Wait until we have a big pandemic hit. They'll be dragging us into the streets to get people vaccinated and treated. Health care or not.
ACA was a mess but could of been improved as a compromise of private/government partnership making the uninsured pools National instead of State wide. Trump let the republicans make him do their bidding, he blew it. to bad back to business as usual with the Dem/Rep cartel
2
@D For the love of god...
1) "could of" --> "could have"
(seriously, what exactly do you think "could of" means?)
2) "to" and "too" are different words.
1
The man is not capable of making a plan.
8
Views of the Affordable Care Act are split right down the middle only if the question is asked in a stupid way. People who want government to do more on health care cannot answer the stupidly-asked question honestly. They are for it because it is better than what preceded it, but they are against it because it does not go far enough and also rewards our bloated health care sector.
A smart way of asking the question would be to ask if the ACA should be rolled back, kept as it is, or made to go further/ replaced by something that would go further. Views of the ACA are actually split three or four ways, and asking what people think of it in a way that gives people only two choices is rigging the poll to be as uninformative as possible. Why pollsters do this and news organizations accept it is beyond me.
2
Who knew keeping promises would be so complicated?
3
I’m sure it will be something terrific and phenomenal... and Mexico will pay for it.
5
Re: '...President Trump’s renewed interest in health care comes as he plans a rally in Orlando, Fla., on Tuesday to open a re-election campaign that is struggling to find its bearings..."
For years...
Republicans have said they'll replace O.Care! So...where's / what's the plan?
When it comes to healthcare...especially healthcare related to sexual issues...D.J. Trump IS the best thing that ever happened to the Democrats!
2
US/Iran Tension: One major attack in gulf or US can ignite war in Middle East
0846 hrs on 9, 11, 2001, Till that time our world was a quite better place to live. all the nations, countries, businesses and economies were booming.The transport companies were profiting from everywhere. Unemployment rates were quite low as compared with today.Never heard of any major security issues or militants groups that endangered any country or people till that day. All was going well and sound. People were roaming in the streets of NY unaware of the next few moments.
To read full article please click on the given link.
http://www.thenewzeum.com/Home/ReadMore/398
1
Who is still believing what Trump says ? Who is going to believe on a fair healthcare plan made by GOP and Trump,?
2
I think the news people should ask the Republican politicians why they are Republican. What are their beliefs? How does it reconcile with what is going on in Washington. Such hypocrites.
5
" Foul me once, shame on you; Foul Me TWICE, shame on ?? "
2
When I hear the President talk about his lower cost, better coverage health plan, I get all tingly inside. I wonder if that will be covered.
2
Trump not only needs to fulfill his promise on healthcare, but he also said he was going to support Medicare and social security. His budgets tell a different story.
2
Very conveniently, the plan would not be voted on until after the election. Therefore, he could make any claims he wants over coverage and cost, and his supporters will swear by it, right up until the time that their coverage is cut, their costs go up, and the Trump family makes a fortune.
3
What a lack of imagination from Trump. They ran this into the ground last time. Have trouble seeing it working any better this time
3
Gee, what is socialism? Is it subsidizing farmers $19 billion this year, $16 billion the year before to benefit 1% of the economy? Is it to have the Federal government have sole source contracts for billions of dollars with defense contractors? Is it the VA heath care system loved by vets? Is it letting the ulta-rich have tax free inheritances but tax 401K plans if they are inherited? Every working American pays towards Social Security and Medicare - they are insurance systems not like government handouts that go to big business that big business never paid for. The GOP doesn't like these insurance systems and will do the utmost to hurt the average American and corporations & the ultra rich get bigger tax cuts.
12
I think your job some glamour lacks/when checking up on Trumpish facts/He doesn't cover up at all/and lies with relish and with gall/Especially with health care tales/he packages his lies in bales.
5
Healthcare is a moral issue. People should not die or go bankrupt because they cannot afford the same medical access the 1% has to life saving drugs and care. Small businesses should not go bankrupt because they do not have the same economic leverage as corporations to offer affordable healthcare.
Trump and his big pharma / insurance lobbied Republican cronies thought nothing of throwing millions off of health insurance, stripping people of pre-existing conditions coverage and lying about ever having had a plan in the first place to replace the ACA when they held both houses. They were too busy filling their own pockets.
Healthcare is a human right. I know this as someone who was a hospice volunteer during the AIDS pandemic. Watching young men and women die for no other reason than they were not given access to over priced cutting edge drugs developed by greedy pharmaceutical companies was and is inhuman.
16
@H.A. Hyde - It's also an economic issues. We all pay the price of lower productive, bankruptcy due to medical bills and higher premiums to cover care for the uninsured. It serves absolutely no one to have people go without affordable health care.
5
Lesser men than Donald Trump would consider not actually having a plan to be a minus... .
2
The winning position on healthcare is clearly Medicare for All...who want it. It is political suicide to think that millions of people would like to give up their current employee subsidized plans. Bernie, you are a utopian dreamer.
Offer every American a chance to buy into Medicare. Set rates based on income and assets. Pay for the shortfall with taxes on the rich, taxes on the corporations and some juicy taxes on any company, medical association, drug firm, retailer that profits from healthcare.
Ultimately, we must acknowledge that profiting from illness provides a disincentive for improved health outcomes - and those profits are indeed, immoral.
6
Healthcare is so complex with so many moving parts that any proposed plan should have asterisks, because it will not be enacted exactly as proposed. In order to meaningfully improve our healthcare system, it will take the good-faith cooperation of both parties in both houses of Congress and the White House, examining every aspect of our healthcare system that will be affected, with minimal worrying about political winners and losers. If Trump comes up with a healthcare proposal, it should be closely scrutinized, and the news media and other candidates should question whether it will really achieve what is promised.
"Trump Wants to Neutralize Democrats on Health Care. Republicans Say Let It Go."
"President Trump has vowed to replace President Barack Obama’s health care law with “something terrific” in the next month or two."
With Trump, his "“something terrific”" in healthcare should be looked at with foreboding. Remember the various health care replacement bills put out by McConnell and Ryan. Each had a bill, created in secret that Trump supported. But each of those bills would have cut over 32 Million Americans out of any health care insurance. Each of those bills would have drastically cut or killed off Medicaid which would have forced the closure of many rural hospitals across the nation.
As we have seen with the Trump and republican tax cut bill, when Trump says "“something terrific”" it will only benefit him and the rich republicans. The big tax cuts for the Middle class and poor were just an illusion cooked up to blind the majority of Americans.
7
"...which among other things would eliminate protections for patients with pre-existing conditions. Mr. Trump has repeatedly said he favors such protections but has not explained how he would achieve them if the Obama-era law were invalidated."
The healthcare companies could voluntarily agree to support pre-existing conditions - I don't see why that wouldn't work...
2
Republicans have already begun dismantling the ACA, chipping away at key parts of its funding. Trump's promises of "better than Obamacare" are nothing more than hollow rhetoric. Like Richard Nixon's "secret plan" for Vietnam, Trump is using this healthcare ploy to drum up support for 2020.
A gradual reduction in age eligibility for Medicare is the logical way to bring universal health care to America.
6
Trump harps on the "healthcare" issue, specifically calling it Obamacare, because he is playing to his conservative, Obama-hating peanut gallery, hoping they can put him over the top come election day. of course, when Trump - or any Republican I can think of - talks about the issue, they don't ever talk about health or care at all; they talk about what concerns them, which is private insurance, and that means they frame the conversation as always and only about money. Trump will never advance any better proposals for healthcare because he is not even addressing health. so, what he is really doing is playing a racist card and pitting Americans who are relatively more secure against those who are less secure, his usual divisive strategy. don't be fooled, the guy's an experience grifter and he's trying to pull a long con on us all, proving yet again that there is no individual in America today who will do as much for Democrats in he next election as Donald J. Trump, pride and shame of Jamaica Estates.
4
Republican Plan: Just send us your money; take two aspirins; and don't call us in the morning, or any other time, either
12
The Republicans should come up with an honest slogan, for once. How about: "Medicare for Nobody"?
14
Those who desire Medicare for all should learn how Medicare works. You pay taxes for perhaps 50 years. Then you qualify for benefits. But you have deductibles and copays and still pay as much as $5000 a year for Medicare Part B and supplemental insurance. That’s what you want, right?
@Robert Bosch Not true if you have a Medicare HMO plan.
1
"He [Trump] can’t deliver the impossible", says one expert. It would be nice if NYT reporters would draw out the implications of such a statement. Is it impossible because Republicans are against the government required to deliver the health care Americans want? Or is it impossible because Republicans don't have the imagination or intelligence to deliver it? Maybe both.
11
"Many Republicans say they should not focus on healthcare but instead focus on immigration ..." Hard to believe Republicans will win on sadistic and hateful immigration policies like taking children from their mothers seeking refuge.
11
Yes, hard to believe - but Trump’s base and many others see illegals as criminals who are bringing the penalties of the law upon themselves. That’s how they rationalize it: we don’t want to separate families - but these reckless, uncaring, foolhardy illegal immigrants are forcing us to do just that. And then they claim it’s for the children’s own good. Nonsense, of course. But the base buys it...
3
Republicans have always run on FEAR of the other.
6
Trump and the Republican health care plan?
Die faster! They still don't have any real health care plan.
Let me make it clear to you. If you're not a millionaire and you want health insurance and you want to live then vote Dem.
12
Democrats want Health Care bad/But that is making Trumpy mad/He promises through thick & thin/that sick people will vote him in.
2
Trump is not going to produce any health plan that will improve the system now nor before the ACA was enacted. Republicans do not want any more government involvement in health care beyond what existed before Obama was President.
He needs to face up to facts. If he tries to replace the ACA, in addition to repealing it, he will go against the Republican base’s fear of socialized medicine, and they will turn on him. In addition, it’s gained some acceptance for a few millions who prefer the ACA over the unregulated private market, so even Republicans will find constituents do not want it repealed without some replacement. If he repeals it, he’s got to impose his own regulations to provide like provisions. He will not be able to do it without setting the Republican Party against itself. McConnell would block it for that reason.
6
McConnell usually doesn't need a reason to block things in the Senate; he does it for tactical advantage. in so many wiley ways, he is worse than Trump - plus, McConnell's more of a permanent fixture, like a toilet.
1
Why is it that the majority of Republicans totally support moving this nation into bankruptcy? Want proof? They support the Trump spending system where they and their friends can gain more while at the same time this nation heads closer to bankruptcy. You can not spend more than a trillion dollars a year that has to be financed via increased borrowing for long for the world will stop buying US bonds soon and then the Feds will simply have to print (or use the one sided entry to increase the funds on the books of the US Government) and then inflation will really take off for the same reason it did when LBJ debt financed the Vietnam war.
6
Why is it that the Majority of Democrats seems to want to open the borders to anyone, so that the country goes bankrupt by people that pay no taxes, even if they have a job. Schools, Border Patrol, Homeland Security, hospitals, all overwhelmed, paid for by US.
1
@BorisRoberts I agree as I am too well educated to support either party and being and international certified accountant I have been trained properly when it comes to using large numbers.
@BorisRoberts - Immigrants work and pay taxes. You really should try reading the economic section some time.
4
Trump observes that health care is an issue that Republicans have trivialized while the electorate considers it critically important. Beyond that he has no clue as to what to do about it.
12
Thank you for including a "right now" action to protect our citizens with preexisting conditions. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA): “If Trump wants to be serious about health care, he needs to stop the lawsuit and his other actions that seek to sabotage the A.C.A.”
The Lying President set his egg timer to 1 month for release of his heathcare plan. To George Stephanopoulos' assertion that citizens with preexisting conditions WILL BE CHARGED HIGHER than A.C.A UNDER HIS PLAN, the Lying President again promised "No, much lower. Under my plan, they'll be much lower."
One month, until then: ASK every Republican Senator about plan's release. ASK every Republican Representative how they will win back the House, when Trump Plan's "details" can't reach escape velocity from Planet Heard-That-Before.
6
Trump will release his health care plan the very next day after he releases his infrastructure plan. And that will be the very next day after Mexico pays for his wall -- the 39th of Kunagonda!
1
A "plan." Sure. This from the man who, on the eve of the midterms in 2018, blurted:
"We’re putting in a resolution sometime in the next week-and-a-half, or two weeks” to give “a middle-income tax reduction of about 10 percent. We're doing it now for middle income people. This is not for businesses."
Never mind that Congress wasn't in session and that laws originate from bills, not resolutions.
I will believe it when I see it. The man is delusional.
12
Ivanka is putting the last touches on the plan.
Wait for it.
6
Trump really has no idea what he is doing as POTUS, but he keeps flailing away, making a mess of everything he gets involved in, and makes every bad situation worse.
Trump reminds me of the owner of a company we did business with here in Utah that (a) failed to fix what we hired the company to fix; (b) billed us for a piece of equipment that was faulty and the company removed; and (c) kept sending us bills despite our calls to keep explaining the situation to which he responded he would take of.
I told a neighbor, who runs a highly reputable business here, and he said, "Oh, John is the kind of businessman who likes the concept of being in business and likes to tell everyone he is a businessman--with an office, a desk, computer, telephone, and a staff--he just doesn't like to do the organization and detailed work it takes to actually manage and run a successful business. P.S. John's company went bankrupt this year.
This is Trump to a tee--likes to tell everyone he is POTUS, likes to tweet insults and policy at 3am and do interviews on Fox, likes to give underlings orders but then change his mind, and fails to even familiarize himself with and continually violates the Constitution, laws, ethics, and protocol.
How long will it take before the Republican Party acknowledges it hired a loser as its CEO who is ruining the American brand, running the country into the ground, and is making the the US the laughing stock of the world that no other nation can trust?
11
it will take until we all outgrow racism and can look out the window and see today, instead of at yellowing old snapshots idolizing an imagined past.
2
Trump is like that undergraduate student who does his/her term papers the night before they are due without ever doing the necessary research, thought, organization, or editing it takes to do a decent job.
Or, in the case of Trump, maybe he goes out a day before the paper is due and hires someone to write his paper for him and then yells at that person when he gets a poor grade.
Also, he may go and whine to the professor that he worked really, really hard on the term paper, which was clearly the "best term paper ever written," and there is something wrong with the professor who gave him a bad grade, because everyone knows the student is a very "stable genius."
Make America Competent Again!
9
30 years MD in rural appalachia-- i feel we should move forward starting with lowering the medicare age to 55 and then a medicare OPTION for everyone else- some may want to keep private insurance-the private comapnes will feel pressure to lower premiums and stop denying vcare by having the medicare option out here...may have negotiated empliyer i surnce and given up wage increases etc to defend that... but in time most will perhaps see the benefits of expanded medicare coverage and begin to transition. give folks choice and they will buy in... and dont forget the 74 million on medicaid, including millons of children and nursing home residents...which suffers from lower imbursement rates than medicare and hence less access...
55
@SW
I agree...call it "baby steps", if you will. Trying to switch quickly to anything more radical (as much as I'd like to) would be like trying to perform a u-turn with an ocean liner. This is the United States of Private Medical Insurance, after all. It's not like we can really "flip a switch".
7
@SW
What you are doing is setting up the government to compete with private industry. In many areas, this is a great idea and the best way to keep private industry honest.
Back when we built battleships, some were built by the Navy and some by private shipyards. This gave the Navy hands-on experience in how much they should cost and the problems that would arise. If the records are still available, it would be fascinating to compare cost and quality and need for repairs of government-built and private-built ships.
a.
Actually, we could compare the V.A. and private health care providers, keeping in mind that the V.A. is underfunded. It is also bad at treating mental conditions, but so is private insurance.
1
What can be said about Republicans in regards to ACA, voting rights, tax cuts, and you can add a few more. Basically their desperation over the ACA is that they don't want to give it the time to become popular enough to hurt them politically, which it has. Again, of all the G8 countries me are the only one who does not have a national health care system, a system which actually facilitates voting, but have managed tax cuts borrowed from the Federal credit card.
6
Gee, you know, and read this whole article and everything, and I didn’t see any sign at all of any Big Plan. I wonder why that might be?
By the way, could we stop yelling at the newspaper for not yelling loud enough to suit you? Pretty much anybody ought to be able to read this and figure out that the article says Trump’s lying, that Trump has zippo idea of what he’s yacking about, and that the GOP is begging him to skip the whole issue.
7
Trump doesn’t know or care about the kind of health care Americans have. He can afford the best and doesn’t know that the average American can’t. He is the last man in the US who could come up with a feasible healthcare plan for all—and in a couple of months, he said. Come off it!
Obama did his best to socialize health care which is the right way to go. Sanders aims for the same thing. He is right too but it won’t happen. We would have to deal with and level flat the fat insurance companies and deal with the drug companies. We should do that.
But it won’t happen—yet. First of all many uneducated Americans think universal health care means they would pay for Other people’s health care. What they don’t realize is that they already are paying for other people’s care each time an uninsured person arrives in the ER and they are paying for his care in their outrageous premiums. Foolish thinking.
What to do? In the meantime buy your meds in other countries and have your surgery there. It works and it costs way less.
8
Once again has a plan, but no one has seen it, seeking to create hope in 2020 election. The con continues.
8
President Trump is a total joke, so there’s no mystery his healthcare plan will also be a joke. The only question is how malicious the details will be under Republican influence. All they’ve got are meaningless promises of ‘access’ to unaffordable plans or cheap skinny plans devoid of adequate coverage.
There’s no chance Trumpcare will bring down national healthcare costs without denying coverage or pricing most plans out of reach. Any promises to the contrary will be lies, Trump’s specialty.
Here’s a Trumpian idea: place tariffs on all imported medicines, medical devices, and medical equipment. We get lots of stuff from Canada, Europe, and Asia. It would be a lie that they’d be subsidizing our healthcare, but that just means it’s another Monday.
2
When I read that a politician has a plan to do this or to do that which in this case is having a plan to replace the affordable care act (Obamacare), I immediately think of the plan that is described in the book Papillon by Henri Charrière.
3
Since many Trump supporters like almost everything about the ACA as long as it is not called Obamacare, all Trump has to do is change the name to TrumpMAGACare, slap a new cover on the bill, and say it is new and hugely beautiful. Congressional Republicans will vote for it without reading it. Democrats will have to decide whether to support what they already voted for, and the few people who point out that this is old wine in new bottles will be called purveyors of fake news. Is this any more absurd than most of what Trump has presented in his time in office or what his cult followers have swallowed?
6
@arp I sure hope the good people of the state of Michigan will change their minds in 2020 and not vote for him again.
3
As usual, Trump announces a plan but won't let us see details until later - like his beautiful new agreement with Mexico. This great new health plan will be revealed in a month.
So mark the date. On or before July 16, we want to see details, including what is covered and how it gets paid for. It must cover pre-existing conditions and protect us all from medical bankruptcy.
If this doesn't happen, we need to point it out loudly and clearly to our misguided countrymen who still believe in our dufus president.
4
"..until 2021, when he hopes to be in a second term with Republicans back in charge of the House" ----- God forbid! What a frightening thought that is. This man is systematically destroying the country and were he to be re-elected, adios USA!
As for his health care, he started promising during the first campaign 'phenomenal' health care and here we are 2 1/2 years later with nothing and no possibility of anything. I don't think he could devise a plan to navigate around the White House much less something on health care. I pray the American people would wake up and see this man for what he is and remember it clearly come election day.....
1
Bit of a chuckle there, NYT. He kicked that off about 3 weeks in to his term, didn't he? There was all sorts of reporting at the time how strange it was for him to already be holding 2020 campaign events.
" series of smaller proposals that would potentially help, such as ideas for bringing down prescription drug costs, etc"
He seems not to know that the GOP, and himself, have spent years gas-lighting Obamacare to suboptimal status. And he promised to bring down drug prices in the '16 campaign, but the GOP refuses to allow Medicare to negotiate the best price which is the only credible way to achieve that goal.
Let's remember this about ACA:
1. As passed it was paid for and would have covered millions more people, but for GOP sabotage in the form of wrecking the Medicaid expansion feature and other actions.
2. People understand that even this degraded ACA is better that what came before. It's about more than preexisting conditions. There's lifetime caps, keeping depended children covered longer, minimum standards, and more.
3. Finally, and heres the real nut; Obamacare is the market solution. The only fix to the problems with Obamacare are to the left. There is no solution to the right.
4. Perhaps if the GOP had tried to improve it instead of destroy it things would look much better today.
5. And finally, rest assured Trump's healthcare plan will be about as firm and detailed as his mid-East peace plan, or the new infrastructure proposal.
Nonexistent.
8
Con Don at it again.
In Huckleberry Finn, the two con men are able to city slicker the gullible townspeople until in the end the people turn on them.
They are last seen heading out of town tarred and feathered.
1
What a con. “We’ll have phenomenal healthcare when we win all three (House, Senate and presidency).” Of course, when they did control all three for 2 years, the Republicans got NOTHING done other than a huge tax boondoggle for the rich.
The real travesty is that millions of my countrymen still support this buffoon of a grifter.
3
My takeaway from this piece is that no Trump healthcare plan is forthcoming. Most of the electorate realize by now that the president’s serial bloviating and sputtering have zero in common with reality. Besides, he’s a pathological liar. I’m actually surprised the NYT continues to give prominent space to the ramblings of a fabulist.
1
Trump's health care plan could be easy, just give all Americans the health care plan all members of Congress have paid for by taxpayers. Simple.
