2017 Apr 29^th

This is that magic one hundredth day when all the world will rejoice at the many accomplishments of the Trump administration. OK, so I’m being facetious. His administration has accomplished nothing. The appointment of Gorsuch to SCOTUS was as much an accomplishment by McConnell who refused to do his constitutional duty and consider President Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, as to any activity on Trump’s part.

Now, after embarrassing himself with his “repeal and replace Obamacare” effort, an effort that was approved by a mere 17 percent of the population, here comes Trump again with a plan that is even worse. Few men seem to love failure as much as Trump. Except for winning the election by the thinnest of margins (and he might have had a little extra-national help doing that) Trump has won nothing.

Most everyone knows that the Republicans live in fear that someone somewhere will get something they don’t deserve. The new version of the AHCA helps to prevent that and it too stands no chance of passing into law; it is unlikely even to pass the house. As with the previous version this effort was never discussed with the American Medical Association and these worthies plan to run ads against it. Why on earth would Republicans not want to get feedback on their health insurance plan from the country’s premier physician’s organization? Maybe they expected the AMA would not approve it and they didn’t plan to alter it to get their approval.

The new plan still covers people with existing conditions but now these people go into a high risk pool and guess what will happen to their insurance rates…but hey, they don’t have to buy insurance if they don’t want to. In addition, there will be policies that just don’t cover some of the things that are covered now, things like mammograms, doctor’s visits, etc. so naturally the insurance will be a lot cheaper. Eventually it will cover so little and be worth so little that everyone can afford it, but nobody will want it.  

The reaction these Republicans are getting from their constituents should convince them that repealing the ACA is not the answer. In fact, Obamacare is more popular now than ever. The reason is obvious, Republicans have shown the horrendous flaws in any program that might replace it scaring the hell out of the public who have come to rely on it.

It is obvious that the ACA needs to be patched up. Enthusiastic bi-partisan support would be available for that but the “no compromise” wing of the Republican party won’t have it. Didn’t Trump run on a repeal and replace platform? This was before he admitted that he didn’t know how complicated health care was.

Trump now brags about his accomplishments, but most of these are executive orders written by someone else and all Trump is required to do is sign his name.