Monday, March 27, 2017

What's Next for US Healthcare

Well that was fun, but there is absolutely zero chance that Republicans are going to stop trying to destroy the Affordable Care Act just because they failed to do so through legal means. They already have a new plan, which is as petty as it is callous.



So, their plan is to let everything go to hell in the world of healthcare, putting many millions of people at risk of death and almost certainly causing more than a few actual deaths out of spite/so they can pick up the pieces and do whatever they want with them in the ensuing chaos.

Real evil cartoon villain move there.

Republicans have of course been claiming that Obamacare is collapsing or spiraling or whatever other doomsday image they can conjure up, but is it really? Some guy named Larry says that the general consensus is "no." It sounds like despite problems, the spiking premiums will stabilize and things will be relatively okay under the current law, even if it's still flawed. Now is a good time to remember that this is a Republican law, basically a clone of what Mitt Romney came up with back when he was pretending to be a moderate Republican.

Anyway, many people are now speculating that the Dampnut administration will actively attempt to undermine the healthcare marketplace so that it does collapse and they can be all like "look we were right" and act out that cartoon villain scenario we talked about. That certainly doesn't sound like somewhere too low for them to stoop, and small, tricky bills undermining the ACA will be harder to detect and fight. So expect that in the near future.

However, there may be a bit of a silver lining in this shit parade. Senator Bernie Sanders is planning to introduce a bill that is the exact opposite of what Republicans are trying to do. Real, effective single-payer healthcare that covers everyone so that you never have to worry about whether you'll be able to afford to pay for chemo if you get cancer again. All for an increase in taxes that, knowing Bernie, will mostly affect people who can very easily afford it.

No, this won't get passed, shut up for a second. This bill could send a message. If the Democrats throw their support behind this bill and everyone on the left demands it, imagine the side-by-side comparisons of single-payer system approval and Trumpcare approval in the polls. It's guaranteed to piss Lord Dampnut off, which has been shown to throw him off his game. And it could bolster the movement for universal healthcare in this country.

Bernie's gonna do this. It's up to the rest of us to make it worth his effort. Demand universal healthcare.
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