7
Mitch McConnell wants to wait until after 2020 to do something about health care. The Republicans have never had a plan for health care. It is just their pre existing condition. Trump's original idea is to smash and destroy Obama care altogether.
What a Party of snakes.
9
@Babel Yes, Boa Constrictors!
3
I can't wait to see how dear leader manages to square this circle, but that's not the real point.
After the sabotaging of the state of implementation circa 2017 of ACA, anything that can be marketed as "terrific" by dear huckster could find some potential buyers since some people can be fooled all the time. Even by the same cadre of saboteurs.
And of course the crucial details will be missing in the campaign launch of this latest iterate of a "terrific do over". The essential questions will never be allowed to be asked, and the silly pre planned pseudo answers will never be allowed a follow up challenge with actual reality.
So, I don't think that's the point of this. I think we'll rather see an effort to tar democrats with the charge that they refused a bipartisan effort to "improve" ACA since they didn't want to incorporate all those terrific, but very vague/dubious suggestions, which came with enough selling points for the f-x people to disinform before getting down to what's actually intended.
So, after the blah blah of terrific plan silliness, what we will hear over and over and over is the darkly foreboding refrain that what the democrats really intend is to go rogue socialist, nationalize health insurance markets, and
take away YOUR plan.
I wonder if this is due to what pollsters have picked up about how "medicare for all" is playing in the suburbs.
Using a fake terrific plan to undercut medicare for all is a
natural tactic.
2
The Times editorial staff is brilliant. Time and time again they score from the three point line with their analysis, insights and ideas for change. The three battlefronts in this war against Herr Trump are simple and hopefully, these writers will continue to hammer them home.
1. Impeachment proceedings must begin now. With our unrelenting pressure on congress to start this, it can happen
2. We must vote in droves, in waves--no in a nationwide tsunami against this maniac
3. We must push congress to pass laws extinguishing Trump's and all future presidents on either side of the playing field from being able to ignore oversight in congress, skirt the laws of the land, flaunt the constitution, take bribes, etc. In other words, take the long list of what Herr Trump has done and turn that into the new to do list for congress. No one can ever be able to pull this off again. In this manner our democracy becomes even stronger than it has been. We must learn what our founding fathers could not have imagined happening and plug the holes in that dike.
5
Health care is not a priority for trump or Republicans in general only tax cts for the rich are.
3
I will take a look at his plan because democrats have zero moral authority on the issue of healthcare. They just give cheap lip service and never follow through. Obama care had some good points. Yet just like the new plan in California for illegals it penalized Americans with an outrageous mandate. Illegals working off the books and healthy citizens unwilling to work get free healthcare at the expense of others.
In NJ our healthcare system is in shambles due to corrupt democrats with ties to and getting kickbacks from the industry. At present I have great healthcare but it is under attack. Not by rightwing Republicans, not by Trump but by corrupt so called liberal democrats. It's why people are leaving in droves and for the first time we are seriously thinking of selling our property and leaving. All the things that made NJ worthwhile such as good jobs, a mix of people with various backgrounds, great transportation and a great healthcare network are gone. It's like a third world hovel with democrats pandering to illegals because so many citizens are leaving. As usual democrats will just throw stones at Trump while offering nothing better except pandering.
11
@Hellen the problems with Obamacare was mainly due to the GOPs hamstringing of many aspects of it. It’s has helped more than it has hurt. Meanwhile, for ten years with the majority the GOP has come up with nothing.
51
@Hellen Since gaining the majority of the House, the Democrats have passed upwards of 150 bills to move them to the Senate. They have ALL died on Mitch McConnell's desk. What the Democrats have done is called governing, not pandering. Republicans might want to try it sometime. It's actually part of the job description. A large part.
With Americans as under-informed as this, does anyone really think that a participatory democracy can endure?
65
@Hellen Have you walk by the Trump casino in Atlantic City and seen how successful it is? And who paid for that failure when it went bust?
50
Just beg any politician to take down my $900 per month payroll healthcare deductible, the $7,000 yearly deductible before healthcare ins kicks in. Am only 36 with a work plan. Do politicians not get it? Every year the premiums rise. Not sustainable.
3
The only way your complaint about monthly and yearly deductible makes the slightest sense is if you’re on an HSA, and then your numbers are out of whack. You need to go talk to your HR people, because you’ve got no idea what your plan says. At least check the EOC document.
1
Hmmm... Our predatory, private sector, processed food industry is sickening our youth and the rest of us for huge profit. Then we're passed along to the predatory private health care industry for care, drugs etc., and they gain huge profits. The processed food industry invests heavily in private health care and private health care invests heavily in the processed food industry. They both invest heavily in controlling, lobbying, guiding, bribing, black mailing our elected representatives to protect their predatory profits. It's the American Way!
4
The Republicans will never design a comprehensive national health insurance plan because they do not want one. They have fought it for decades. The very concept is inimical to their beliefs. The only reason they are even willing to discuss the issue is because of the advent of the ACA which they have now wasted ten years trying to destroy. The biggest irony of all is that the ACA was birthed as a conservative plan by the right wing think tanks and first given breath in Massachusetts as Romneycare.
6
I woke up today thinking I was 2 years younger! Haven't we heard this enough times. "Wait, it's secret. I have the plan right here in my pocket. But I can't show you yet." Playground antics.
4
A general political rule: Any change will hurt someone, and the opposition will trumpet that someone. Republicans made political hay out of the people who lost the insurance they liked as a result of ACA. Any new proposal will give the Democrats a weapon.
1
GOP got hammered in the midterms partially becaue of healthcare, so I say to Trump, "keep up the rhetoric!"
Sometimes, when I'm not infuriated with Nancy for just pursuing justice for justice's sake, I think she might be smarter than everyone. Give Trump endless rope, and he'll hang himself. But, then I come to my senses, and I know Trump needs to be impeached, because it's Congress's oath. But, if Nancy somehow pulls off the long game, and makes Trump look absolutely insane and corrupt (like he does to any sane individual) to even his base, I will give her some credit. He should still be impeached. This precedent, and "President", can not stand.
5
Hello?
It should not be that complicated or such a big drama for one of the richest nations on earth to provide people with decent healthcare.
Period.
UK, Canada, Finland, Norway, Sweden. Denmark, Iceland etc. all do it and they are doing fine. Better than us in many respects
Maybe we can jumpstart affordable healthcare by rolling back that huge, immoral tax cut the Rs rammed through for the very, very rich.
Like the Kochs, Adelsons, DeVos' really need even more of the taxpayer's pie ?
(And the low-information Base, who stands to get hosed the most, is all rah-rah maga. Sad. Actually, its pathetic)
10
Trump and his Republican sycophants have reason to worry if there are more pro-liberal voters like me and if the Democratic Party chooses a sound candidate to oppose him: In the 2016 election the Democratic candidate was Hillary Clinton, whom I (and I suspect numerous other liberals couldn't abide), and I viewed Trump as an un-electable joke for whom very few people would vote, so I chose not to vote at all - a huge error that I will never again repeat.
Fortunately, this time around, the Democratic Party has a number of potential candidates who would be good and even excellent presidents. But, even should the Democrats put up a complete dud to run in 2020, I would vote for the dud rather than allow Trump to have a second term. With escalating international crises, the stakes are now even higher than they were in 2016. If there was ever a time for all good people to come to the aid of the Democratic Party (and of whomever their candidate might be) it is now. No more Trump and no other Mitch McConnell surrogates. This is clean-up time!
6
Whatever worked in the Obama administration's plans in every area did so despite Republican opposition. Most of what didn't work was because of Republican opposition. The Affordable Care Act would have been far better without a GOP blockade every step of the way, but most of it still works reasonably well or better. Resurrecting Republicans' disastrous attempts at a "better" politically-motivated health care plan will hopefully be a non-starter for the 2020 election and will reveal itself to be simply more trumpist bloviation, designed to fool enough of the people enough of the time to keep this blowhard in the Oval Office on the federal payroll as he continues to dismantle America as we knew it.
3
I wish we could get Canada to implement and administer a healthcare plan for the US.
2
Aaahh, Trump and healthcare...
The man knows nothing--NOTHING--about healthcare. Proof?
“Together we’re going to deliver real change that once again puts Americans first. That begins with immediately repealing and replacing the disaster known as Obamacare … You’re going to have such great health care, at a tiny fraction of the cost—and it’s going to be so easy.” — Campaign rally in Florida, October, 2016
Feb 27, 2017, in the WH speech to governors, Trump said: “Now, I have to tell you, it’s an unbelievably complex subject. Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated.”
On May 11, 2017, Trump said: “But in a short period of time I understood everything there was to know about health care. And we did the right negotiating, and actually it’s a very interesting subject,”
In a July 19, 2017 NYT interview, Trump said: “So pre-existing conditions are a tough deal. Because you are basically saying from the moment the insurance, you’re 21 years old, you start working and you’re paying $12 a year for insurance, and by the time you’re 70, you get a nice plan. Here’s something where you walk up and say, “I want my insurance.” It’s a very tough deal, but it is something that we’re doing a good job of.”
Please, Trump supporters. Ponder the inexcusable ignorance on display above and reconsider your support for the man.
7
I have to wonder if Trump's supporters are capable of understanding how much of a shyster he is. In 2016, he was promising to replace the ACA with something that was better. Now, he tries to place the blame for his failure on Democrats and John McCain, but let's keep in mind that he has never presented any type of possible replacement. If he had proposed a replacement and the Democrats (and maybe John McCain) had voted it down, then he could try to argue that his replacement would have been better than the ACA. As it is, he is trying to get voters to allow him to play Monty Hall with their health.
He wants to retake the House in 2020, hoping to have the Senate, House and Whitehouse again. I want voters to remember that between 2017 and 2019 when the GOP controlled all three, their only substantial law was to give tax cuts to the wealthy while raising taxes on many in the middle class. Already we are beginning to see how this law is ballooning the national deficit.
17
We all know what Donald Trump’s health care plan will be. He’ll announce that medical care is free, no one gets sick anymore and everyone lives forever. People who point out he’s lying are “Enemies of the People” spreading “Fake News”.
8
We're still waiting for Trump's Middle East peace plan. Still waiting for his infrastructure plan. Still waiting for his plan to have Mexico pay for his wall. Trump's only "plans" that come to fruition (i.e., that actually make their way to formal documentation) are those that relate to his reelection.
13
Trump voter #1: "I hate Obamacare."
Trump voter #2: "Me too. But that ACA is a good thing. I wouldn't have had health insurance without it."
Trump voter #1: "I wholeheartedly agree."
13
What I would really like to see is for Trump and the Republicans be HONEST and admit that they don't really care that much about health care reform. Admit that they don't see this as something the federal gov't should be involved in, and that they don't see themselves as responsible for the welfare of the sick and vulnerable. That they would rather take the money they would "save" from subsidizing health care and increase funding for the military. And that inefficient, wasteful use of taxpayer money is okay if it's funding the military (and if you disagree, you're not a patriot). That would be honest, and then the electorate could choose what they want from their representatives and how they want their tax dollars spent.
8
I would like to see the Public Option reinitiated into what Obama had proposed before the Republican party acted in bad faith haggling over healthcare reform for over a year, adding over 150 amendments, and then not voting for it. That is what i expect - at the very least.
Or they can all get voted out of office and their party can just file for bankruptcy - I'm sure Trump wouldn't mind, it's what he does every time he wrecks a business.
5
There is no plan that costs less and covers more people. That is not how insurance works. The NYT and other people should call Trump's claim what it is: a bald-face lie. As has been stated over and over again there are a couple of ways to get to universal coverage. One way is a single payer system like the UK, Canada or in the US the VA healthcare system. The other way is a combination of regulations and subsidies which is what happens in much of Europe. There is no magical plan that costs less and covers more. It does not exist.
6
"Trump Wants to Neutralize Democrats on Health Care. Republicans."
Let the genius do his best. We love watching another slow train wreck.
7
[[Mr. Trump has promised to replace President Barack Obama’s health care law with “something terrific” that costs less and covers more without ever actually producing such a plan.]]
I think...I'm not sure, but...stay with me here...I think Trump may be a compulsive liar who suffers from narcissistic personality disorder.
It's just a theory I'm testing out.
10
@Third.Coast - You might be on to something.
Promises, promises. "You've been Trumped!"
5
What? Wait? Healthcare? Oh, yeah. After he gets done with maybe more trashing of Bette Midler and all democrats everywhere, and they are everywhere just like termites, he'll whistle a little healthcare tune for the mob, er ... base.
The wonderful base. Who hates government messing in their healthcare. Hates socialism of any kind except their farm subsidies, social security and medicare. Yeah, a healthcare proposal will snap the country out of its anti-trump slump. Get Norway to pay for it.
It'll cover everything and I mean everything, from baldness cures to fun house mirrors that make you look thin and a wardrobe of long ties to ditto.
And it'll be so cheap. You won't believe how cheap. Practically free. And Finland will pay for it. After they get done raking our forest floors for us, good Finns. Nice people.
Aw, but maybe it's just trump being trump, ha ha. Never know when he's actually saying something, lying er fibbing, maybe kidding, such a card, or casting his mind back to something he saw with his little lizard eyes on Fox last night and maybe it's a good idea, because it's his idea now.
Poor old Aesop must be spinning; the boy who cried wolf no longer applies. Trumpsky has cried wolf so many times and the wolf has not appeared. Where's the wolf? Where's the beautiful wall? Where's the wunnerful infrastructure? The end of American carnage? The fatigue from winning so much?
7
As usual, blather from donald that means nothing, spoken only to boost himself up. The lives and health of people are far too important to play around with like this.
Countless people have already lost their health insurance due to the parts of the ACA they have been stopped away. Donald’s jealousy of Obama is literally causing people to lose their lives.
5
"Something terrific"?
Like Trump's "Tax Cuts for the Filthy Rich"?
I think he meant horrific.
7
So the Republicans plan to do nothing in the next year that they could be criticized for? Ha ha ha ha ha.
4
Beginning one month from now, EVERY question at EVERY press conference that isn't aimed at a war, natural disaster, or terroris attack, must consist of one question:
Where's the plan?
We're going to build a big, beau...
Where's the plan?
The tariffs will..
Where's the plan?
Alexandra Ocas...
Where's the plan?
Lyin' Ted was...
Where's the plan?
8
In a month or two, Trump is far more likely to be cowering in the White House basement than coming out with an actual health care plan, let alone "something terrific," unless by 'terrific' Trump means "terrible."
4
As usual the democratic talking points are just laughing at Trump. That was so successful in 2016.
Neither party wants real reform because it would end kickbacks from the healthcare industry and all the niche programs run by their cronies earning 6 figures.
If anyone believes democrats really want Medicare for all then they should come to NJ and see the racket here with all the "community" programs giving free healthcare to specific groups. In the meantime everyone else gets hit with skyrocketing premiums, bills even though they stay in network and high prescription costs.
That's the so called reform democrats are pushing and they are no better than republicans. Free or cheap healthcare only for some and everyone else pays. Just like the law just passed in California and you can bet Trump is going to make that a talking point on the campaign trail. In reality neither party cares about those in the middle because too much money is being made off healthcare and they know we will struggle to try and pay our healthcare bills.
8
@Hellen
I'm afraid you're right, far too many of the Dems are just happy to sit and point finger at Trump because they believe he will hurt the GOP, not because they believe he hurts the country. Top roles in politics have been inherited for so long that politics has become a country in itself, a country that resides in the USA but cares very little about it. The caretakers have become parasites.
It was always partly like this, but now, after generations of professional politicians, professional donor chasers, the ties between the politicians have been severed. There are exceptions of course, but the exceptions find it increasingly hard to survive in a hostile environment. It is much more comfortable, and safe, to be corrupt among the corrupt.
2
@Hellen, sincerely your argument betrays your intentions. If you don't want to pay for someone else's healthcare, please be honest about it. Rather, you accuse democrats of proving healthcare to certain groups. Which groups are that? I assume it is the poor and mainly minorities who are the target of your agnst. The democrats want to fix healthcare. Republicans want to keep the statusquo. It is false equivalence to say both parties are the same on the issue. Also democrats like Warren, Sanders, are leading the charge for affordable health care. Mitch McConnel has refused to bring any bills to the senate floor. Please let's lay the blame squarely on republicans. Democrats are not perfect but they are at least making amends towards affordable health care.
10
@Hellen
I'm a Type 1 Diabetic. Do you really think as a voter, that all I'm going to be doing is laughing, sweetheart?
9
Given Trump's record of accomplishment whenever he announces that he has a "big, beautiful, best" plan, I'm not going to get very excited about his latest announcement. As I recall, he had a wonderful health plan that was going to go into effect during his first week or so in office. That didn't work because "Who knew health care was so complicated?"
Trump has no ability to plan anything more complicated than lunch; he can't even frame a coherent sentence. Any "plan" he announces just ain't gonna happen.
11
In May, the House passed a bill to strengthen coverage of the ACA and the Times did not report on it. Trump promises for the umpteenth time that he will have a great health care plan in the future and the Times gives it front page coverage. The Times needs to rethink its policy of being a primary Trump campaign media outlet at the expense of reporting what happens in Waehington.
8
It's so simple! - give us what Senate has.
. Done
12
@rich, ahhh good answer. But what type of healthcare plan do they have? Have always wondered what their premiums and deductibles and limits are but that information seems to be hard to get.
This is like Henny Youngman saying "take my wife....please!"
It wasn't funny the first 50 times you heard it and you can't figure out why he would want to bore the majority one more time or why he hasn't noticed it's not working?
4
Single Payer! I'm tired of shot-gun billing (here's looking at you DaVita). I'm on Medicare, my providers know I have part F, yet they bill me AND the Part F insurance company.
Protesting the bills is a long-term pain, and figuring out what was going on in the first place was difficult. I feel very sorry for Medicare recipients suffering mental decline. No doubt I'll soon be declining mentally too, so I'll probably wind up paying bills I don't owe.
More undeserved profit for corporations, less money to live on for regular people. AKA the Republican platform.
4
@DL, what is also difficult today is that the older folks that planned for retirement 15 years ago never thought they would be paying $700 per month “each” for supplemental plans to cover what Medicare does not. Frightening really.
4
He’s still beating this drum? He’s obsessed with destroying all things Obama. Indeed, he’s obsessed with Obama.
Stop trying, Mr. Trump. You’ll never get there. You simply don’t have his elegance, grace and intelligence.
14
Reality Check of course washington wants to keep obama care in place its biggest tax increase in 200 years. Forcing people to carry health care who are healthy made trillions on wall streeet . Also made trillions in taxs collected for those profits in form of taxs. Connect the dots people arnt stupid we are being played by good cop bad cop in washington. If they really want fix election process make voting manditory to be citzen this game of shells is as old cave man.
When uninsured go to hospitals it shifts cost to those that can afford it the least. Cost shifting is a tax on the elderly and their children that help pay the bills. Try helping your parents and then will see how you feel.
2
You think Wall Street pays taxes? lol
1
People sick must traitors be/That is Trump's epiphany/If you're healthy, strong, and rich/you won't need a single stitch/Just believe in Trump once more/and your health he will restore.
2
And Mexico will pay for the wall. 4 years after Trump made his healthcare promises, with nothing accomplished on healthcare or the wall, he's selling the same stale bread. I'm sure he will recap his "Mexican rapists"claims at his Orlando rally. He's nothing but hot air.
5
It's frustrating to see the Times continue to play the role of Charlie Brown to Trump's Lucy. Trump promises that this time--unlike all of those previous times--he really will reveal a better health care plan, and the Times continues to fall for his obvious trick. There is no story here, but the Times allows Trump to ser its editorial agenda.
2
@Colin, I agree! I suggest the NYT simply have a short column not on the front page called “Donald’s latest false promise.” I also wish that photos of donald didn’t accompany every single article about him. We all know what he looks like and his daily tantrums are frustrating to watch.
2
Trump was insulted by Obama at the White House correspondents dinner several years ago and he wants to undo everything Obama has accomplished for this petty reason. The affordable care act is not perfect but it is very good. My own son is on Obamacare and he would have to pay much higher premiums if Obamacare was not available. Trump is a petty Man with retribution in his heart. He will do harm to anyone regardless of the consequences to fulfill his ego. We have to get rid of him now - Impeachment now!!
4
I bet Mexico will pay for Trump’s health care plan.
7
Oh NO Br'er Trump, PLEASE don't throw me into the Health Care Patch!
4
Healthcare? Isn't Trump's racism (birtherism, Central Park Five, praise for white supremacists in Charlottesville...) enough to please his supporters?
6
Republicans are trying to throw away Obamacare right now.
They have no plan for healthcare and don't care about anyone's health.
For a good understanding of the broken Medical Industrial Complex in the US here is a good book looking at our dysfunctional system.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31253737-an-american-sickness
3
Let’s give him a chance here, people! You probably doubted him when he said he’d take the NRA, right? Probably doubted the Republican’s opposition to spending and deficits, right? Look how he took away those nukes from Kim! You just wait!
Blah, blah, blah - he has zero plan; it's all talk on yet another day of talk. As for "something terrific", more blah, blah, blah.
4
Americans have been haggling about healthcare since Harry Truman was President with little or no resolution since that time. When is everyone going to finally realize it is the lobbyists that control the agenda here not the politicians and those of either party who receive campaign donations from the healthcare industry will do everything in their power to maintain the "status quo".
