Conservative Newspaper Eviscerates Trumpcare

Only the most ignorant and hardcore trumpistas could support the abomination called Trumpcare passed by the Republicans in the House of Representatives. Here is what the editorial board of the traditionally conservative Dallas Morning News thinks:

President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers promised they would repeal and propose a better health care solution than the Affordable Care Act. 

 Well, so much for keeping promises. The House bill passed on a 217-213 vote Thursday does the opposite. It threatens to drive up out-of-pocket costs for most Americans and make others virtually uninsurable. The Senate should reject it.

Comprehensive health care reform requires shared sacrifice to balance the interests of consumers, taxpayers, medical providers and insurance companies. But Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan have tilted health care reform away from consumers while pretending that they have improved health care in this country. They haven't.  

If you have a pre-existing medical condition, the bill increases the odds that you will be denied or priced out of insurance coverage — thanks to a provision that allows states to opt out of the federal mandate and for insurance companies to cut back or deny coverage.

 Gone also is the all-important individual mandate to buy health insurance — a critical provision to create a large enough pool of healthy people to keep overall prices affordable. It gets worse: The bill also guts the Medicaid program, which provides health care to about 74 million poor, disabled and elderly Americans, stripping away $880 billion over 10 years or about one-fourth of its budget.

How can any GOP lawmaker in good faith tell constituents that this is a better deal? It is not a better deal to shift billions of dollars in Medicaid and other costs to the states, who are likely to slash benefits and restrict eligibility — and/or unravel core elements of a health-care plan with a substitute that creates more problems than it solves. 

The hypocrisy is staggering. For seven years, House Republicans blamed the Obama administration for rushing health care reform through Congress. Yet, just weeks after their first attempt at reform failed, the GOP-leadership in the House rammed through a hasty revamp of one-sixth of the U.S. economy. 

They did it without support from consumer groups, doctors, insurance companies or hospitals. Nor did they bother to hold hearings to give the American public time to comment or wait for the Congressional Budget Office to assess the bill's fiscal impact.

Real conservatives would be embarrassed to be part of this unconscionable charade. Among Texas GOP House members, only Rep. Will Hurd showed the courage to vote against this bill. The others, we predict, will hear from constituents outraged over the effect this measure will have on them if the Senate doesn't step in to fix the mess. 

Let us be clear: The Affordable Care Act has weaknesses and needs reforms to protect key benefits and reduce overall costs without reducing access. This replacement bill, however, would only make most things worse.

The Senate should kill this bill and let House Republicans who voted for this monstrosity dangle on their record as having cast this vote. Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the chamber, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz should step up and oppose this bill.