independent Journal Review reporter asked Sen. Lisa Murkowski if she’d seen the bill text yet, she responded, “I am not a reporter, and I am not a lobbyist, so I’ve seen nothing.”

That’s how tight the lid on this bill has been. A member of the majority wasn’t given advance notice. That’s a good enough reason to vote against it right there.

Here’s the thing, folks. All the things we heard were wrong with “Obamacare” are actually wrong with “Trumpcare.” I’m all for repeal and replace if the replace is better than the repeal. Is that so hard? Are our senators willing to replace their own health insurance with the same they pass for the rest of us?

I’m guessing the “sick of winning” we were promised is considered a pre-existing condition and won’t be covered under the Senate’s pending bill. Here’s an idea. Call Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Sen. Dan Sullivan and ask them.

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