Neither Trump nor Republicans have a healthcare policy(and never did)and to assume they have one is being extremely naive. If one wants meaningful change, by electing only those that are unencumbered by campaign money ties to the industry is the only way you are going to achieve it.
3
The Republicans cannot redeem themselves in the health care arena. They have been fighting fair health care since 1994, and “health care for some” is now their brand. It’s astonishing that Trump, who claims to be a populist, failed to understand that. Too late now.
6
Unbelievable as it may seem, Trump actually once had a valid solution to the health insurance problem.
Many years ago he was on David Letterman's show and said the only valid solution was a single payer system.
Like a broken watch, the Donald is right every once in awhile
4
Simply put; The Trump Wall street Administration represents the Wall Street led wealthy of America that preys on millions to make Billions. The simple fact is that Private insurance companies add profit motive to a vital life saving and suffering reducing human need. Those private insurance companies are part of the Wall Street wealthy. I'm averse to too much government control of business and people's lives, but on the vital need for basic health care, a non profit government coordinated and universally standardized oversight is needed. This is the most basic need of all people; to stay alive and be relieved of suffering. I can't imagine how finance experts that prey on us can have our well being in mind. Ignore Trump and brainstorm a good government coordinated health care program. It's immoral to profit from death and suffering. It's just wrong.
2
To accomplish anything else as dramatic as Obamacare will require a perfect storm of presidential and legislative muscle of the sort which occurs only three or four times in a century. Obama had it his first two years. Reagan had it his first two years. LBJ had it his first two years. FDR obviously had it on and off throughout his numerous terms. Those guys also were brilliantly accomplished politicians.
Those of us over 60 are unlikely to see such a political perfect storm again in our lifetimes.
3
You'd think that Trump could at least give us a phony healthcare plan and try to sell it as a valid one as he has done with so many of his other enterprises.
Let him claim we can have all the services anybody wants and that Mexico will pay for them or that it will be part of a tariff deal with China or that we will send everybody who needs care to Great Britain and let them use the services available to everyone who is in the country no matter what their citizenship status is.
1
Well, may be he knows now that health care is a very complicated issue. It is a lot more complicated than creating a false university. Remember Trump University!
2
American healthcare will never change until it is seperated from employment. Trump has no imagination so he cannot grasp that this is why Medicare is popular.
2
Dear American voters,
Please don't allow Republican politicians to mislead you into believing that Canada has a "socialized" system. Our system is taxpayer funded but almost all supporting services are provided by private enterprise. Yes, we do experience lineups for non-essential medical issues, but if you do have a life threatening medical issue such as a heart attack or stroke, you become a priority in Canada and the quality of care is the best to be found anywhere in the world.
Every country should have a system that is appropriate for their own citizens, based upon local conditions. The Canadian system is one option, European systems provide you with other options. Universal care demonstrates our compassionate commitment to each other as citizens. It also brings to the surface our common humanity. If private insurance is preferred by many Americans, then it should remain in place; but have a properly funded public option for the few of your citizens that struggle.
Healthy workers/citizens are a huge bonus to the national economy.
4
@John Yours is one of the best statements I've read on this matter in a very long time. Well said!
1
Ahh yes, the throw-crud-against-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks spiel. Repubs never had a replacement for ACA despite their claims otherwise. And their history shows when it comes to anything that has to do with social programs, i.e. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid etc.; is to chip away at them with the goal of abolishment altogether.
2
You can't come up with a health care plan when you don't care.
3
Bingo.
2
I say: "go for it Trump".... Let your imagination go wild... It does seem that Americans do care about health care coverage and they do understand the difference between reality and fabrication on this issue. So--please do try to sell us on another set of emperor's new clothes.
1
Please, don't people ever learn? Trump says he will have this miraculous health care plan in a month or two. That means it will never be produced. Stop bothering to listen to what he says and watch what he does instead, which is spend hundreds of millions in taxpayers' money on golf trips to his own resorts.
This story is completely moot because every time Trump claims he will be revealing some plan or some evidence, he never does. Every. Single. Time. This is just Trump lies, stop buying into it.
3
The only thing that needs to be neutralized is Donald Trump. And yes, Donald is a thing.
4
It's simple: "Obamacare" works. It is the president who is the disaster.
4
I am very jaded. This is just another "Wolf!" cry. I'm waiting for political ads that have an elderly woman asking, "Where's the Healthcare?" or "He's getting Mexico to pay for our healthcare!"
3
He doesn't have a plan. He's just putting this out to get a a news cycle out of it, and you bit the bait.
3
In the last Presidential election Trump promised to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act on day one of his first term. Trump and the Republicans have given us less healthcare by gutting the ACA. So far, no replacement or even improvements. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
3
Something terrific in Trumpseak means terrific for himself, his brand, and his coterie of like minded profiteers.
That excludes the 99%.
2
I'm surprised at Trump's restraint, that he hasn't bragged about his best in history health care plan being available since the day The Wall was built.
12
The article states, "Deductibles vary greatly by the type of plan and the enrollee. While deductibles for some plans can top $7,000, they average $4,375 for silver-tier plans, the most common choice for consumers.".
I'm not sure where they've found silver-tier plan prices like this. I'm in Utah and the least expensive bronze plan costs my wife and I a $1400 monthly premium, and we each have separate $6500 deductibles. And that's the cheapest plan available. Let me say that again, that's the cheapest plan available! This is hardly affordable. Luckily we have no ongoing medical conditions to deal with.
When you see the kind of medical service people in other countries receive, and even what Medicare recipients in the US receive, I just want to scream every time a stupid politician says we can't afford government run medical care. All the while, they're getting free care via the government on our dime.
At a minimum, the democrats should be making this an issue every single day and promoting changes to either improve the ACA or define how we get to a more universal plan like Medicare for All.
As it stands, the medical system in this country is unsustainable and it needs to change now. Like everything else in this country, we need to remove big money interests from critical societal components like medical care.
8
Trump saw his poll numbers and is grasping at anything to save himself.
He knows he's headed for bigly legal troubles as soon as he leaves office.
He fears he will be rooming next to his buddy Paul Manafort in 2020.
Watch for more extreme reactions from him as the election gets closer.
8
Maybe someone should point out that for the first two years of Trump's presidency, he had Republican controlled Senate, House and White House, and yet, he didn't do anything on bringing about his promised health care plan that would be cheaper, more effective and more popular than the ACA. Why would anyone believe that he'll do any differently if re-elected? Trump is a con artist and will promise anything he thinks will get him more money, power and prestige. He knows he can't follow through on the promises and never intends to .
11
I'm sure Trump is banking on Mexico paying for the "great, great GOP health care plan, folks." Obamacare isn't a total panacea, but it's an important step in the right direction. Trump and the GOP have no plan, never did, and never will. Ironically, they makes me sick.
9
@Hellen - Let me guess. Your currently great health care plan comes from having an NJ state or municipal job, or being married to someone who does (and maybe you don't actually work outside the home at all). This is why we're all paying such high taxes, including those of us who have paid for our own health care 100% while paying for 95% of yours (the amount contributed by state workers is a relative pittance). Or maybe you have one of the relatively few corporate jobs, in big pharma say, with defined benefit pensions and retiree health benefits. This too is unsustainable. Move to another state or take another, more common job, and you'll find out how good you have it. But you're right about NJ's diversity and energy. You'll miss it when you leave.
4
Just ask ask a diabetic how Trump has affected the price of their insulin. Their reality makes mincemeat out of the lies dispensed by Republicans about successful health care policy in so many places other than the USA.
8
@cbindc - Yep, and check out the high number of diabetics in red states.
3
Trumps plan for healthcare is most likely making the same promises he made before, with more "biggest, beautiful, best" claims than ever before. Or he could just keep the ACA but call it something else like BATC (Beautiful Affordable Trump Care).
2
I hope and pray we can replace DJT in the next election with “something terrific “
13
I'd settle for "something mediocre" at this point.
4
I really don't healthcare, do you? has been Trump's approach to the issue. 'nuf said.
5
BTW, this lie has already worked for him in the past. Before Trump, it was "repeal." Trump made it "repeal and replace". And boy did that lie ever work - it worked so well that even the NYT started talking about Republican efforts to "repeal and replace," when there was never any "replace" and there will never be any "replace." So this is not a new thing. He did it before and it worked like a charm. It will work again. He may know little about science or foreign policy or history or any of that stuff that used to matter in Presidents, and cares even less, but he understands how to con gullible people better than anyone. In this regard he knows very well what he is doing.
5
My daughter-in-law did not have health insurance before the ACA. Now she does and thank god because she has had some health issues. So ACA has been a godsend to her. Thank you President Obama.
This man cannot even finish a complete sentence. I would hate to see his plan. What a joke.
10
We have seen this comedy before, and it always has the same ending. Just remember the famous quote early in the Trump presidency in 2017, “Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated.”
5
Does anyone still remember here how Trump treated a dying John McCain when he was the only one to block his party from signing Ryancare into law, after Trump had thrown a Rose Garden party when the bill got through the GOP House, and he called it a "phenomenal healthcare" plan in front of television cameras?
We know what the GOP calls "phenomenal".
It's Ryancare.
They ALL voted for it, and Trump has been its staunchest supporter.
Non partisan analyses of Ryancare have shown that it would have destroyed the health insurance of 30 million Americans, all while strongly accelerating cost increases again. So it would actually make America's healthcare not only much worse than what Obamacare does today, but EVEN much worse than the pre-Obamacare system.
What a scam.
10
The only solution to all out health care solutions will be Trumpcare. This will replace Obamacare so that the GOP can erase any vestiges of Obama's signature program. We already have a successful GOP health care program in EMTALA or Reagancare that provided health care for the poor and uninsured at any emergency room if you can survive the wait. The insured and rich pay for it with higher hospital costs and federal subsidies to the hospitals. Please do not refer to it as socialism since it was passed by Saint Ronnie.
Trumpcare like all Trump branded products will be a con:allow greater profits to GOP donors and doctors while giving the illusion of full coverage but only for the healthy with deductibles of $10,000.00 and no coverage for any preexisting conditions and a life time cap of $15,000.00.
Trump will never actually produce a plan for healthcare. Why? Because Fox and Friends is on! The man has tv to watch.
5
@Dan in Orlando Absolutely! the state run TV (FOX), sees nothing but great days ahead with the Don. People actually believe their garbage.
2
I would love to see him try! My advice to the Democrats is to let him keep talking and see how deep of a whole he can dig himself.
3
There is no new health plan.
Just more double talk.
6
Oh please, please, please make health care a central issue for 2020! The Republican Leadership has been talking out of both sides of their mouths on this issue and they need to be called on it! Make them say out loud once and for all they don't care about kids after they are born.
4
Mr Trump - BRING IT ON! Any plan you and your wealth serving cohorts propose is going to be a disaster on it's face. It won't pass, (Some in the GOP recognize they might need some post trump voters, likely enough to bring you failure) and those of the "base" who actually look at your sham proposal will walk. So come potass - BRING IT ON.
4
A lot of folks who aren't insured through the ACA/Obamacare seem to be misinformed and/or ignorant about its benefits to people like me. Speaking solely for myself here in central Pennsylvania, I have been insured through the ACA since its inception & my premiums along with my deductibles & co-pays are affordable. My premiums have risen modestly over the years--$20 per month being the largest increase after Republicans eliminated the mandate. The problems the ACA has been experiencing are largely due to the efforts to dismantle it by Republicans who haven't been able to come up with a plan of their own in 10 years & are totally unwilling to tweak what's already in place.
I hadn't been able to afford health insurance until the ACA was enacted. I work for a nonprofit youth mentoring organization with a very small budget, so there are no employer benefits available. Over the past several years, if I hadn't been insured I wouldn't have been able to have screening tests--like a colonoscopy that almost certainly saved my life & expensive hospital costs because a precancerous polyp was found & easily removed.
I am for improvements to the ACA &/or whatever works best for everyone to have good healthcare. What I am against is the attacks on the ACA that are political &/or solely because it is President Obama's signature accomplishment. Trump, et al seem to be keen on scraping anything with President Obama stamp on it--good, bad, or in between.
11
“You’ll see that in a month when we introduce it. We’re going to have a plan. That’s subject to winning the House, Senate and presidency, which hopefully we’ll win all three. We’ll have phenomenal health care.”
Translation: he has no plan. He's giving himself a month to think one up, but he'll fail. This is the man that said "who thought health care would be so complicated?" and who gets bored when dealing with a report more than a page long.
I hope that he ignores the other Republicans, puts out a badly designed plan, and makes such a fool of himself that even his worshippers notice it.
6
I suggest that Trump and the GOP Senate offer Americans the same government-funded healthcare plan they enjoy. Simple plan.
4
@Mitch - Members of Congress and their staffs were forced by a Chuck Grassley amendment to the ACA to drop their FEHBP insurance and enroll in the ACA through a state exchange. They've been on the ACA since the law was passed.
Admittedly it's difficult to give an impartial hearing to a man single-handedly devoted to the destruction of our democracy, but who other than his devoted base would buy his snake oil. In a month or two he will unveil a perfect healthcare alternative, held under wraps for 2 years which, surprise surprise, can't be implemented until he gets another term (or more). I hope the plan includes healthcare services for those of us who must figure out how to survive a potential second term.
1
Apparently it's not easy to be a pollster. They lost their credibility among Democrat in 2016 because they predicted that Trump would be defeated, and when they predict his defeat in 2020 they get fired by Trump.
@Charlesbalpha - Pollsters correctly predicted Hillary would win the popular vote. Polls can't account for the vagaries of the Electoral College.
2
@MegWright
Yes, that's true. But if I were a pollster I'd calculate whether the distribution of pro-Trump voters was enough to affect the Electoral College. The Electoral College is not vague at all, just irrational.
It is morally and ethically reprehensible that the wealthiest, most technologically advanced nation in the history of humankind *chooses* to not guarantee comprehensive and affordable health care for all of its citizens. And if morals and ethics aren’t enough to convince you, remember also that a healthy population is the foundation for a productive and economically strong nation.
6
Donald Trump, the man notorious for his microsecond attention span is going to formulate something as complicated and in-depth as a comprehensive healthcare plan? I say let him, it will be worth the humour aspect alone!
4
republicans already proposed an alternative healthcare plan in the 90s. they tried it out in massachusetts and it got passed into law nationally in 2010, after much consternation. if they could stop sabotaging it, the plan would become more popular.
the republicans have been a destructive force on this issue for so long. they refuse to come up with something better, they won't allow what we have to work to it's full potential and they won't get out of the way to allow democrats, the party people trust the most to legislate in this area, to make it better either.
rather than take credit for their contributions to what became the ACA, republicans have turned on their creation and in so doing, have done considerable harm to the health of millions. thanks for nothing, guys.....
5
The GOP will come up with a plan it will be great for the private insurance . Our premiums will be 5 percent more on their plans with junk insurance in the plans. We need to receive some of the tax payer plans they have to choose from. Last count was 300 plans. I am for Medicare for all and here is a no brained way how to pay for it Trump and friends need to stop getting us into wars that are not winnable these days and to expensive.
Trump has a great healthcare plan, just as he has a great plan for immigration reform and another one for infrastructure spending. They're all written down on sheets of folded paper that he likes to carry around in his pocket. Unfortunately, no one else is allowed to see them.
5
Trump can't share his health plan because it is under audit.
But he will show it to you as soon as the audit is over. It might take some time though, because it is a very complex plan.
Now, if he wins he will probably will not show it, because people will have shown not to care about it when they voted him to win.
3
It's simply too late for Republicans to redeem themselves on healthcare. It's been a decade since Obamacare was introduced and all they've done since then is misrepresent it, stymie it, sabotage it, try to dismantle it and fail to provide any alternative whatsoever. They proved this is not an issue they actually care about. Getting busy a year before an election just wreaks of desperation.
2
Health care is one the country’s biggest issues and it needs improving. Trump’s only plan on health care is to blow up the existing system without offering any replacement. That seems to be his approach to all the government plans that he is trying to destroy. Mulvaney’s super cruel influence is probably behind Trump’s super cruel health care approach.
2
Since passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, the Republicans have tried to steal the thunder the Act created for All Americans. The Republicans, perhaps sidelined by the popular new program to save lives and reduce suffering, have actually voted in Congress to repeal the ACA health care program over fifty times. The Republicans actually tried to take away healthcare from Americans. The fact that they voted to repeal the Act over fifty times cynically shows us the deliberate act of brainwashing people by Rote or repetition. The Republicans are so intent on harming Democrats, that they tried to deny them life saving and suffering reducing health care. The Republicans add new meaning to the term "Red Cross".
So now Trump wants to put out a mirage of a carrot and stick to save his future. How cynical. I've been carefully analyzing his and Republican techniques of deception and diversion, term substitution, and generally psychological manipulation of the American population. It is apparent that not only do Republicans think the population is less than intelligent, they try to make them dumb. People are smart. They just need to be told what is being done to them; Republicans are trying to deny everyone health care.
Sure Trump promises to save money, by his efforts to take away health care so it isn't used and then not paid for. This is how dangerous people harm others now; not with physical assaults, but with a pen and a compliant Republican party in power.
2
Republicans are right to worry that Democrats might pick apart a Trump health care plan in advance of next year's election. This would be especially true were the President to really go crazy and propose some single payer outrage like Medicaid for all (“something terrific” that costs less and covers more.)
1
So what is the point of proclaiming a better health care program just days before his Television show Tuesday? He duped everyone, including me, into publishing all the bad points of his program so can formulate a defense and offense against us. We were duped again, by the best there is.
Demagogic, con artist politicians steal the ideas of others making them their own with no intention of actually following through. It is apparent the current President is attempting to falsely rebrand near-sociopathic Republicans as having an interest in humanity.
The current President lies even while asleep and anyone who believes he is out to help Americans is under a great misconception; the President wants to consolidate power to further his brand of tyranny and has no intention of helping anyone but himself.
President Trump is correct in saying things can get done when one Party has a majority in the Senate, the House, and the Presidency.
There is no reason, though, good health care legislation cannot be passed now with the Congress we have. Democrats have already passed legislation in the House. The hold-up is GOP-led Senate. Purposeful ignorance of this demonstrates the fraud inherent in this President and his Party.
I submit Americans would be better off with majorities with a conscience and it is imperative the current Party of the Senate majority and the presidency change because these Republicans have no conscience, reject the idea government should have a conscience, they have no integrity, have rejected the Constitution, the rule of law, and foundational democratic ideas. The current President is no different.
I'd like to be able to take all of this as a joke. But it is obscene. Americans do deserve a reliable and affordable healthcare system but they will not get such a plan from Donald Trump and his team. They will get empty promises and a lot of bombast. There will be no specifics. It will be slapdashed together. As usual with Trump, the true goal here is to destroy anything and everything that Barack Obama created. That is an unsustainable basis upon which to build an effective, comprehensive, successful health insurance plan for the American people.
4
First let's call the ACA what it is today - Trumpcare. Please stop referring to it as anything else.
And Trumpcare is well defined.
It starts with talking points such as "socialism". Then it moves on to using American's as pawns as the Republicans cynically destroy the insurance markets, thereby increasing everyone's costs. All the while complaining that "Obama did that to you." Those Republican cost increases in turn increase the government's healthcare costs because the subsidies are now more expensive.
Next up? Another lawsuit to declare it all unconstitutional.
Then it moves on to removing the lifetime limits on healthcare payouts while restoring to insurance companies the right to drop your coverage completely.
Don't forget the religious exemptions allowing a company's board of directors to decide what religious medical decisions their employees should adhere to.
Garbage in- Garbage out.
That's the Republican plan..
1
The article is remiss by not citing the enormous power exercised over the Health Care industry by the all powerful insurance and pharmaceutical lobbies. No real reform or major change will ever take place without the American people making major reform a driving issue. The only reason Obamacare became law was Obama's wheeling and dealing with the insurance industry that essentially awarded the insurance industry billions in subsidies in exchange for ending the 'precondition' limitation that previously blocked millions from access to any kind of affordable healthcare. The American people now expect the ban on precondition price rigging to be the new normal and the only way that is sustainable in the long term is to institute some form of universal care system.
2
Republicans have zero credibility on healthcare. About 2 million have lost health insurance since 2016, thanks to Trump's ACA sabotage. 2017 was the first year since 2010 when the number of uninsured increased.
The ACA was their own program, which they were for until they were against it when Obama and the Democrats passed it as the wildly successful ACA.
The ACA covers about 20 million people and would have covered another 4 million if all the Red States had expanded Medicaid. These states chose instead to hurt their residents and fight for tax cuts for the rich instead.
The 80% of those on the exchanges who get subsidies pay around $200 a month for coverage net (Kaiser Foundation).
And it was a deficit reducer, with tax hikes on the rich offsetting the subsidies.
And it reduced inequality, with the average top 1% family paying about $20,000 more in taxes (about 1-2% of their pre-tax income) while transferring $600 to the typical bottom 40% family.
It's living proof of what evidence-based policy can do, which is why Republicans tried to repeal it in 2017, nearly costing 20 million their health insurance.
8
It is virtually impossible for the GOP to come up with a credible health-care plan. The reason is that all the evidence from around the world tells us there is no such thing as a private sector driven system that works, nor have the GOP ever proposed one. It is one of those problems that only governments can solve and we know how enthused the GOP is about government solutions for anything. They think government is out to get them, so it is counter-intuitive for their brains to embrace a government solution to any problem. In cases such as this and climate change, government solutions mean good governance, not something to be avoided at all costs.
