Health Care…

Dear Editor,

The Republican health care plan was hurried through the House of Representatives without consulting voters. Before the Senate rushes it through, let us look at the winners and losers in this plan. These numbers come from the Congressional Budget Office, CBO.

The winners are rich people and corporations who won a $592 billion tax break over 10 years. The federal government wins; They don’t have to connect actual costs with what they pay. They can give a fraction of the cost and the working poor or states must supply the rest.

The next winners are young city folks. There is no requirement to buy insurance, and the cost of insurance is much more than the $2,000 tax break, so many young people won’t get insurance and spend the money elsewhere. Additionally, cities have more medical service than rural areas so their insurance rates are cheaper. Rural people pay more for health care and insurance so the tax break doesn’t help much.

Some more losers are the older people. Under this law insurance companies can charge an older person five times more than a young person. If you are 55 years old that is a $5,000 a year increase over Obamacare. A 64-year-old making $26,500 a year paid $1,700 under Obamacare, under Trumpcare the cost is $14,600.

Medicare recipients lose help with drug costs increasing their out of pocket costs. Hospitals and doctors lose money as millions of uninsured people flood emergency rooms. States lose as they are faced with the draconian choice of raising taxes to cover Medicaid patients or dropping care.

People with pre-existing conditions in Idaho will lose a lot more than money. Raul Labrador wants to be our next governor, and he demanded the amendment allowing states to ask for a waiver from covering pre-existing condition. This allows insurance companies to dump sick people in an extremely high-cost plan, or drop them all together. Raul Labrador will implement this Republican death panel in Idaho. If insurance companies can take your money for decades and then drop you if you get sick, your insurance isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.

By 2026 the number of uninsured will rise to at least 56 million, more if states ask for waivers. There is no way to put a polish on this turd called the American Health Care Act. Time to call our Senators.

Mary Haley
Sandpoint