9
To add to your comment, the Republicans want government out of issues such as healthcare but fully back government’s intervention in abortion rights.
6
"Democrats enjoy a strong edge with voters on health care, with 40 percent trusting them on the issue, compared with 23 percent who trust Republicans more, according to an April poll by The Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research."
Of course Democrats enjoy a strong edge - they have actually tried to help people get and keep coverage. The Republicans have done ZERO, ZILCH, NADA to hep Americans get and keep coverage. As one Republican said: "It just isn't our issue." Health care may be important to every single citizen in this country but "it just isn't an issue" for the Republican party which is obvious in their decades-long inaction on health care.
17
The Democrats need to wake up.
They need to design and even propose in the House a workable reform of Obamacare. Even if the Senate sits on it, which they will unless McConnell gets scared, it puts a stake in the ground showing that the Democrats can and will fix the health care crisis. Single payer is unnecessary, too radical and will ensure a Democratic defeat as the Democrats lose the middle class out of fear of single payer.
President Trump is about to seize the issue. If Democrats think they can continue to sit on the sidelines and just criticize, they are sorely mistaken. The issue controlled 2018 and it could control 2020.
12
@Andrew
Imho, the only one who needs to wake up here is you ... ;-)
They've already sent more than 100 improvements to th Senate - PROVEN TO WORK improvements, moreover.
And the only "phenomenal" improvement is adding a Medicare for all option - as today even a majority of GOP voters want.
Democrats have been on the offensive on healthcare for a decade now.
In the meanwhile, the GOP did NOTHING but trying to destroy people's healthcare.
And most people know this by now.
So my advice to you: stop "sitting on th sidelines and just criticize". Inform yourself and engage.
2
The plan will be on one sheet of folded paper, which he says is a secret.
It will remain a secret.
35
@TheraP
It will be a secret stuck to the sole of his shoe.
1
America is the world’s only Westernized country, including all of Europe, Israel, Canada, South Korea, and Japan, without Universal Health Care. We also have the lowest ratio of tax revenue to GDP of all other advanced economies. We are without question, the largest and wealthiest economy in the world, with the most expensive, least accessible health care in the world. Yes, the quality of care delivered by American providers is second to none. But, if 20% of the population can not afford it, or the pharmaceuticals that doctors prescribe, then the health care system is a failure. The ACA makes a seriously flawed system more accessible and affordable, but is not a substitute for universal care. We can afford it, and should demand it of the government. Trump is a fraud, and anything he proposes will be as phony as Trump steaks.
23
"“The Trump administration is currently suing to eliminate the law that guarantees health care coverage for Americans with pre-existing conditions,” said Representative Ted Lieu of California, a leader of the Democratic committee that organized the weekend activities. “That action speaks for itself. If Trump wants to be serious about health care, he needs to stop the lawsuit and his other actions that seek to sabotage the A.C.A.”"
This is why the Democrats are so anemic in battle over the issue of health care they are so good at formulating, but the phrase; "Speaks for Itself" is lame. Are you so averse to fighting you would say that instead of telling them outright that Trump is trying to deny people health care by taking it away in court?
You democrats need a little oomph!
11
"We’ll have phenomenal health care.”
Does this person not yet understand that NO ONE believes a thing he says any more? Is he that clueless that he thinks he can spin his way out of two years + of one lie after another and no one would notice? Does he genuinely think that we are all as intellectually infirm as his base?
I simply do not understand how any decent American - any decent person - can support this creature.
28
We need the Democrats Affordable Care Act to care for the millions of Americans harmed by the Republican party as I'm sure many suffer serious mental illness from this nightmare of Trump. Once again, Trump, the marketing expert, the nice way of saying it, is promising everything compromised of a fantasy of nothing. The weird part of it is, if the Republicans successfully convinced their followers that they didn't want health care, a fact of the last nine years, they could fool Americans again, so it is vital that the clean living, controversy timid Democrats get out there and tell Americans they are being tricked with artsy word use. Trump is like a one man Madison Avenue. Sorry Madison Avenue, you know what I mean.
5
Three things: first tweek the ACA to make it work better, second extend the Medicare option to folks under 65, debt and the whole thing TrumpLovesYou.
1
If you expect Republicans to come up with a better health care plan forget about it. The Congress created the ACA based on an imperfect Republican plan and for many it has worked. But republicans now trash it for purely partisan reasons and no consideration for those it has helped. If they were truly interested in presenting something of value to the American people they would take ownership for the ACA and fix its many flaws, but this of course is not what they want which is to maintain political with no regard for suffering Americans.
9
"Repeal and replace" was always just "repeal."
6
@Jeremy
Ryancare, which the GOP House under Trump passed and that he has called "phenomenal", didn't just repeal Obamacare, it would have destroyed a whopping 30 million Americans' healthcare, whereas Obamacare insures 20 million more than the previous system.
So their "replace" was always a "make it worse than before the ACA".
1
@Ana Luisa Thank you for the correction.
I'm fairly certain the original plan was to dismantle the ACA and create another "crisis" with millions of Americans simultaneously losing health care coverage. Then the next step was to quickly place blame upon democrats and ultimately force them to accept the republican solution, which of course would offer similar options but without the pre-existing conditions coverage. Then Trump could claim that he helped to solve another problem that he actually helped to create. I think what messed up their plans was media coverage exposing all of their hypocrisy and duplicity during this process and the fact that a large amount of people continued to sign up for the ACA and started showing outrage over republican efforts to eliminate it. Most republicans wizened up after the midterms last year and realized the ACA was a losing battle for them and a political landmine if they kept trying to destroy it. Trump, being the consummate narcissist and quintessential racist, just can't help but to continue to attack the ACA knowing how Obama's name will be attached to its legacy.
5
Health care. Trump wants to kill it to fix it.
5
" We’ll have phenomenal health care.”
"I'll hire only the best people"
"The most transparent president"
"I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words."
"I look very much forward to showing my financials, because they are huge."
"Sorry losers and haters, but my IQ is one of the highest - and you all know it! Please don't feel so stupid or insecure, it's not your fault." And last but certainly not least, the winner hands down....
"She does have a very nice figure... If [Ivanka] weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her."
While the last one is most certainly true the others are not, so now Bone Spurs and his band of grifter's are going to show the American Public a beautiful health plan? Sure they are.
14
@Margo Channing:
Donald Trump, the Flower of Patriarchy.
Trump in lying like he always does.
10
Trump can't "neutralize" anything, especially his stink. Destroy reason, skirt and break the law, steal, be incompetent, be amoral and progressively demented - ABSOLUTELY. He's a traitor and the worst excuse for an executive in this country's history, bar none. Nixon looks like a choir boy in comparison.
He and his acolytes will fail because all they want is self-service, and that is not what this country is all about. Only the ignorant and greedy put money at the top of life's priorities - just look at that $1.4 TRILLION gift to the already rich and the abandonment of everything else to the rest of the country. That is politically unsustainable, but Trump is a con artist if nothing else, and still draws crowds to his disgusting hate rallies.
7
"Great health care coming soon" ranks right up there with the massive infrastructure funding, the Kushner Peace Plan, curbing gun violence, knowing more than the generals, accomplishing more than any other president in history and releasing tax returns.
Undoubtedly at his official campaign kick-off tomorrow in Orlando there will be multiple signs with the message of "Promises Made. Promises Kept." I think it would be more fitting if there were two large banners hoisted high which read:
"I'll still love you in the morning" and "The check's in the mail."
14
Trump has a secret plan to make doctors work for less pay. It worked in 2016, but will voters believe that again?
2
What Trump is asking for is the right to a massive amount of lip service. It is not that he wants to pass healthcare legislation, it is that he is telling Republicans that he must have something he can talk about on the campaign trail or the Democrats will eat his lunch. Once elected, he and the GOP simply drop the subject. It is exactly like infrastructure spending. Now, we can go on and on about GOP cynicism, but the fact is, this tactic would probably work. Sad!
7
The Republicans have already done enormous harm to themselves and the country by taking the blatently spiteful position of attempting to unravel the ACA instead of working toward improving the law. With nothing to replace the ACA with the hollow chant "Replace and Improve" was just that, hollow. Among other things they have also served up a convenient reason for democrats to call for single payer and move more of the electorate further to the left.
4
Fix what is broken. No need to blow up the system and start again. Deductibles are an issue. Very skinny networks are another problem. Lack of healthy folks paying in undermines the insurance pool. Prescription drug costs. If anyone is chanting "Medicare for all", they should be required to state how small rural hospitals will be able to stay afloat if all payers reimburse 30 cents on the dollar. That's my to do list for both parties. My point of reference is a practicing physician in rural America.
2
At least 45 has one thing right, only with the cooperation of both Houses of Congress will any ‘health care’ plan succeed, Dems take note, you will need to convince this voter that you can get Congress (even one with a Dem majority) to pass legislation on healthcare or anything else. Otherwise it’s just more hot air.
Amazing that the authors of this article blame Trump for not enabling a health care law whereas he has been trying to push a repeal of ACA ever since he became President. At one point, they even reference John McCain who actually WAS a big reason the Reps never repealed it. But the authors skirt around this issue. In addition, statements like the following are misleading: "Since he announced his previous run four years ago, Mr. Trump has promised to replace President Barack Obama’s health care law with “something terrific” that costs less and covers more without ever actually producing such a plan." Had John McCain not come back from the dead before eventually dying, the repeal would have gone through. Under Obamacare, I now pay an ungodly $1500 a month for three to the insurance companies whereas two years ago I paid about $1000. Had Trump not had both the Reps and Dems against him as well as the fraudulent insurance companies, my insurance would have been $500 a month now and going down every year. Trump is right. Americans don't want cheap insurance because if they did, it wouldn't keep going up under every dem or rep administration. What gets me is that the president (Trump, Obama, Clinton; the president has nothing to do with it) is always blamed whereas it is the insurance and drug lobbies that are the culprits.
1
@Labete - I'll bite. What was the name of your previous plan and why are you now on the ACA?
btw, you seem to have missed the part about Trump not actually having any type of a plan.
@DR, I haven't missed anything. We're all on the ACA because we are all paying for the 20,000,000 poor people who should also be paying less, much less if anything because they are poor. We're paying this money to the insurance companies who advertise non-stop on TV. We're paying this money to lobbyists that up the prices on their medical products to pay themselves. That's the whole point; why should I get a skin cream in France for literally 6x less than in the USA? And libs living in your area of the country say, 'It's Trump's fault.' Trump was a Dem most of his life and don't think he has lost those values. But because he calls people losers when they are doesn't mean he's a bad president. Cannot WAIT till he gets re-elected!
1
Trump seems more concerned about defeating democrats or refusing to work with them than he is concerned about the country or the need for good governance.
We sadly have but two major political parties. Both parties have good AND bad ideas. Let's take the best ideas from both and make them work to the benefit and growth of the country AND to the betterment of those who live here.
Trump doesn't want anything to do with working together or with the best ideas. He's out to destroy. Slash'n'burn is his mantra. Divisiveness pulses through this veins.
Until we get people working together again for the Common Good, there will be no positive outcomes.
2
Republicans didn’t have a health care plan, they don’t have a health care plan, and they never will have a health care plan.
They are against the very idea of a social safety net. That makes it pretty hard to come up with a plan.
13
He has no plan. The Republicans have no plan. There is no plan. The Republicans do not care about health care. They need Obamacare to continue in some form so they can continue to blame Democrats and continue to use the scare word "socialism".
7
Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! We cling to things like coal mining, not because its a great energy source, but for jobs. We can't scale back our war machine because of the jobs. Health care is hampered by the same problem. We can't come up with better healthcare, in part because it would dismantle our leviathan health industry (2.6+ million work in the health industry racket). What a failure of imagination this nation has become.
2
@Mark Scale back on the war machine? Have you looked at appropriations, not to mention arming Saudi Arabia with the ability to target civilians better?
Trump as been lying about having a healthcare plan for three years. He doesn't have one and never will. But, that doesn't stop him from saying he does, or he will next month. He can keep claiming he has a great, wonderful plan and his supporters will lap it up. Whatever he says is fine with them. They require no proof. Republicans are right to stay out of it. Healthcare is a winning issue for Trump without even having to have a plan. Trump voters don't expect him to carry through on any of his promises.
4
I'm still waiting to see the "cheaper and better" health care he promised two years ago. Like all his other pronouncements, it turned out to be complete hogwash, as was the GOP's promise to "repeal and replace" Obamacare. Replace with what, I always asked, and was met with blank stares.
7
Haven't we all learned by now that Trump doesn't intend to follow through on this? Any proposal he puts forth that would actually help the American people is pure fantasy. The only things he follows through on are spiteful, ill-informed, destructive vanity projects.
4
Trump’s promise of a beautiful plan in one month and the Republican charge that anything the government does to provide health care is socialism are so laughable that it’s mind-boggling they have any support on the issue. Since Obamacare’s passage nearly ten years ago, Republicans have repeatedly tried to sabotage it and have repeatedly failed to offer an alternative. And when you think about it, it isn’t surprising, not only because the GOP doesn’t want you to have health care, but because they can’t deliver it. A party that is anti-government, whose sole raison d’etre, is to destroy the machinery of government, can’t be a good steward of government. They don’t have the policy experts and ideas — the intellectual infrastructure in the their think tanks — to craft a health care plan. And like a faction that the GOP really is, it repeats the same lies over and over about the issue—Death panels! Universal care costs jobs! Socialism. Since the GOP can’t tell the truth about issues like health care, they can’t fix them, only demagogue they, and that’s why they need to be resoundingly defeated in 2020.
3
Trump doesn't care for real health care.
He can't digest that there is a real health care available and GOP labeled as Obama Care. He wants Trump Care, it can be worse or be same, just want to wrap his name over Obama's.
GOP doesn't know how to help real Americans and so I have no doubt that they will produce DEATH PANELS with some patriotic words wrapped around it.
A modern-day version of The Emperor's New Clothes. Trump has no plan. Healthcare is complicated. He has to run numbers through the congressional budget office which he did not. He has no idea what he's doing. He needs to be removed from office while the federal budget is now topping $1 trillion. And he still denies climate change while the mid west is being hit with series of tornadoes and incessant flooding that is supposed to only happen every 100 years.
2
What I most fear about Medicare for all is that the insurance companies, whose share in the pie will be reduced to providing supplemental policies, will raise the premiums on supplemental policies so high that senior citizens on a fixed income will be the ones who suffer. Younger, employed people will get their employers to pay their supplemental insurance; that alone will raise premiums as the insurance companies will dig into that pie deeply. Unless you cap what insurance companies can charge for supplemental insurance, be careful the law of unintended consequences.
3
@Karen K
As is, health care constitutes already more than 20% of GDP.
That is unsustainable and obviously it cannot grow much further. Where is the money supposed to come from?
The unfortunate fact is that biology is complex, we all will die eventually, but in order to extend life-span, we continue to spend ever increasing amounts of money to reach the asymptotic maximum allowed by nature.
As for the supplemental plans not being affordable by seniors: Look to Europe. It works there for decades and your scenario has not materialized.
I am a recently retired physician, and was a life-long Republican. I believe that healthcare is a right and not a privilege. One can argue over just what services are essential, but not that it is a right! When Obamacare was first unveiled, I was skeptical of a gov't controlled plan and consequently was skeptical of the calls to expand Medicare to cover all Americans. My skepticism was based on the belief that Congress would make funding decisions not based on cost or science but influenced by lobbyists. I remain skeptical of a gov't run plan for the same reason. However, after being able to provide care (I was a pediatric oncologist) to all of my patients under the ACA, I believe even more strongly that our current system utilizing private insurance is flawed. Not-For-Profit insurers traditionally set their "medical loss ratio" (the %of premiums spent on healthcare) at 15% to cover administrative overhead/salaries, while For-Profit health insurers set this figure at anywhere from 30-60%; the 15-45% difference represents profit for investors and companies. Additionally, drug prices are frequently not based on development costs as most were developed with gov't support with taxpayers' money. Any plan that allows For-Profit insurance for essential services will be too expensive. Any plan that does not substantially reduce drug prices will be too expensive. Any plan that does not mandate universal coverage will be too expensive. What does Trump have to offer? Nothing!
17
My son lives somewhere on the west coast. A few weeks ago he suffer a mild AVC; he had a prescription for an anticoagulant not cover by his insurance for 482$ in France through my doctor I can get it for 32€, a third one for 35$ in France 3€. Impossible to send it thanks to the customs. I don't think that the pharmaceutic industry is suffering either in France or in Europe
11
@me
Thanks for bringing this up!
Customs and the FDA(!) are complicit in this scheme.
The FDA could easily allow the import of that medication, but they won't for the very same political reasons. They are participating in this rip-off.
It is high time to drain that swamp to the bottom. The problem is, with Trump there has been so much muck added to that swamp, it will be a Herculaen task, akin to his Fifth Task of cleaning the Augean stables.
The good news is, he managed! The same method should be used to clean up Washington.
3
Dear God....
The republican party has had over TEN YEARS to figure out a workable health care policy that covers the majority of Americans.
First, they refused to work with President Obama, even though his plan was taken from a Republican one started by Mitt Romney, a Republican Governor. The plan worked fairly well in Massachusetts....but gosh, the GOP just *couldn't* work with a Democratic President to utilize their own blueprint for the other 49 States.
Along comes the election, and wow....the GOP has the majority. And does....*nothing* on the issue. For Two Years, the GOP had complete control of every legislative and executive branch of Government....and they still could not agree on how to improve the existing law. And why should they? The rich have health care, it's those weak, poor, sad folks who are the ones actually affected.
Now comes Donnie....the man who bamboozled the "willingly uneducated" as well as his own party elites. He's got a plan to solve everything, right? It'll be 'wonderful', right? It won't cost a thing, "believe me"......
Republicans, this still comes back to your central view that some Americans are More Equal Than Others....and to those with substandard health care? Let them eat cake, right Donnie?
22
@Paul P. They were much too busy giving the 0.01% tax breaks to think about a healthcare plan.
8
Trump is a farcical individual, a chronic liar and not a very good one since he keeps on making the same obviously untrue claims. He has no health care plan and never will. Even if he did have some plan, the Republicans would never pass a plan of any consequence. They tried to repeal even the tepid little Obamacare plan and couldn't manage that. They would never in a thousand years agree to something like Medicare for all.
13
The Democrats better start hammering out a consensus health care plan now and secure a pledge from each of their candidates to accept that plan immediately when in office. Then hopefully get control of Congress as well and then pass it in their first week.
Followed immediately by reimplementation of all dismantled Obama programs, most important the climate accord.
Damage control becomes paramount.
13
Let him try. Putting out a new and generally acceptable heath care system is like squaring the circle. There are dozens of self-interests that get in the way. Republican indifference to having one, insurance companies, pharmaceutical industry, hospitals, doctors patients and finally how to pay for it. Trump doesn't have the vision, the knowledge, the negotiating skills to pull if off. Like everything he has tried to do, Nafta, China, Iran. the Middle East,
the tax reform, it will be either a disaster or one great confusion.
His days are counted and he should prepare for, to use his favorite word, a GREAT fall.
6
Its not surprising that rank and file Republicans don’t want anything to do with effective price regulation of prescription drugs. Many of these same Republicans receive substantial campaign contributions from these drug manufacturers while they are in office and can look forward to either direct employment or indirect employment (as lobbyists) when they leave Congress. The vial if insulin that costs $35 in Germany costs hundreds in the US.
11
I suspect he'll push association plans and competition across state lines. Neither will do anything to improve the health coverage crisis in the US, but when it comes to Trump's base you can fool all of the people all the time.
15
I remember well the grand and bombastic promise made by Trump that he would have a much better plan than "Obamacare" that should have already been in place.
So, what we may see behind the tent curtain of Circus Maximus Trump is another blank sheet of paper, such as that sheet that contained more of the agreement with Mexico that Trump magically removed from his pocket.
The ACA is far from perfect and is indeed expensive for those who subscribe to the healthcare plans covered by the ACA, it is still somewhat better than what Trump has graced us with-nothing.
And the screechers on the side of Trump will parrot the cry of "socialized medicine" that Trump uses as a reason to not have some form of Medicare for all. The question is, how many of those anti-socialized medicine are on one of the many health care plans offered by the government-Medicare, Medicaid, Chip, VA, military, IHS and do not realize they are covered by socialized medicine.
Trump will use some magic trick and con artistry to attempt to continue the hoodwinking of his supporters that socialized medicine is bad. The challenge will be in convincing those voters that Trump is playing on their emotions and there is nothing waiting in the wings to take the place of the ACA.
4
Make it legal to negotiate drug prices. Remember Trump promised that. The GOP is so opposed to government overhead costs but does nothing other first world countries do to manage cost. How fake is that.
6
If a healthplan can't be passed before the election, people aren't going to fall to the promise of something "terrific, better, and cheaper than Obamacare" a second time, even if Trump says "Believe me". Last time healthcare was discussed, Republicans couldn't even make a commitment about pre-existing conditions. Trump still doesn't seem to understand that normal Americans aren't as accepting and gullible as his supporters.
8
So Trump is going to give Americans "phenomenal" health care--"subject to winning the House, Senate and presidency"? Didn't he already have that chance? And all he did was try to get rid of healthcare altogether for 20 million people?
Given that he has yet to offer serious detailed proposals on anything of substance, I can't fathom he will offer anything more than lots of superlative words again this time. But after blowing his two-year golden opportunity to propose anything close to universal healthcare, "better and cheaper" than anything we have now, whatever he promises "a month from now" gives Democrats a golden opportunity fo fly a flag over Trump country: "Fool me once . . . ."
7
Donald Trump,Sr. doesn't care about providing quality affordable healthcare to any Americans who were not smart or wise enough to pick a New York City real estate baron father to inherit 295 streams of income.
Every civilized nation has quality affordable healthcare as human right for the many instead of a privilege for the few. America is not a civilized nation.
Obamacare was the conservative Republican Heritage Foundation capitalist free market answer to the failed Hillary Clinton healthcare proposal. There is no public option and there are no price controls nor negotiating power over any procedures, medical devices nor pharmaceuticals. Republicans were for it before they were against it.
13
Republicans have always had a plan to replace the 'ever-failing' ObamaCare--it's called NoCare.
Bezos, Buffett, and Dimon have kicked off their "Universal Health Care Program for Our Own Serfs, the Rest of America is on its Own" plan, a.k.a. "Haven." I'm more interested in how that does than in any plan the Republicans, who'd get rid of Medicare in a nanosecond if they could, would cobble together for Trump to blather about on Fox Fake News Network.
5
Trump says ACA has been a disaster of course it is after he sabotaged it multiple times to weaken and damage it. Littlefinger has many negative opinions about his predecessor but none of them have any foundation in truth,
10
@MGJ Nothing he says ever has a foundation in truth. He lies like he breathes, it's just second nature.
I'll gladly pay you on Tuesday for a hamberder today!
Vote for me now and I will give you beautiful health care in 2021!
Big Maybe there Donald.
The GOP couldn't get it done then when they controlled the whole Congress and they won't get it done in the future.
The reason is they have no desire to offer comprehensive and affordable health care to anyone. They do not believe in it.
So our executive order President who has no major legislation passed except his huge tax cut vows to do better next term? Gee, that's a real inspiring message.
Trump is running on his real performance this time and it is shallow and hate filled. He can and will use the hate but as for job well done, not so much. He would be better off sticking to the economy, it's easier to lie about that.
6
Trump is smarter than his advisors, he won't need a meaningful plan since he can lie as much as he wants about the greatness of the plan, and his followers would buy it.
5
Your column is way too long. The last paragraph is sufficient:
"He can't deliver the impossible" said Len Nichols. In the meantime the "base" continues to expect "magic." Often against their own self-interests.
6
If Trump had a healthcare plan he would have unveiled it by now. Another empty promise by an empty suit.
10
Trump couldn't even get his annual budget timely passed in Congress when his party held both houses it set off the longest government shutdown in history. It doesn't look now that the Dems have the house we will have a budget for 2020 in October to avoid another shutdown though I don't think he gives a hoot if it does shutdown. He gets so much attention and gets to throw more mud that way which seems to suit his purposes best. Why does he need to mess with a topic so out of his league? Promising a better system for less and defaulting on delivery that is the Trump brand.
4
Trump has been blowing hot air about his "great ideas" and "great accomplishments" since he was 20 years old or so. Haven't we had enough?
6
When will it dawn on his supporters that he really doesn’t have a plan? Not just on Healthcare, but across this pathetic excuse for an administration?
He told you four years ago that his plan would be better and cheaper - it’s telling that we still haven’t seen it.
5
I'm calling the bookies in London right now and betting $5,000 that Trump and the Republicans never release an actual health plan -- the plan needs to be more than a couple pages of platitudes.
It's what Silicon Valley calls "vaporware": suggested super app/software that never actualizes. Trump's entire life is vaporware -- nothing but outrageous claims, lies and obfuscation.
7
When will his supporters figure it out? Trump is an empty suit. His "plan" is a shell game.
6
GOP Heath Plan:
1. Don't get sick
2. Don't get injured
3. Don't have babies
4. Don't get old
10
Let's look at Trump's record:
1. Repeal Obamacare. No.
2. Replace Obamacare: No.
3. Build a wall. No.
4. Mexico will pay for it. No.
5. Infrastructure plan. No.
6. Winning trade wars. No.
7. Denuclearizing North Korea. No.
8. Middle-class tax reform. No.
9. Drain the swamp. No.
At least he is consistent!
No wonder his campaign is struggling. No wonder he is firing his pollsters.....
6
Medicare for All ... & yes, use taxes to pay for it!!!!
(You can find the $$$ by reducing our bloated military budget.)
13
@JLT Good start and rescinding tax breaks for the rich and corporations.
2
Does anyone believe anything Mr. Trump has to say about public health?
Trump'care' means taking away coverage for those with preexisting conditions, which is *everybody*. It also means ignoring basic insurance tenet of requiring participation by everyone - healthy and not so healthy:
https://www.newsweek.com/robert-reich-republicans-will-come-regret-cruel-trumpcare-596260
After taking away income for almost everyone in the middle class - either by failing "Trumponomics" or simply taking away standard tax write-offs like home loan interest or charitable donation -
Check out the 7 biggest failures of Trumponomics:
https://robertreich.org/
Then vote these people out, they have earned it!
November 3, 2020 Election Day
2
This is the point at which the unholy bond between Trump and the GOP breaks down; when Trump actually wants to use his power to do something that benefits the public at large.
Either way, Trump is screwed over this in 2020. Either he and the GOP will put nothing on the table, and Trump will be hammered for his failure; or the GOP will put something totally horrible on the table, it won't pass out of the House, and Trump will be hammered for that.
This is what happens when you talk big and can't deliver. Trump ran in 2016 as an outsider and, with considerable help from his friends in the Kremlin, won the Electoral College and the White House. Now he has a record, and it's horrible.
2
Why doesn’t anyone come out and say it? Trump simple can’t understand healthcare. Period. It’s too complex for his pea brain.
2
I am a Republican and I want this POTUS to be reelected - and I totally agree with my leaders when they ask POTUS about leaving Obamacare as is for 2020.
He seems to have forgotten that it was hardly a winning political issue for Democrats or still is.
The only reason it finally became a winning issue in 2018 was POTUS and Republicans botched it an attempt to overturn the law.
He should let Democrats define their Medicare for all plan and then savage it because it would be a true commentary on a failed socialist plan - NHS of britain is the poster child.
His winning strategy for 2020 should be the economy, strong border and the Democrat embrace of socialism.
He is panicking too early, they say - in American politics, a week can be an eternity.
As a reminder, I may ask him to refresh his memory over Hollywood tapes or a couple of other controversies from 2016 - all were a certain death knell for his campaign if you believed an instantaneous poll.
Of course, he is a stubborn man who thinks he can bend folks to his will - and for that I say, remember Mueller.
10
@Neil The Demoncrats have dinfined their Medicare For All plan. Trump could not savage anything. He is a moron.
146
@Neil “He should let Democrats define their Medicare for all plan and then savage it because it would be a true commentary on a failed socialist plan - NHS of britain is the poster child.”
By what measure do you call the NHS a failure?...other than your own insecurities, that is.
175
@Neil
While in England Trump tried to destroy the NHS, England's leaders were savaged for even listening to Trump. You're simply wrong about NHS.
And in the US (as a reminder), Republicans were savaged in the midterms - because of their healthcare failure.
Medicare is not a failed "socialist" plan.
155
Trump's propensity to speak in hyperbole doesn't, in fact, mean that Obamacare is, per se, a disaster. It isn't. It may have its flaws and it may be imperfect, as is the case with many laws and much legislation, but it has achieved a lot of good for many, many people. For Trump, however, it is all about politics and about pandering to his base.
For Republicans, generally, who have also scorched Obamacare beyond all reason, it is dawning on them that, politically at least, before the 2020 election, defenestrating it may not be wise...for themselves. Their reluctance to support Trump's most recent pledge to abolish Obamacare is rooted not in noble objectives, however, but in their selfish quest for continued power, allowing them to survive the next election while many Americans literally fight for survival from medical conditions that threaten their very lives.
It's not that Republicans actually care about providing health care to all who need it. Clearly, they don't. It's just that they care more about their own continued political health, and wish to avoid the likely verdict The People's Political Death Panel, otherwise known as elections, of which they are so deeply afraid.
265
@Quoth The Raven It's a disaster. Have you seen the premiums ? Did you think about the people who don't get subsidy ?
2
@WiseGuy--The subsidy was meant to help poor and lower-middle class people pay the premiums. It was never meant for rich people who just don't want to pay. I've heard of people making more than $100,000 a year whining about not getting a subsidy and then claiming that Obamacare is a disaster because of that. Too bad if you make so much money you don't qualify. Give away your money and become a poor person if you're so anxious to get a subsidy.
25
@WiseGuy the premiums are more to do with your "for profit" health care system than anything else. Also, by undermining the individual mandate, Republicans intentionally forced the premiums higher to undermine the ACA. As an outsider looking on, the disgraceful state of Healthcare in the USA for people of limited means is almost entirely the fault of Republicans.
30
The ACA is failing because republicans have used every opportunity to disparage & dismantle it bit by bit. They have no plan other than what the insurance lobbyists tell them, of which none helps control costs - Richard Nixon did this to us when he allowed insurance to become for profit. It's time to get republicans back in the minority in both houses of congress.
387
@JAF
The ACA is also failing because it is a plan designed within a disastrous for-profit, privately driven, healthcare system. To that end, every Democrat should absolutely agree with Trump. What Democrats should also be saying is that Republicans want to further entrench us within that for-profit disastrous health care system, a system within which (ironically) Obamacare is the best you will get.
Just because the ACA (originally a Republican idea) came into law from a Democrat, doesn't make a good thing. It is, pardon the cliche, lipstick on a pig.
1
@JAF I would say it is time to repeal and replace the GOP. These stone age folks have no business in government in the 21st century. Vote them out of existence.
12
@The Hawk. From your mouth to God’s ear!
1
On health care, as on every issue, Trump never has a plan. All he can offer us are a few catch phrases which make a nice sound bite, but accomplish nothing toward helping Americans.
Republicans' repeated efforts to sabotage the Affordable Care Act threatened to strip away the protection relied upon by tens of millions of Americans with pre-existing medical conditions. Republicans seem perfectly happy to again permit the proliferation of "junk plans" which offer inadequate coverage under the guise of insurance.
It is easy to understand why the Democrats have a big advantage on the health care issue. Democrats actually want to improve our health care system. Trump cannot fool anyone into thinking he has the desire or intention to provide anything better than the status quo.
258
@Doctor B, the problem is the Democrats have no clue either, as their only option is government-run health care while eliminating the insurance industry. Not difficult to see why this won't fly with many Americans.
If Democrats had a clue then they would be promoting the German Bismark model which is public and private health insurance coupled with strong government oversight. It's what most of Europe (with the exception of the UK, which has the government-run NHS which is terrible) uses, and which would provide a simple and practical way for ward for Ameerica.
But what are they promoting? The government-run model of rationed health care which failed against the Bismark model (which btw is the oldest health care model in the world, which says something about its track record) which already fails patients here in the UK.
5
@Wurzelsepp
Hi there! So please explain to me that if as you say, the UK NHS is so terrible, why do the vast majority of Brits apparently support it, and even love it. I mean every "well laid plan" has it's flaws but.........?
58
@Wurzelsepp - How many people in the UK go bankrupt because of medical bills?
57
Maybe his plan will be comparable to Trump University--a rip off for anyone who signs up for it. Health care, infrastructure, peace on Earth, no nukes in North Korea. Trump is good at promises that turn into failures. But he doesn't need to produce anything, even on immigration. He can keep his base happy with empty promises that make headlines on Fox and Friends. He is working hard on a much better deal than Obama had with Iran. But like climate change, he cancels every plan Obama negotiated and never bothers to negotiate a new deal. What a great dealmaker! Health care by Trump will be nothing but air, since the problems are complicated and all he has done so far is make Obamacare worse or more expensive than it needed to be. What a guy!
8
Two extremes. A president with no plan, and the Dems with a flawed and misleading Medicare for all plan. The Dems never mention how extraordinarily expensive their plan would be, not how unpopular outlawing private insurance would be. FYI, private insurance is alive and well in England, France, Germany and many other countries. Plus they never mention that some doctors can, and do refuse, Medicare. This will lead to a two tier med system, where those who can pay their own way will get one level of care. And those that can't will get a much lower standard of care. A hybrid system is best.
@TVM Too often we fall into the either/or trap as you do here. Democrats have a number of possible improvements to the Affordable Care Act that would leave private insurance as a viable option. For instance, consider the original public option that would have been part of the original Obama plan, if he could have gotten the act passed with it included. My Democratic congressman supports offering a public option to anyone who chooses it over private plans. Note the word "choice".
@TVM
You don't understand how the systems in Europe work.
Medicare for all would be equivalent to the NHS in England. It would not be more expensive, it would cut costs in half or more. What you forget is that you and your employer would no longer have to pay for private health plans.
There is absolutely no reason why there should not be private supplemental plans as they exist in Europe. Just as we have supplemental plans to Medicare.
I just can't see the problem, unless the Dems were to outlaw supplemental plans. Then, yes, I would rally against them, too. But as long as they embrace those options, Medicare for all would fix the uninsured and preexisting conditions problem.
2
I have a great plan too.
It is called National Health Care, and it is patterned after the health care system that most other developed nations have, from Canada to France.
But it does involve taxes on the rich, like, presumably, Trump and his greedy family, so there is that.
Part one of my plan is to get him, and them, out of my White House. Part two is installing someone like Bernie or Mayor Pete or Elizabeth, and then part three is putting the plan in place.
Just imagine...
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
8
Typical Republicans; don't put forward actual policy just promise platitudes - "cheapest", "best ever", "you'll love it". What ever happened to Republicans? And what even happened to the public that they don't see the lack of action on policy and just go for the promises..
3
There is no one “doing policy” in this administration. They accomplished republican goals of destroying federal agencies, stacking the judiciary and lowering taxes for the wealthy
Mission accomplished
6
If Trump thinks the GOP can come up with anything short of terrible on national healthcare, he's been asleep for the past decade.
5
Everyday, my theory that Trump does not want to be President anymore--he was to tank this election--He already has a great start with his treasonous talk over the weekend, his getting rid of pollsters, and now proposing an ambitious health care plan--next up, a little war with Iran.
1
"If he follows through....
We all know by now that when Trump puts something in the future -- two weeks, one month, two months -- it means he has nothing and has no plans to have anything.
3
Trump cannot do healthcare because, as he said in some exasperation himself, it's complicated. He cannot grasp complicated issues with secondary and tertiary consequences. What he can do is give simplistic explanations for complicated issues...a good indicator of incipient fascism. Voters should be very careful here. They could wind up supporting the destruction of what little "system" we have in healthcare. Politically, I say let him dive into the healthcare debate, as he will be in over his head. Realistically, we have be very vigilant.
2
Republicans had what? Eight years or more and haven’t produced a health care plan. Now Trump’s going to do it in two months? More lies. So sad.
5
"Medicare for all" is a huge mistake, politically.
Healthcare, in US politics, is impossible to get right. The voters will punish anyone who changes the status quo, and any party that fails to improve the status quo. It's no-win, and it leads both parties to finger pointing, trying to convince voters to blame the other.
If defeating Trump is the #1 objective, then Democrats should do what Trump (and Obama) did while campaigning: promise to make it better, promise that everyone will be "so happy," and don't get too specific.
Promises, Promises.
If anything like this is achievable, why wait? Republicans should put up or shut up. Making health care work for all BEFORE the election would seem to be a sure winner for them. Too bad they have failed to deliver on previous promises to their base voters on health care reform, immigration reform, lowering prescription drug prices, eliminating our trade deficits, overturning Roe v. Wade, controlling North Korea, pulling troops out of Afghanistan, and Making America Great Again.
Maybe voters should get a clue and realize Republicans don't have one.
1
@Mike Jones They do have one. It's very simple. Get Richer and punish the Poors.
A Secret Plan to End Healthcare.
Seriously.
2
Trump doesn’t have a plan because the ACA used much of the republican plan the Heritage Foundation came up with, that Massachusetts uses. The mandate that everyone had to get insurance is a republican idea. It follows the concept of automobile insurance that states makes everyone get insurance for their car so insurance companies have good drivers covered and bad. Healthcare insurance companies need healthy people covered to balance out those they cover that aren’t as healthy. The ACA needed to be tweaked not repealed but the political party that favors fetuses not interested in the health of actual breathing, feeling people.
1
It seems to me that Trump's primary motivation for eliminating the ACA comes from his hatred of President Obama and Obama's remarkable accomplishments. Trump's entire time in office has had no policy direction, no goals, no grander vision beyond the self-enrichment of Trump and his sideshow cronies, and the destruction and attempted erasure of the Obama presidency.
Republicans do not care about the health and well-being of the American people. They care about money. They care about corporate power. And their primary goal for the past 40 years has been to weaken and damage the proper functions of our government so that corporations could gain as much power, and money, as possible. The true Republican plan is simple- pay up or die. And if you do have to die, please prolong it as long as your money holds out. Once you're broke, you can croak.
I say, bring it on. Our health "care" system in this country is a barbaric atrocity in comparison to the rest of the developed and enlightened world. It couldn't be clearer on whose side both parties stand on this issue. Republicans are happy to let us die broke in the streets. Only the Democratic party cares about the well-being of the American people.
2
"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
5
"We have a great healthcare plan". DJ Trump 2016
"We have a wonderful healthcare plan". DJ Trump 2017.
"We have a perfect healthcare plan". Dj Trump 2018.
"We have a phenomenal plan". DJ Trump 2019.
Well, at least the adjectives are changing. Meanwhile, the words pre-existing conditions have somehow re-entered....albeit quietly. Hear that? It's the Trump voters cheering. Trump knows his voters are clueless.
3
Anyone who calls Obamacare "a disaster", is telling us that he considers a law that covers 20 million more Americans, slows down cost increases, and saves an additional half a million American lives a decade (all things that Obamacare has been proven to have achieved) a VERY BAD thing.
Obviously, if this is what you call "bad", then what you call "phenomenal healthcare" is Ryancare, which does the exact opposite: it accelerates cost increases again, and destroys the healthcare of a whopping 30 million Americans (thereby actively killing about half a million American lives a decade).
And "phenomenal healthcare" is EXACTLY what Trump called Ryancare, when in passed in the House in 2017. He was SO enthusiastic about it that he even threw a party in the Rose Garden (something you normally only do after a bill is signed into law).
So for Trump, saving a half a million American lives a decade is a "disaster", and a system that kills more than that a decade is "phenomenal".
As always with this president, black is white and white is black.
Conclusion: he's not talking about HEALTH care here, he's talking about how to care for his "ratings".
This time, however, he might no longer be able to fool most of the people most of the time ...
Donald Trump can't produce any kind of reasonable plan for anything. He is incapable of designing or understanding any thoughtful plan. Time to figure it out Republicans!
Trump and his minions say medicare for all is socialism.
What we have now is a social disaster!!
70 million Americans with no insurance or underinsured.
Drug prices/medical procedures with far exceeded those of other countries.
Make medicare for all (single payer)the number 1 priority in 2020 and Trump will go down as 1 one-term president.
Good riddance!!
2
"he is anxiously searching for a way to counter Democrats on health care"
Trump does not care about an actual plan.
He wants a campaign slogan that works,
People fell for his "believe me, you're going to like it: lower cost, better coverage" "plan" (slogan) last time and paid no attention to Clinton and the Democrats's actual plan, which included a public option, expanding Medicare, lowering prescription drug costs, and lowering the cost of the ACA.
https://democrats.org/about/party-platform/#healthcare
https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/health-care/
Trump wants everyone (especially the press, which should be covering substance) to be distracted by his tweets and for voters to fall for a slogan once again. ("who knew health care could be so complicated?")
2
I know that as a Jew and a Canadian I may not be understood but healthcare for all is often how we Canadians define ourselves.
Government paid healthcare for all started in out most conservative and most democratic socialist provinces over 70 years ago. If you could get yourself to a hospital you received the healthcare you needed.
It is 2019 and in keeping with the times maybe what is needed is yellow string. Maybe with God's affinity for yellow string we can designate areas where our loyalty to corporations and neoliberalism where America does not apply and those who are inside areas marked by yellow string can get medical attention and needed medication when they need it.
Saskatchewan and Alberta hospital care were a beginning but they were a beginning and today I am still alive to write strange comments.
If all Americans have access to the healthcare they need both physical, psychological and emotional Trumps has all my votes.
Mr. Trump lies and has no plan. His actions are messy and dumb. His motivation is to take care of Trump and only Trump. Add to this that the Republicans never had a healthcare plan and you see why his party is freaking.
1
For a health insurance system to work it must meet three criteria:
everybody receives care when needed (that also takes care of pre-existing conditions); everybody is enrolled in the system and helps pay for it throughout their lives, i.e. no free riders (the mandate); those unable to pay in their proportionate share are helped via a subsidy. If provided privately, insurance products must adhere to minimum standards.
No matter who dreams up a plan, it must meet those requirements or it won't work. Obamacare was designed to meet those requirements while still preserving private insurance. Republicans can't stand it because, aside from Obama hate, it mandates everybody to participate ("freedom of choice") and it is government controlled. Same is true of Medicare for all. This is their dilemma and explains why they never have and never can come up with a working alternative. A working plan that comports with their philosophy doesn't exist.
Trump and the Republicans either don't understand this, and/or are flat lying, and/or are ignoring reality to appeal to their hard-line supporters.
210
@John Binkley
You nailed it. The industrialized world is full of working examples from which to draw ideas. Ideas that are working in "real time."
17
@John Binkley
I think there is one more item that is important for people to see.
The cost of service charged to insurers on the person's behalf by hospitals and other care providers.
Not just a overall cost, but one with line items. This kind of transparency is important for people to see as it would help them understand why insurance costs keep going up.
The problem is hospitals jack up the fees on anyone who can pay to cover for those who can't. So ultimately we are paying a tax for the uninsured. Medicare for all will pass on those costs to the entire tax base.
There might be additional cost for managing this program through a government bureaucracy.
All in all I feel this is risky and that we should give Obamacare a chance as we gradually try to improve it before tearing down a whole industry.
6
@John Binkley So well said, I would recommend your post 100 times if I could. I find it so ironic that the very party that claims to understand business, cannot understand (or will not admit to understanding) why the mandate is necessary for a working model. And the concept of minimum standards is also key, so that people are not sold junk policies that become worthless when needed.
17
Didn't he talk about "his" health plan during the campaign? That health care plan was never revealed. First the then G.O.P. House put forth a horrible plan which Trump first liked and then didn't. He asked the Senate to do better and it didn't pass the Senate because some Senators refused to march in lock step because the plan was bad for their constituents. Now he's bringing another plan. This one is probably also very deep in his imaginary world. But bring it on! He will be playing into the hands of the Democrats.
88
@David
I'm sure Trump once again has a "secret" plan that he will only reveal if he is re-elected.
It's detailed on a single sheet of paper he keeps folded in his coat pocket to pull out as a prop when confronted by reporters.
It reads: Trump Healthcare Plan - "Something Terrific"
18
Not only that. His team revealed they didn’t expect to win. They were to busy trying to make contacts with the Russians to assist Trump to actually design policy. Do you think any of them even thought up a single policy proposal at all?
Not a chance! They were doing what they always do and that is promote through marketing with no substance to rob all of us!
8
Trump wants to strike out at Obama. Trump is vindictive and a poor excuse for a human. If Obama Care has protection for per-conditions, count on Trump to obliterate that option regardless of what he says. There are no good thoughts from Trump, only destructive ones. Trust is out the window.
15
@Paul Raffeld
I despise him. Poor excuse for a human being is most people's true feelings about him. If the GOP spoke their true opinions out loud he'd learn just how despicable he is regarded.
1
trump and the republican’s plan title “you’re on your own”
17
Trump’s “ plan “ is to wipe Obama’s name into oblivion, replacing it with his own.
Besides that, currently he’s on another bender degrading “ the criminals on the other side “ and worse yet firing pollsters for “ wrong numbers “.
Our paranoid conspiracy theorist President.
He’s a gem.
7
Who cares about another “terrific” idea? As soon as the articles in print they’ll be a pivot. The tweeter in chief has no plan other then to keep liberals on edge. And boy are they suckers! Almost worse then his deplorable base!
1
The man who sold you Trump Steaks and Trump University now wants to sell you a health care plan. 'Nuff said.
16
Trumpcare is modeled after Republican healthcare plans, if you get sick enough and can’t afford care, kill yourself with a discounted gun. GOP slogan “We are pro-life for the healthy, wealthy or a fetus”. Jesus would say that Bernies Medicare for All plan is un-Christian according to prosperity mega-Church Republican faithful pastors and their followers. Of course they have conveniently skipped over the following:
Matthew 19:24: “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
5
Not sure what the Republicans are worried about, this administration hasn't rolled out a comprehensive plan on anything ever. The infamous tax cuts aside, there mostly have only been last minute tweet storms and outrageous authoritarian declarations that often get struck down in court. And this with two years of complete control of Congress.
20
@kglen
Republicans are worried that the short fingered vulgarian will stir up the pot to distract from his other failures and illegal behaviors.
If the bigot-in-chief starts making promises about terrific fabulous healthcare, the democrats and the American people can hold him to his details.
Which he and the republicans NEVER EVEN HAD when they controlled 3 branches of government for 2 solid years!
Why haven't Republicans produced an alternative to the ACA in over 10 yrs. now? It's because the ACA IS the conservative solution to providing health care coverage with its emphasis on market competition (i.e., public exchanges that offer different plans) and personal responsibility (i.e., the coverage mandate).
But instead of working w/Democrats to improve the ACA, Republicans have boxed themselves into a "no solution in 10 yrs." situation because of heir blind opposition to anything proposed by the Obama administration.
35
Health care is not issue. The USA has enough health care to go around. The issue is allocation, not supply. It is an issue of first answering the question of whose financial bounty is increased by the system's operation, then the questions of who gets health care, how much do they get, and how do we do that? The health care "issue" is simply a front for insuring those with a disproportionate share of the financial rewards of a broken system continue to reap those rewards. The USA medical system by most measures is the worst, worst, among all Westernized and some developing nations. Why? Follow the money folks, follow the money.
The solution lies is ending the dictates embedded within our health care system that insure the extraordinarily privileged plunder extraordinary rewards from the system's operation.
Following the money, we see that Republicans have a vested political interest in not disrupting the status quo. We see an emerging field of Democratic candidates developing a consensus of establishing a universal right to health care (follow the people, candidates, follow the people). It is a right we can trace back in to the FDR years. It is a right that has been withheld from this nation for too long.
The battle is not over health care. It is an issue of necessary systemic intervention. Shall we, 80 years late, disrupt or not disrupt the places of a comforted few to increase the security of the many? It's the American question.
12
@Florida's Dr. Bob Aren't *all* Trump's *decisions* dictated by his relationship with Russia?
https://twitter.com/TimothyDSnyder/status/1117433512863371267
He couldn't even pass a plan that would let Medicare negotiate drug prices. Democrats would pass this in a heart beat. But no.
12
As with immigration reform both political parties are conflicted in many ways: the Republicans are so beholden to a free enterprise medical care system that they will not vote for anything even 20% socialistic; the Democrats are torn between reformers of Obamacare and partisans of full socialized medicine. Hard to see which Republicans will join which Democrats for which kind of change in a system that is disfunctional for many but supported by those who like their employer-based insurance. I am sure Trump doesn't understand much about any of this. He wants something populistic to generate support and will do and say anything towards that end. Hard to see McConnell & Co. helping him very much.
3
I am still aghast, that during the seven years, from implementation of ACA to the beginning of the Trump administration, the Republicans were unable to develop, even a rudimentary alternate health plan to replace ACA. All they did during that time, and a short period of time during the present presidency was to try to eviscerate or dismantle the ACA. To me, all the Republicans accomplished was to negate the mandatory enrollment penalty.
10
Why are Republicans are against national health care? It's cheaper, better, fairer, and more effective. Obamacare is a first step for the previously uninsured. The next Democratic Administration will finally deliver on the program that FDR started. If you want affordable health care, you do not want Republicans. They just don't care about people.
22
They care about wealthy donors. For them politics is not public service or policy, its a cushy job you get by promising wealthy donors you will keep policy skewed in their favor.
1
An actual plan? Comprehensive, details, thoughtfully explained to his supporters as well as to the majority of Americans who didn't vote for him? No way, it will be typical Trumpian inanity that looks ridiculous when under scrutiny. But maybe it will work for him, he relies on people simply believing whatever he says rather than asking tough questions and examining his proposals.
8
Just what would the Trumpcare plan be?
As the Democrats have found out, once you get to specifics, you have to deal with the fact that almost every plan would affect those who have good coverage now under employer-provided insurance. And those people will be the opposition that will sink any such plan (at the present).
So the only plan that could work, at this time, would be the "public option". That would have those not covered by private insurance enrolled in Medicare as a backstop. And, if that were a success, over time more and more would take that option, reaching "Medicare for All" in a generation or two.
Does anyone think that the Don will propose this?
13
@John Graybeard Very smart comments.
I migrated from a 3rd world country and it took me years to begin to understand the healthcare system in the US. I told several nurses and doctors that cared to listen, that though I was from a country that had a collapsed health sector, it was still easier to navigate and cheaper than the system in "God's own country". I had to call customer service of my health insurance company several times to explain my bill to me, after I had my first child. I also couldn't understand why I was receiving so many bills. How do you have a child in one hospital, no complications, and you receive separate bills for yourself and another set for your child?
Sometimes I think the whole system needs to be pulled down and rebuilt. The GOP certainly do not have the answers we need.
29
Has "something terrific..." Sure he does. And I have a pet unicorn that speaks fluent French.
81
Beware the con man with promises of future benefits!
34
There is no plan, there was no plan, there never will be a plan. Trump is just seizing the headlines again. He pulls the strings and the press dances for his entertainment.
82
Hopeless Hisks is testifying this week before congress.
He needs a distraction. Again.
19
If the plan is so terrific, Mr. Trump, lay it out there. To hold the US hostage to yet another of your vaporous schemes is offensive to most Americans, un-patriotic and totally expected.
61
@Medium Rare Sushi
He should be waving around a piece of paper with the plan written on it within a few weeks.
“Nobody knew that healthcare could be so complicated,” said President Trump, on February 27, 2017. What has changed?
29
Trump can’t string an intelligent sentence together and he’s going to come up with a cheaper and better health care plan that covers more people. I know how he’ll do it. He’ll get Putin and his Russian Mafia oligarch buddies to pay for it.
25
This is hilarious. He has always been about just branding with absolutely no substance behind it. There is no GOP healthcare plan and there won't be anytime soon.That would actually take work and expertise, both of which are in zero supply in this administration of grifters.
So when does infrastructure week start again? lol
52
I expect President Trump will be precisely as successful in creating a "terrific" new health care plan as he was eliminating North Korea's nuclear arsenal, bringing back manufacturing jobs to the United States, passing a revised NAFTA agreement through Congress, dealing with the complexities of immigration, revitalizing infrastructure throughout the country, turning around the coal industry, giving the middle class an additional 10% tax break before the 2018 midterm elections, and gaining the respect of the international community. He will be as successful as his six bankrupt businesses, and a commercial credit rating so poor that only Deutsche Bank would lend to his business ventures.
So much winning.
55
@jrinsc I'm with you. I don't know how much "more" winning I can take !
2
The only plan Republicans have is to eliminate taxes on the wealthy, secure power through the gerrymander, and stack the federal judiciary with hard far-right ideologues.
119
@Gusting: These judges will get government out of the way of God's administration of the US.
1
Agreed.
I would add funnel wealth to those with capital, wage religious wars and control our society as tyrants.
1
"...force Americans to give up private insurance coverage they might like."
People "like" their private coverage until they have to use it, then they realize little is covered. The myth that people are invested in private coverage is constantly uttered by those representatives who are bought and paid for by health insurance interests. I pay over $500/month to walk through the door. $6000 later, the insurance begins to kick in. Find someone who "likes" that!
73
@James Wittebols: It's all a rip off. I got denied the drug my doctor prescribed by the AARP Medicare Part D insurance plan, and what was covered practically exploded my head. The AARP is just another phony front for the insurance industry.
2
@James Wittebols
Yes, and people "like" their private coverage only because they are terrified that the alternative is having no coverage at all.
1
As has been reported in these pages, Trump's actual intellectual interests include: Choosing the songs at his campaign rallies, determining his merchandising products, redesigning the Air Force One's color scheme to correspond with his own Trump Jet. That he has never requested a copy of the budget suggests that healthcare is also a topic he would rather talk about than study or even relegate to a subject-matter expert to study. In 2016 voters only suspected that Trump was a fraud. After three years, the world knows he's a fraud.
108
@Dave
All of us who lived in NYC in the 80s knew he was a huge fraud.....
Trump had a Republican Senate and House for 2 full years and did nothing on health care apart from try to torpedo the ACA. Why would anyone believe he actually has a plan now?
93
@Louise. No one knew health care was complicated, that’s why! Who could ever have guessed? Ha ha
5
Is your health care better since Trump's inauguration? You get what you vote for. Americans deserve better than the "terrific plan" from Trump that did not happen and will not happen.
39
Even Trump's fellow Republicans know they've got nothing to offer and his words are just the usual garbage that will amount to nothing.
47
Trump's interest in improving healthcare certainly conjures up the image of the nation's foremost experts in public health and economics being chosen by a meticulously systematic and well constructed vetting process with the stable genius at the center. Can people get out and vote please? Because the one's that are voting are doing this to us.
20
@Mickey: No sane person will work for a sadomasochistic megalomaniac with an inferiority complex and a planetary death wish.
2
Isn’t Hopeless Hicks supposed to testify before Congress this week?
Oh boy, the short fingered vulgarian and self proclaimed sexual predator needs another distraction.
17
When it comes to health care, Donald Trump’s record is clear: Repeal and don’t replace. He came within one vote (Bless you John McCain) of repealing Obamacare with no replacement at all. He’s actively denying women reproductive health and restricting access for transgender persons. He has demonstrated over and over again that his word is worthless. The American people have seen the ugly truth about Trumpcare. They have “verified” and now they “distrust.”
30
@Paul Wortman: I think McCain would have voted with the rest of them had he not been suffering from a pre-existing condition himself.
@Paul Wortman
Truth is John McCain saved the GOP from oblivion. Can you imagine what would have happened to Republicans if they were the party that took health care from so many millions of people?
4
The plan is to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and if it gives Republicans enough of a bounce in the polls, to go for repealing Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA entirely. A leopard never changes its spots.
19
@Mark Lebow
Actually Medicare has beem safer under Trump than Obama. I voted twice for Obama but his plan took away from Medicare and placed an increasingly high burden on those who pay for their insurance.
There was a short time when President Obama was elected and democrats controlled all three branches. To his credit, Obama wanted to open Medicare to all and it could have been done. Yet it was bluedog democrats and Clinton supporters angry over her losing who blocked the plan.
From the Clinton era when they just walked away from healthcare reform to now, the democrats have been lying about true reform. A lot of democrats, right along with republicans, are lining their pockets with ties to the healthcare industry. Both parties are despicable on this subject.
1
I would suggest everyone,democrats please go on fox and call Trump out and say that he does not have the guts to come up with an original Trump care plan!
Tell him on fox news that he is paralysed by the fact that Obamas great healthcare plan beats anything he has come up with!
That would be interesting. Use Fox the same way Trump does.
23
I firmly believe Trump only pulls these hot button issues when trying to distract the public from his embarrassing to say the least revelations of the degree to which he is simply using the office of the president to evade justice. This is more about how Trump can use his position to manipulate it to its fullest extent. Self serving, not self sacrificing IMO.
When are we all gonna wake up and smell the coffee?
12
Trump, after years of campaigning and two plus years in power--mostly with a Republican senate and house--"we're going to have a plan"...any day now...
Go away. Just go away.
In contrast, as seen on today's front page, Warren already has a plan for that. And she's just campaigning but willing to stick her neck out with the details.
Bloviating, self-aggrandizing cowardice vs serious, selfless leadership.
23
Face it. The ACA, ("ObamaCare"), stinks.
The non-existent Republican plan stinks.
Here is MikeCare. It almost doesn't stink:
You know how the government pays to provide us with universal necessities like cops, education, libraries, road construction and repair, fire departments, snow removal, defense, garbage removal and the like? That's what we need in regard to medical care to make sure that everyone in the country, regardless of wealth or income, is covered. Just like with the other services medical services should be paid for using the taxes which we pay.
You go to whatever doctor you want, you pay a deductible to discourage frivolous medical visits, and the medical providers get paid according to a reasonable government schedule that is tailored to region. Medical providers who do not want to accept what the government is paying can do so by posting a notice in their offices to that effect. You either pay the difference or go elsewhere. In any event you get the best possible care which is what we all deserve. What is the argument in favor of letting people get sick and die just because they are financially distressed?
And that's the end of it. Welcome to the 21st Century!
If it makes the prez feel any better call it "TrumpCare".
10
Sorta sounds like Germany’s health care system, or Australia’s, or Canada’s, or, gasp, Medicare-for-All!
Yeah, ole Trump and his reformulated Republican party won’t go for that, no matter what you call it.
5
@MIKEinNYC I live in a province with no premium (and certainly no deductible) for medical services. People should be able to go to the doctor whenever they think they need to and not only if they can afford the deductible.
2
@MIKEinNYC I see no need to make the "prez" feel better, unless you are suggesting he is in need of medical help, e.g., mental health care.
1
Welcome to Trump University Healthcare, the incredible plan you can magically put your arm through, the plan that delivers all the benefits and has no details, the plan that doesn't exist.
The King of Consumer Fraud has an 'incredible' healthcare deal for America.
You'd have to really sick to be believe this $2 con artist.
113
@Socrates
With outstanding doctors personally chosen by Trump himself!
7
Healthcare is big business , Trump is foolish to think McConnell will enable anything of substance to be brought to the table. The crony factor is too large , health insurance, hospitals corps and Med Device will work the back channels to preserve the status quo and squash any possible solutions.
Typical Trump noise, “phenomenal” , “wonderful”. Blah Blah!,,
4
One system for everyone is what the public wants. Americans don’t deserve to die on the street because insurance companies won’t cover treatments.
Trump is going behind the public’s back for preexisting conditions. This is another outrageous FAKE statements by the FAKE president
Anyone who believes this lie is truly a person who creating their own hell on earth. Trumps love for dictators tells us his moral care. Insurance companies received a tax break so they don’t need any more money from the public.
This trump drama can’t end soon enough
20
"[...] We’re going to have a plan. That’s subject to winning the House, Senate and presidency, which hopefully we’ll win all three [...]"
What he really hopes is that people will not remember that there was no such plan to run nor action accomplished in this domain the last time his party had the House, the Senate and the Presidency all together.
And, actually, there might be voters who, indeed, will not remember that.
11
Though the odds are less than slim that Trump will deliver anything but an ill-conceived scam, many of us would gladly take universal medical coverage from any source. While he's at it, he can undercut democrats by passing the Green New Deal and lifting the cap on Social Security deductions paid by the wealthiest to expand and preserve this vital program.
But I'm not holding my breath on any of these.
4
He can promise the moon, the republican lead senate and Mitch mcchinless WILL NOT deliver.
4
@Al Face it. Trump is too ignorant to conceptualize and develop a plan for anything. The real “fake” is Trump himself.
3
Republicans and Conservatives in general are always against anything that says "us" instead of "me".
America is so enamored with individualism that any program that benefits the public at large is automatically "socialism". Remember that Republicans were very much against Social Security and Medicare. Would you like to go back to the days when those programs did not exist?
No matter what Republicans believe about "markets" and "self determination" there is no way to have affordable healthcare in America without government regulation. Healthcare, like education, is inelastic economically and does not respond to normal supply and demand. The present system of healthcare only exists because of the post war economic boom. The strength of labor negotiations and the health of our economy created the healthcare insurance industry that is now a problem instead of a solution. We created the health insurance system only to have it raise costs to where you could not afford care without it. No more paying Doc Brown with chickens.
Republicans will never solve this issue as it is an "us" problem, not a "me".
20
The Republicans forget they had full control for two years and could not accomplish passing an "improved" healthcare plan. They are masters of bait and switch, and unfortunately many US citizens fall for their lies. There are no easy solutions, but there are ways to improve our system so more have access to affordable healthcare. The Republicans should be held accountable for their in actions and not be able to hide behind their efforts to tear programs down without any replacement.
6
Honestly - I am still at a loss as to how Trump won the presidency and has zillions in a re-election war chest. Everything he does seems to be shooting himself in the foot - yet he wins and could win. The Republicans failed to repeal and replace the ACA when they had complete control of DC and got clobbered in 2018 over healthcare. They’ve done nothing on costs and his AG is currently trying to wipe out protections for pre-existing conditions - THE most popular aspect of the ACA and what the GOP falsely ran on in 2018.
Trump’s win and possible re-election means that either the voters of the USA are THE most masochistic and dumb on the planet or the conventional wisdom (propaganda) that votes weren’t changed in 2016 is wrong.
HOW can Trump and Republicans possibly win on healthcare unless the US electorate has simply lost its mind or votes are being tampered with?
19
I nearly laughed when I read this but I haven't laughed much since Trump took office--after all, the only thing he tries to do is rip things down. The closest he's come to creating anything was the wall, and he did that by ripping money out of other places and shutting down the government for a record period.
It's a very serious mistake for Trump to even mention healthcare, even worse than when W tried to privatize Social Security. It means he will be asking people to face reality, and were his supporters to do that, some of them would be able to shake off their Stockholm Syndrome and realize the kind of existential threat that Trump and that sycophant GOP truly is.
2
Healthcare won't matter, nothing will matter, without a healthy planet - climate change should be at the top of the priority list!
3
Trump has no health care plan an won't have one in a couple of months anymore than he'll ever show his tax returns or proof that Melania is in the country legally. Who would write it? Not him for sure. Not Congressional Republicans who hate the idea. That leaves his revolving door group of ever more incompetent White House staffers led perhaps by Mick Mulvaney. What would that plan look like? I shudder to think.
The bottom line is that Trump doesn't give a hoot about health care; he wants to erase the Obama legacy, and is frustrated that so far, he has not been able to do so.
12
@Gary Menten
Absolutely right on!
The cost of our healthcare is bankrupting us. I blame the Republicans.
7
The secret better health care plan: no matter what you die from, your estate will not have to pay taxes.
5
"“Obamacare has been a disaster,” Mr. Trump told ABC News in an interview aired on Sunday evening. His own plan, he insisted, would lower costs. “You’ll see that in a month when we introduce it. We’re going to have a plan. That’s subject to winning the House, Senate and presidency, which hopefully we’ll win all three. We’ll have phenomenal health care.”"
I can't believe this man continues his same feeble dog and pony show, when none of his bold promises ever gets done or delivers promised benefits.
Everything is "great, phenomenal, better than best" with no details. The carnival barker at work, Donald Trump ssumes the public will fall for it over and over, which is insulting to all of us.
I want to see his plan, because healthcare IS complicated, as the president incredulously remarked before. You can't design credible plans to remake more than one fifth of the US economy in a month, especially if your party is beholden to donors including drug companies, hospitals, and the Kochs who won't spend a dime on the public good.
Who will design the plan? Jared? Please, this is the ultimate con.
464
@ChristineMcM.. and yet, like the Second Coming, it seems, people will fall for this.
31
For get the second coming we are still waiting for the first!!!!
15
@ChristineMcM
That this 6-time bankrupt fake real estate mogul won the USA presidency still boggles my mind.
That he can and will convince people to vote for him because he says he will unveil a new healthcare plan in a month after FOUR YEARS of promising to do so, and now this great plan is ‘subject’ to taking over all of DC AGAIN. is breathtaking.
NEWSFLASH REPUBLICANS - the reason why you have NOTHING on healthcare is because the ACA IS a Republican plan! You only cared about Obamacare as a means to win back power.
Pathetic.
38
I think we should consider an incremental approach to Medicare-for-All. Let's start at both ends of the age spectrum. Provide optional Medicare for every child in America along with an option for enrollment to those 62 and above.
Every child in the US should be entitled to healthcare through a public option, unless their parents prefer them to be covered by their private insurance plans. This approach should include pre-natal coverage. The object should be an effort to improve infant mortality rates and promote healthy child development. It would be fantastic to link this with enhanced childcare and pre-school programs.
For those age 62 and above, the unfortunate reality is that many older workers face loss of jobs due increased health costs and a preference for less expensive, presumably healthier younger staff. Offering an "early" enrollment option into Medicare would help reduce healthcare coverage costs for employers. For many older workers who lose their job, it's often difficult to get employment at a comparable salary level. An option for earlier Medicare coverage could also be a huge relief for communities facing closure of factories or other large employers.
Gradual increases in public coverage could lead to better national healthcare results, and be an opportunity to build support for further transitions. At present, many Americans simply don't realize that we pay more, per capita, than any other country but we don't achieve better national healthcare results.
8
Oh dear, surely this has not been given enough thought and planned out. Much too impulsive, but I do agree changes are needed to reduce high premiums and deductibles for many of us.
1
The only reason this grifter would pursue a health care plan is if his family would reap financial rewards.
36
I certainly don't wish to gloat...
But some days I am reminded why I am so thankful to be Canadian. "Socialized Medicine" has served me and mine well: we've had a few health issues over the years, any one of which might have bankrupted an American family without insurance.
We never feared losing our home, our savings, nor being in debt for the rest of our lives. AND we received world-class health care.
To this day, we simply do not understand why Americans would not want the same opportunities for themselves! And it might cost less per capita than the current US system.
America - you are weird.
184
@Flower
It is not nice to gloat.
A lot of Americans voted for Trump because he promised a big, beautiful healthcare plan that would cost less than the ACA and provide better coverage.
That was a lie, and that is on Trump, not Americans in general.
If they fall for it again, well, that is on them.
19
We presently spend about 6 weeks a year in Canada and this year also did a month in New Zealand. We carry insurance to cover medical emergencies on these ventures, and our Canadian and New Zealand friends are stunned by the inadequacies and costs of American health care. So are my friends in Western Europe. In fact, have American friends who have moved and become citizens in Canada and New Zealand.
In Canada and New Zealand we know people who have had issues as serious as cancer and received excellent care with no money out of pocket. These are nations with pretty much less of everything than the US, but no one faces financial ruin due to a medical issue. We’re too old to emigrate to either nation, but would be gone in a flash if we could. It’d be nice to live in a civilized, developed country.
28
@Flower
I'm an American and we're weird on steroids.
20
If Trump is looking to monopolize the health care system and take full advantage of it's mental health care programs, then I think this is a good thing.
However we all know that he changes his mind faster then a clock ticks, so this won't go anywhere.
10
"That’s subject to winning the House, Senate and presidency, which hopefully we’ll win all three. We’ll have phenomenal health care."
Hmmmm, what happened last time Rebuplicans had all three?
30
"By Sunday, the episode had led to a purge as the Trump campaign indicated that it would cut ties with three of its five pollsters..."
This doesn't even seem remarkable anymore, but a few years ago this could have been SNL satire.
9
Remember House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Kevin Brady's pan to fix healthcare a couple of years ago? Expanded Health Savings Accounts (He called them "Backpacks") that could be carried from job to job. It was laughable. I suppose this plan will be along those lines.
7
We got by as a small American family paying for healthcare in the Seattle area back in the 90s but our overall solution was to move to Germany in 1994.
In Deutschland today you pay for healthcare based on earnings, there’s no deductible, low $12 per prescription co-pay, no short-term sick days limit, insurance continues even when unemployed, valid all over the EU...and „socialist“ Germany is the 4th largest economic power in the world! You can’t call it socialism really; it’s more like investment capitalism.
And here’s the best part: Trump is German!... but he didn’t get the memo.
54
Trump has nothing like the intelligence or self discipline to understand the complexities of health care, much less develop a plan. Due to the silver spoon nature of Trump's life, he has no comprehension of the struggles of working people to navigate the messy maze and unexpected costs of the current system. Since he has zero compassion or empathy, there is no way a functional health care plan emerges from Trump's tangled brain.
40
If anyone believes Trump or the Republicans in Congress believe in helping Americans with Healthcare they are delusional. Whenever the Democrats have pushed hard for providing affordable healthcare the Republicans have said they have a better plan. And then once the clamor has died down the Republicans have quickly moved on to other things. Where is the Trump plan? Where is the Ryan plan? There are none.
20
Obama and Democrats promised over and over again that if "you like your doctor/insurance, you can keep your doctor/insurance". Then upon passage, millions upon millions were dropped from their insurance companies, and lost access to their doctors, because ACA declared their policies were not complying with the new law. When faced with being caught in such a bald faced lie, Democrats offered the excuse that those plans were "flimsy", and didnt provide enough coverage. The fact is, those policies covered those folks for what they needed, but they werent enough to help finance ObamaCare, so they were kicked off by design. Obama knew that had to be the case, but parrotted that "you can keep it" lie over and over again. Walk into any decent doctors office, and their staff will tell you right up fron that they DONT accept any ObamaCare plans. Try paying for one, and its a mortgage payment on a policy youll never use because the deductibles are incredulously high. I dont ever want to hear another Democrat say "they have a plan" for healthcare. . Not one of these current candidates ever spent a day in the business, and havent the slightest clue what their talking about. What gives Bernie or Warren any credibility that "they have a plan"? They know nothing about healthcare. Youll wind up with hospitals resembling your local DMV center. Democrats should never be trusted again for what they did.
@Sports Medicine
And what have the republicans given you? Where is their beautiful and cheap replacement they promised when they tried to repeal Obamacare? Why has it become popular now? Flawed as it is, Democrats try to do something. Republicans refused to help improve it.
10
@Sports Medicine, um... there's no such thing as an "Obamacare" plan, so of course no doctor would accept a patient claiming to have one except, maybe, a psychiatrist. Your doctor *will* accept, say, and Anthem Blue Cross plan, or a Cigna plan, which you've purchased through your state market set up by ACA.
5
When the ACA was first implemented, my doctor at the time didn’t hesitate to accept my plan. When he retired and I switched to a different doctor, that office had no issue with my plan. Later, we moved to a different state and that office took my plan, as do thousands of doctors offices all over the country.
Obama’s “if you like your plan, you can keep it” was a huge mistake and there is no defense for it, but to claim that no doctors offices accept Obamacare is equally false.
6
The last time Trump talked about "phenomenal healthcare" was when he threw a party in the Rose Garden, in 2017, after the GOP establishment passed Ryancare in the House.
Ryancare, he told us, was "phenomenal healthcare".
All non partisan studies had by then amply proven that it would definitively destroy the healthcare of 30 million Americans - which means not even going back to the pre-Obamacare era, knowing that Obamacare insures 20 million more Americans than the previous system, but even managing to make the PRE-Obamacare system much worse.
So no thanks Donald. People now know what you mean by "phenomenal healthcare". We don't want it, and it's why you lost the mid-term elections with the biggest voter gap in three decades.
If you truly want to improve healthcare, stop being such a cynical, corrupt racist, and become a Democrat. Because only Democrats have proven to be passionate enough about "phenomenal healthcare" to not be afraid of things that aren't easy AND getting them done anyhow, time and again - thanks to their outstanding negotiating skills in Congress, and their deep respect for the work of scientists and non partisan experts.
So my advice to you, if one day you want to have Obama-like or Biden's "ratings": become a Democrat, learn how to read a book, study science, and let them show you HOW big political agreements (= a win win agreement, not your win-lose(r) failing business deals) are obtained.
Good luck.
13
For ten years the fabulous GOP health care plan has been “just a few weeks away”.
It isn’t hard to conclude why we haven’t seen their plan yet.......there isn’t one now, there won’t be one in a few weeks, and there never will be.
If they’re not making a dollar from it, they are not going to do it. This isn’t about your health care my fellow Americans, the GOP does not care. This is about money, money, money and you’re not touching theirs, period.
24
I distinctly recall Donald Trump declaring, during the 2016 campaign, that he had a healthcare plan that was the best ever. Another one of his "to be revealed in the not-too-distant future. That future is long in the rear-view mirror.
15
Don't kid yourself - we all know what his "plan" will be: let Mexico pay for it.
11
Trump's assault on ACA is part and parcel with his assault on Barack Obama.
Trump has no interest in healthcare. He has no knowledge of healthcare.
What he does have is a virulent hatred for the legacy of Obama, including the forward looking movement of healthcare reform the Democrats are now building on.
If there is anything the word "disaster" applies to it is the presidency of Donald Trump, from day one.
I can't think of a better word to describe the man and his ultimate legacy.
24
it's amazing but we may have found the one area where the snake-oil salesman cannot bluster and lie his way through this and sell it to the American public. Nice try buddy - but as others have pointed out - the republicans have had 8 years (has it been that long?) to come up with something 'better' - and they still haven't. No one believes you mr trump...least of all your party.
15
I am a Republican and I want this POTUS to be reelected - and I totally agree with my leaders when they ask POTUS about leaving Obamacare as is for 2020.
He seems to have forgotten that it was hardly a winning political issue for Democrats or still is.
The only reason it finally became a winning issue in 2018 was POTUS and Republicans botched it an attempt to overturn the law.
He should let Democrats define their Medicare for all plan and then savage it because it would be a true commentary on a failed socialist plan - NHS of britain is the poster child.
His winning strategy for 2020 should be the economy, strong border and the Democrat embrace of socialism.
He is panicking too early, they say - in American politics, a week can be an eternity.
As a reminder, I may ask him to refresh his memory over Hollywood tapes or a couple of other controversies from 2016 - all were a certain death knell for his campaign if you believed an instantaneous poll.
As an aside, the photo of sculpture of a bull in the background of the accompanying POTUS photo is a reminder of him attempting to bulldoze this idea of his.
Of course, he is a stubborn man who thinks he can bend folks to his will - and for that I say, remember Mueller.
@Neil You would be very lucky citizens in the US to have the NHS or pretty much any "socialized" health care plan in Europe or the Canadian one for that matter. I certainly get the impression that very few people actually understand how socialized medicine works, the great care at no cost and the bargain it is compared to the $$ for private insurance here (ie less in taxes than insurance premiums) - if you are lucky enough to afford any insurance that is - which clearly millions do not. But carry on being afraid of the big "S" word.
2
The Republican congress people are pretty cowardly. Trump was not elected for his timidity. His own party has run from him at the first sign of controversy only to return when they feel safe.
5
Best chance would be to write a secret plan and carry the one page piece of paper in his vest pocket. It seems to be something he prefers. He may fair better if he brought back the "Win" Button.
9
Once again, the left moves to destroy all motivation, all success, all rewards. What’s the point of a six figure education, four years of lost earnings and competing for a good job if everyone gets health insurance, everyone gets paid sick days, everyone gets a retirement contribution, everyone gets paid vacations, everyone gets maternity/paternity leave along with kid glove treatment by employers? Amazon warehouse work is not supposed to resemble first year JDs at Cravath, Swain and Moore!
@From Where I Sit This is correct. I myself prefer as high as Jupiter insulin costs. A two month wait for a physician visit. No sick days so I might contaminate the work place. And for God sake, who needs a vacation and money in retirement?
Of course, I worry about none of the above. I'm a paid member of the uber One Percent. And a Republican.
12
So, in your estimation, unless one has that six figure education, he/she should not have complete health care, a vacation, maternal benefits, paid sick leave,no retirement plan and proper treatment by employers. Spoken like a true 19th century robber baron.
30
@From Where I Sit
Really. There’s nothing to destroy one’s motivation like health care. Why would sick people work if they could get better for free?
6
The president's only "terrific" healthcare plan is the same as it's always been: the replacement of the Affordable Care Act--with nothing.
I don't know how much longer mainstream America is ready to ride the sinking S.S. Trump but all signs point to an unbelievable trust in the president. The Republicans on The Hill realize that this is an issue that cannot win for them but they have anchored their fortunes to a president to whom yesterday's promises are today's forgotten wishes.
He just can't let President Obama go and his hatred of the 44th president just might lead to his defeat next year.
He has no "plan," unless it's to hit the links sometime while he's in Florida.
30
He will say whatever he has to say. He doesn't have to have a plan. He can say Mexico will pay for our healthcare and his supporters will believe it.
30
How many times has he promised his great health care plan now? Is this another version of infrastructure week?
13
Nothing will change until and unless the for-profit mode of health insurance dies a quick death. But we all know this will probably never happen, certainly on Trump's watch. I mean, really, healthcare is so HARD.
9
The only real political leader holding office I have seen in a long time is Justin Amash, who set his personal and party poliitlcal considerations aside and instead actually lead based on what is right, what is wrong, and what our Constitution dictates he do as a member of Congress. He led when he held the town hall to educate his constituents on how he came to the conclusion he did. Pelosi says impeachment (for example, but healthcare is another) should not be done, or not, because of politics, yet that is exactly what she is doing; McConnell is only about politics, and very cynical ones at that. And while the voting public say they're tired of the "swamp" and politics and no one doing what is right, and the bleating about morality, etc., etc., etc., though I am on ht opposite side of the aisle as Mr. Amash, I have no doubt he will not be re-elected because he's committed the cardinal sin of leading rather than kowtowing to Donald Trump. Amash deserves the "Profile in Courage" award. If it's not a criminal president completely unfit for office, health care for Americans is the political football, or perhaps a war with Iran. It was bad enough when politicians were just trying to save their own seats. Now we have half the country working to protect one man's fragile but huge ego, at the expense of the country.
6
It was oh, so easy to promise pie-in-the-sky while on the campaign trail, but Trump never had a real plan. 'Cheaper, better, easier to use' sounds great until one tries to actually do that. There are very good reasons that many of Trump's campaign promises have gone nowhere (remember "infrastructure"?). He was simply shooting his mouth off, saying what got him the biggest applause and most cheers.
Once he was in office, we heard "Nobody knew healthcare was so complicated." Well, Mr. Know-nothing didn't know that, but millions of us, in fact, did. It is very, very complicated. While not perfect, the ACA took a good whack at some of the crucial area improving healthcare access for millions. Can we do better? We certainly can improve what we have with single-payer as the ultimate goal.
Can we move right to Medicare for all? Maybe and maybe not. It's not so popular when folks learn that that would mean losing the insurance they now have and like.
Trump has been in office for over 3 years; no real plan has been forthcoming; now he says he'll have one in 2-3 months. Chances are it will be another pie-in-the-sky option. Why not? It worked for him in 2016. His base worships him and is apparently overall rather gullible, at least in terms of his empty promises. Still - cheaper, better, easier to use, covers more will be hard, even for Trump, to translate into any kind of detail, much less an actual plan.
14
The fact that we have to take criminal iq45 seriously and that almost half the country continues to fall for these ruses is mind boggling in and of itself.
To believe one thing he says is absurd at best.
The Man and His Repubs Have No Plan. Again. Never Did, Never Will.
At this point one could elaborate on the mendaciousness of evil for hours to no avail.
----------
Media, perhaps a moratorium of all things criminal iq45 related for a day or two. Stop feeding the beast.
38
As long as Republicans want a country where our food is littered with GMOs and Roundup, where PFOA and other nasty chemicals abound in our drinking water and our air, where the modern workplace is a Thunderdome of stress and inequality...you can bet that any push against better healthcare for the American people will be a loser.
The Republicans want to kill us. They want to squeeze every last drop of our attention, our health and our well-being as grist for a Koch-ian mill of Billionaire welfare.
35
The best reason to oust Trump is that the daily typhoon of lies would stop. The man just makes you ill.
77
Typical GOP health plan: If you are rich and can pay for health care you get it, if you are poor you don’t. Simple. The GOP had control of the Senate, the House, and the Presidency for two years and couldn’t produce anything better than that. Why should anyone believe they are going to now?
45
In a month, he says. Should we even bother marking the date on the calendar? If it was anything other than another blank sheet of paper and the rankings of a notorious liar he would have been able to provide an overview in the interview.
14
@DWS Is he going to unveil his plan during "his" Fourth of July celebration of his "presidency"?
2
“He can’t deliver the impossible,”
But that fact does not appear to dissuade his supporters. Trump’s problem is that he has no original ideas; he simply steals other people’s ideas and rebrands them as his own. And since the Republicans are not seriously interested in any legitimate healthcare reform, Trump has nothing to steal. Except of course another election if he can.
18
Start the “60-day countdown” to the announcement of the “terrific” plan now. Let the excitement and anticipation build. I’m sure we won’t be disappointed. But do the countdown. Otherwise, this glorious intention will be forgotten by next week.
11
It is easy to agree with the experts cited that a Healthcare program which delivers what Trump has promised is an impossible dream.
We certainly spend enough money as a society on health care. Why is it not delivering a system which has high quality and broad reach?
Pure Capitalism apparently doesn't work in supplying medical care. This should be no surprise since we use largely public systems for such services as police, courts, transportation infrastructure and operations and a host of similar needs. Why not Medical care?
Neither does Socialism fit the bill. While all may be covered under a single-payer system, by definition, such a plan may not guarantee smooth, capable and efficient delivery if we are to judge by European examples.
It is time we took this out of the hands of the amateurs. There are ample sources of expertise in this country to address the essential questions of delivering more services at the same total expenditure. This will clearly involve a lower extraction of profit by some. My own bias is that insurance companies make too much for the little service, cost control, that they provide.
There is/are solution(s) out there. It would require Presidential leadership and salesmanship to achieve. A simple dollar balance would be a good starting point. It would answer a central concern of everyone: What percent of each dollar spent actually goes towards health care?
4
Another article by the media to provide Trump with free media coverage. Estimates are that he got over one billion in free exposure during his last campaign. Not that he needed it since he was guaranteed the election by Russian intelligence.
The media could never just ignore him. Marginalize him. No way.
No, Trump is the president! He gets the coverage. Newspapers, talking-head shows, book publishers, they get the money. Without Trump it's not so good for them.
ACA has already been destroyed as a viable national healthcare system by Republicans. They will never allow a national healthcare system for Americans. Trump gets to play them, get the media coverage and likely the presidency for another four years.
Putin and the child-like head of the Senate must be extremely happy.
11
Would love to see Warren "I've got a plan for that" debate Trump on stage for this particular issue. He would be destroyed. The guy can't come up with a plan to rub two sticks together. Vote blue 2020, at both local and national levels and let's be done with his nonsense.
50
If Republicans have a better plan, now is the time to implement it, not 2021. Because, for one thing, they promised it after the last election. So, “promises kept,” right? For another thing, people need it now, not later. The “after the election in 2020” business makes it seem like some kind of empty campaign promise. In fact, I’ve heard a lot of people saying it’s a bad joke.
17
@Peter. Both an empty campaign promise and a bad joke. That's why whatever he comes up with won't come to vote until "after" the election. He hopes it will get the GOP elected everywhere again. Then it will be another "Who knew it could be so hard?" and nothing at all will be done.
4
@Brookhawk
The empty campaign promise is that the Republicans will deliver a good, affordable health care plan, the bad joke is that millions of Trump supporters are saying "Great news everybody! After we re-elect Trump, we're going to get good, inexpensive health care!"
2
Give him the original Obamacare plan, before Congress mauled it, replace “Obama” with “Trump” and have provision 1 “this act will immediately repeal Obamacare and immediately replace it with Trumpcare” and watch him sign it and tweet brag about it for weeks to come.
36
Neither party is going to bring us national healthcare because our lawmakers are beholden to the money. Until the money no longer controls our government, decisions will never be made in the best interests of the people, period.
24
@ACD
Democrats INCREASED taxes for the wealthiest multiple times, under Obama.
And Obamacare saves an additional half a million lives a year.
Pelosi has already passed a similar bill WITH a public option in the House, and it's potential McCain VP candidate and Independent Joe Lieberman who took it out of the Senate bill.
We will never get anywhere near to universal healthcare as soon as ordinary citizens don't start paying attention to who does what in DC, and then cynically give up and start imagining that "all politicians are the same".
Passing a bill that saves hundreds of thousands of lives (Obamacare) and passing a bill that kills hundreds of thousands of lives (Ryancare) is NOT the same thing. It's the exact opposite.
And if you vote, you can make sure that the country evolves into the direction you want.
If not, you simply give your constitutional power away to a corrupt, ultra-wealthy minority. And then of course universal healthcare will never happen.
In a democracy, we only have the government we deserve.
23
Trump's renewed interests in healthcare is all about wanting to get reelected. He has never had a plan and will never have a plan. It's all smoke and mirrors - a con. We saw what happened in 2017. Trump's healthcare plan was a joke. It decimated Obamacare by stripping away patient rights in favor of protecting health insurance providers. Never, ever, trust your health care to a Republican, especially Trump.
99
@Aurora
And let's be honest. Trump only wants to be re-elected so he can avoid prosecution. With federal prosecutors and the Southern District of New York examining every inch of his business only the presidency stands between him and and (hopefully) a jail term and the dismantling of his assets. It is, as it always has been, first and foremost about himself. Never the people he was elected to serve.
4
Didn’t he have a press conference last week where Trump declared his healthcare program ready to be rolled out, even congratulating some staffer for his work on a job well done on a job not yet started?
What person would risk the health and well being of themselves and their family to the man who brought us “Trump University”?
58
@Wayne
His healthcare program will be rolled out at the same time as his taxes.
1
Like all conmen, it will be a "pie in the sky" promise that he has no intention on keeping, Whatever he may consider "beautiful" (I really hate when he uses that word), will be a burden to all but the corporations that control the healthcare industry.
27
Mr.Trump has no problem telling massive lies. His constituents tend to want to believe him. He will continue to tell his lies about the GOP healthcare plans until he is driven from office and beyond. In truth, the GOP will not develop any healthcare plan based on government control or operation. Their only push is for the "free market", knowing full well that the "free market" in healthcare has failed most Americans.
25
Trump claimed in 2016 he had a “beautiful” plan to provide health care for all at a lower cost than Obamacare. We are all still waiting to see it - maybe it’s written in a code he forgot or invisible ink...
21
I want to hear Trump's "plan."
Within 5 minutes after it's release, he'll contradict it because he never read it.
22
Hey, another chance for tRump to wave around blank pieces of paper to fool his base into thinking that he has a great plan.
Don't fall for it base. He has nothing.
74
@Louise
Why in the world would his base open their eyes now?
21
His base, the same people who want the Government to keep its hands off their Medicare.
16
When a patient having an outpatient procedure stays a whole week in the hospital for free, paid by taxpayers, would we expect her husband to understand, oblige, take responsibility for healthcare insurance for millions of people in the country in a respectable and honorable way? So goes Melania Trump’s outpatient procedure last year. Donald has no clue - nor care.
As an RN I case managed both for health insurance companies and for hospitals. Healthcare insurances are out to make money however they can. You think they care about outcomes for patients? If so, how come they would deny innocent kids the opportunity to hear by denying cochlear implants? How come they make cancer patients squirm when they need chemotherapy? How come they would leave college students without healthcare because they could not afford insurance?
I walked the trenches. I was the one who had to tell patients their insurance company denied this and that. I was the one who
had to tell ailing patients they needed to go home, leave the hospital because their insurance wouldn’t pay for anything else.
But no one had to tell Melania Trump any of that, did they? The Trumps just did what they wanted. She could have been waited on in the hospital for a month and we’d have still footed the bill.
Donald Trump is a dangerous man. If Republicans would do anything, for once, for the American people, just once in the Trump regime - keep Trump away from patients’ chance for healthcare. For good.
388
@MIMA
I don't understand your point. The family of our President always gets tax-payer funded healthcare. Where the Trumps are different than you or I (I assume) is that they are rich. They aren't dependent on any "health care plan", like, ever. Same with the members of Congress. They don't care about you and me. We don't count.
3
When the Republicans has the House he lost. It is almost like he wants to repeat the same mistakes.
Trump better get a deal with China.
8
didn't he say this 4 years ago? didn't he say repealing and replacing would be easy?
32
@Marlene
And it must be remembered that he had complete control over all levels of government for two years.
It’s almost like he didn’t actually have a plan in the first place, like he doesn’t know what he’s doing, like he’s talking out of his...
19
They have years to come up with a plan but didn't. He (you know who) said in the campaign he would replace it with "something good". It would be easy (like dealing with North Korea and building the wall and getting Mexico to pay for it and tariffs). Yeah everything is easy- like inheriting millions and millions of dollars. That was so easy he ended up going bankrupt and needing money from Russian oligarchs.
The flaws in Obama care are a direct results of the GOP obstructing its introduction. Universal health care works really well in every other comparable economy. It is best practice in terms of social cohesion. It's obvious.
208
After almost 8 years of promises to offer a far better healthcare plan, the GOP has absolutely nothing to show other than 60+ votes to repeal Obamacare without a clue of what would replace it.
Healthcare is hard, as Trump admitted last year, and hasn’t gotten easier. Only a ground clearing approach like Medicare for All stands a chance of resetting a system that has grown hopelessly complex, rife with administrative waste and costs and which is draining the morale of healthcare professionals.
376
@Jack
As Obama and Pelosi have shown: healthcare is hard but not impossible.
And one of the most important reasons why it's hard is the fact that the GOP vehemently opposes the very idea of universal healthcare.
ALL Republicans have voted against Obamacare, in 2019, even though it was invented by the conservative Heritage Foundation.
The GOP - and Trump included, as he has proven beyond any doubt for more than two years now - are only interested in one thing: passing Ryancare, which destroys the healthcare of a whopping 30 million Americans, all while accelerating cost increases again (in other words, it's even WORSE than the pre-Obamacare system).
In the meanwhile, the Democrats have developed all the technical knowhow necessary to transition from Obamacare to Medicare for all.
Step 1 is increasing subsidies, so that those who still don't have health insurance because they earn too much, can now buy it too.
Step 2 is adding a public option or a Medicare for all option.
Both steps are the ONLY way to improve Obamacare.
If Trump is serious about it, he should stop claiming that he needs two more months to "think about" a plan, and simply admit that on this issue, Democrats already have the plan we need.
But of course, that would be bad for his "ratings". So he'll lie and cheat once again, instead.
71
@Jack
Yeah, but health care actually isn't all that hard. What's hard is delivering health care using a system that makes not delivering health care really, insanely, profitable - with profit, not health care, the ultimate goal. If we wanted to provide health care inexpensively, we could just copy one of the twenty or so countries that have a better (socialized) health care system than ours. It might have been hard for them, but it's already been figured out for us.
29
@Jack Prescription for loosing the 2020 elections:
Tell 64% of middle class voters who receive the benefit private insurance through their employer that you are going to take it away, and raise their taxes so they can sign up for Medicare. Then, tell them they can pay for their Medicare supplemental plans (which most middle class enrollees have) out of pocket.
2
After all the GOP’s calling for repeal and replace, it would be interesting to see what they believe is a better and cheaper health system. Most probably this is a bait and switch tactic in any event.
17
Honestly. How long have we heard this one? If Mitch McConnell and the other Senate Republicans were serious about presenting a viable alternative to the Affordable Health Care Act, they would've come up with something before now.
They didn't.
All they did was complain and obstruct the Obama administration, while making sure they retained their own health coverage at taxpayer's expense.
And now Donald Trump is doing pretty much the same thing with promises of "something terrific" that only he seems to know about.
There's no doubt it's just another talking point for this president who's been campaigning ever since his first day in office.
Just like there's no doubt his only focus is on repealing every form of legislation associated with his predecessor, regardless of how many American lives it may effect, and blaming everyone else for it.
Some things never change.
28
Count on the administration and the GOP to advocate for the interests of the influential health insurance company lobby, not the interests of the individual insurance consumer or the beneficiaries of Medicare and Medicaid. The "plan" will most likely be a reprise of the last several years' history of sabotaging, not fixing, the only serious step to date toward increased coverage for Americans.
15
Medical care should not be a political issue. When the people in this nation cannot get medical care that costs all of us a lot. Poor people wind up handing the rest of us the bill, untreated sick people infect others, productivity and learning are not possible when you are sick and not getting care. Huge bills make it impossible for consumers to purchase items thereby slowing the overall economy. Injury and disease hits people of all political persuasions.
Consider that the majority of Americans seen cheering Trump have medicare and don't want the government to mess with "their Medicare!"
All of the politics only serves to harm those who the elites of the political realm have determined to be non-persons. Yes, dehumanization is at the root of this problem, not politics or economics but the fact that some people in this nation consider other people in this nation to be non-human and therefore not deserving of any consideration.
197
@George N. Wells
Politics, in a democracy, is about fundamental choices on issues where science can't tell us what is true or false.
Do we adopt a philosophical concept of what it means to be a human being where we assume that in order to force people to accept very low wages, we "motivate" them by making sure that without the hope of getting such a job (and once you get it, trying to obtain a better paying job), they literally won't survive as soon as they get ill?
Or do we adopt a philosophical concept of what it means to be human where we believe that increasing the minimum wage and opting for the cheapest form of health insurance (= universal health insurance) is what will motivate people to work hard, and obtain a thriving society?
Republicans argue that even when a healthcare for the elites only HC system is more expensive, we should adopt it anyhow, because a capitalist economy needs ultra-wealthy minorities and a massive number of poor people doing horrible jobs in order to survive as economical system - and they suppose it's the best possible system.
Democrats believe that savage capitalism, as proposed by the GOP, is NOT the best possible form of capitalism, and that universal healthcare is not only good for the economy but also for society as a whole.
The GOP tries to avoid any philosophical debate here, and instead scares people with fake news. Democrats believe that a democracy vitally needs real, respectful debates about political philosophy.
33
@George N. Wells Medical care is not a political issue. It is the simply a front for insuring (pun intended) those with a disproportate share of the financial rewards of a broken system continue to reap those rewards. The USA medical system by most measures is the worst, worst, among Westerm(whatever, industrialized, modernized, you pick) nations.
Medical care is not the issue, it is who grabs the most rewards from the system. Follow the money folks, follow the money.
22
@George N. Wells Now that Trump voters are the elites I guess we can retire that term for good.
3
This article does beg the question: "what have Republicans EVER delivered on U.S. health care except to tear it down"?
160
@Carl
Better question: What have Republicans EVER done to help the struggling lower and middle class?
36
“You’ll see that in a month when we introduce it. We’re going to have a plan. We’ll have phenomenal health care.”
How many times is he going to say that without ever actually producing a plan before even those good folks with more hopeful trust than critical awareness realize he's just billowing hot air at them?
57
A coworker griped: "If they enact Medicare for all, I'm leaving the country!" HA! I asked where he would go? What country would he like to move to that doesn't have a national health plan? Silence as he tried to come up with one... There it is, we are far behind the rest of the civilized world in caring for our citizens. Dems tried and the Repubs sabotaged and obstructed every inch of the way. Couldn't overturn the ACA when they controlled every branch of government. No one in the current administration has a clue about the complexities of healthcare, least of which Trump. Simply a campaign promise with no "there" there, just like his beautiful wall.
176
The billing system in this country is absurd. There is a different price for everything, none of which you know until after the care. Trying to read a bill, figure out who pays for what and what you owe is absurd. Services bill outrageous amounts and accept small percentages with no explanation. We have excellent insurance coverage but reading the bills is a trial.
9
@lyndtv
Lyndtv: There is a different price for everyBODY. If you have no insurance you are expected to pay the entire bill that the hospital sends you. If you have medicare often more than half of the bill has been negotiated by medicare and the insurance company pays a small part and the medicare recipient pays an even smaller part. It is also true of other types of insurance. And each negotiated deal is different depending on the type of insurance you have. And that's why you can't read the bill.
4
Trump wants to campaign on “promises kept”. Sadly, he has good show-and-tell for his base.
He has delivered (spectacularly) on confirming conservative judges. He has proposed extreme measures to control immigration - much of it either unconstitutional or ridiculous, but he has been noisy about it. Trump has engaged in the culture wars - reducing transgender rights - in a way that his intolerant base really likes.
For health care, the question is whether the folks in WI, MI, PA, FL and maybe NC like Obamacare or not. Is this like immigration- his base just wants him to fight even if he loses?
I hope that this issue is still a winner for the Democrats, but I’m not sure of anything anymore.
11
Each times he chips away at the ACA, the cost of medical care goes up. He has no one in his administration who has the interests of the general population at heart. Trump and his Republicans are adamantly opposed to socialism unless it benefits only the one percent.
38
My husband planned to retire.His company covers our healthcare. His Medicare supplement $229 a month. My healthcare and our son who just graduated from college$1500 a month with a $5000 deductible. A new mortgage.Needless to say, he is not retiring.We looked into moving to Canada 25 years ago. I so wish we had followed through.
63
@Nora
My daughter has Disaster Coverage at over $500/mo. She has been able to use a local PP site for mammograms and some basic care. Employers are no longer offering health care benefits, with the exception of Target and a few very large corporations. Target has a year long wait for job applications. Some corporations have broken down branches to under 50 employees. They are not always successful if a State aggregates their total employee population. We need Medicare for All; that will produce more small businesses and more jobs. It will take the pressure off ER's. It will save the existing few rural hospitals.
15
Sounds like another project for Jared, along with his immigration and Middle East successes.
I don't think the American people are ready for single payor coverage, but I like the idea of Medicare being available as a competitive option to commercial plans.
The ACA dealt primarily with access and patient affordability. Time for Act 2 - let's develop a strategy to get medical costs under control, which will be reflected in a lower cost curve for consumers
10
Healthcare is a battle that Republicans will lose. More Americans will side with the Democrats on this issue. This was evident with the failure of the American Health Care Act and the 2018 midterms.
Heading into that election, Gallup found that healthcare was the most important issue with 80% of registered voters expressing that. The result of that election was a wave in the US House of Representatives in the favor of the Democrats.
If the predominant issue was healthcare in the 2018 midterms and the Democrats took over the House in a convincing fashion, it's not difficult to determine where the American people stand on the issue, which is clearly not with Trump or the Republicans.
The Republicans are in denial that the American people are increasingly favoring the healthcare system that countries such as Australia and Canada. In these two countries, their healthcare systems are called Medicare and coverage is given to all people. When Bernie Sanders says that it's not a radical idea to have Medicare-For-All, he's not lying.
516
@Jerry Cupat, if Democrats had a clue then they would be promoting the German Bismark model which is public and private health insurance coupled with strong government oversight. It's what most of Europe (with the exception of the UK, which has the government-run NHS which is terrible) uses, and which would provide a simple and practical way forward for Ameerica.
But what are they promoting? The government-run model of rationed health care which failed against the Bismark model (which btw is the oldest health care model in the world, which says something about its track record) which already fails patients here in the UK (and which, literally, has caused lots of unnecessary deaths).
You want run-down hospitals and rationed care where availability of medications or procedures is purely down to costs not effectiveness, and with massive waiting times for most procedures? You want practices with four or five family doctors having to care for >40k patients which means getting an appointment can take weeks (and you only have 12min and are only allowed to discuss one issue)? Great, vote for government-run health care.
If you want a system that still has the world's best hospitals and provides a high standard of care, just at a lot less ridiculous prices, then ask the Democrats to support the German Bismark model of health care.
11
@Wurzelsepp
FYI: it's what they've been "promoting" for years already. And Obamacare is a historical step forward into that direction.
You want more progress faster?
1. Start to inform yourself.
2. Vote the GOP out.
137
@Wurzelsepp I don't know if you've lived in the U.S., but 10-15 min appointments are the norm here as well, and I am currently waiting several months for a followup appointment with a specialist. From what I've heard, many of NHS's issues are due to recent underfunding by your conservative governement. Which follows the pattern we've had in the U.S. since Reagan, which is to underfund parts of the government so they fail, then say "Told you so- the private sector does everything better".
63
The ACA needs a government run option such as Medicare to be really OK and it really is unaffordable if you get no government help. That said trump has done all he can to make it worse while he has no replacement plan. What he promises over and over is just like Medicare for all.
5
@Thomas Renner
FDR managed to get Social Security despite GOP opposition. It has worked for all Americans. It comes from payroll deductions. I now have that with Medicare, thanks to Truman and LBJ. I am the last generation to receive a pension earned in a large East Coast corporation. Their 401K with match allowed me to purchase an annuity to supplement SS and pension. The total allowed me to purchase a Prescription Plan. How many old people are just getting by, depending on SS and Medicare? Trump inherited and squandered a real estate fortune. He has income from a Trust. He also owes Russian financiers a lot of money, laundered through The Bank of Cyprus and deposited in Deutsche Bank, loans on the record. That is why he threatens a lawsuit to protect those loans from public knowledge. A New York Magazine reporter found them and wrote about them over a year ago.
8
Who could still fall for the idea that Trump had a plan to cover even more Americans, at even lower costs, when:
- he told us he had one in 2016 already
- to then declare in early 2017 that he didn't know that healthcare was "so complicated" (if you HAD a plan, you had studied the situation and obviously already knew that indeed it's complicated)
- and then, a couple of months later, start to VERY enthusiastically support Ryancare, which DESTROYS the healthcare of a whopping 30 million Americans, all while strongly accelerating costs increases again (who can forget his decision to throw out a Rose Garden party after the bill had passed in the GOP House - party that is normally only held much later in the legislative process, when the Senate passes a bill too, then both chambers pass one and the same compromise bill, and the president has signed it into law)
- and then ending up passing a deficit-doubling (Obamacare cut the deficit) tax cut for the wealthiest bill, which included the suspension of the individual mandate, which in itself increased premiums by 30% (on top of normal increases) and destroyed the healthcare of 13 million Americans ... all while hiring GOP establishment men in his cabinet who constantly try to cut Medicare and Medicaid (whereas NOT cutting them was another of Trump's campaign promises).
Obamacare saves an additional half a million American lives a decade.
There is NO way that the GOP or Trump can do better. They're just not competent enough.
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(2/2)
And then we're not even talking yet about the fact that:
- the GOP has voted more than 50 times already for repealing Obamacare WITHOUT replacing it, and that
- Trump ordered his Attorney General to aggressively attack Obamacare in court, arguing that now that they've suspended the individual mandate, the entire law would be "unconstitutional" and should be destroyed by the Supreme Court (and almost all GOP state AGs are actively engaged in trying to obtain this outcome) ... obviously BEFORE they've even managed to come up with something BETTER, after having had a DECADE-long period of time to come up with their own plan.
Simply by recognizing that he will only come up with a plan two months from now, whereas he already tried to destroy the ACA in the courts, he's proving that he's perfectly fine with a situation in which a court WOULD have destroyed Obamacare already, WITHOUT any replacement plan ready to protect millions of Americans who would loose their healthcare.
And ... then we're not talking yet about the fact that IF he wasn't lying about wanting something better, he obviously would NOT have deliberately sabotaged the implementation of the law for two years now already, trying to create instability in the private health insurance market by threatening to no longer reimburse insurers, and by ending ALL public information programs and all help with signing up.
Conclusion: he's LYING. The GOP isn't just not competent enough, it's also NOT interested.
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"Medicare for all" is a slogan, not a program . There are a number of iterations of Medicare, from Part A which covers practically nothing but is "free" , Medicare Part B which covers up to 80% of most medical costs and is relatively inexpensive and I could go on to Part D with supplements, etc ... Which one are the Democrats talking about ?
What they should discuss is the principle of Universal and Compulsory Affordable Health Insurance . Those exist in many countries and most of them do not involve a single payer - the government (i.e. your taxes) - but a combination of government and private insurers , as indeed does Medicare with supplements, including in many cases the choice of practitioners .
Perhaps a good place to start would be universal Medicare Part B. Sure, it does not pay for 100% of medical costs and excludes private insurance companies . But, by maximizing the pool of insured participants - the young and the old, the healthy and the sick - it would drastically reduce the cost of insurance and might well be self sustaining (one can always hope, since I have no data on this) .
Allowing Medicare to negotiate the pricing of drugs would also be a good starting point .
This embryo of a concept is of course imperfect and it seems that many Americans would rather pay less in taxes than much more in the private market for the same level of care .
Supplemental insurance could, of course be available as well.
Just a thought .
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@pgd, exactly!
Democrats should have a look what's actually out there, not just what the next-door neighbor (Canada) offers which may be cheaper than U.S. health care but which suffers from wide restrictions and limitations. The same is true for all other government-run systems, like the UK's NHS which is rationing care and where in recent years people literally died because of insufficient care. I personally am just still alove because I seeked treatment abroad before it was too late.
If Democrats looked at Europe then they would see that aside from the UK most countries follow the model of public and private health insurance with general insurance requirement and strict government oversight you mentioned. This model is called Bismark model after Bismark who introduced it in the late 1800's in Germany. It's the oldest public health care system in the world and has been widely adopted around the globe. It's costs are almost as low as for the government-run systems like UK NHS while producing much better outcomes.
The American system would be easy to convert to a Bismark-style system, lowering costs and making good health care affordable while leaving choices for those that want it.
Instead, Democrats run on the model of rationed health care and long waiting times that failed patients here in the UK and in other countries.
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@pgd Google and read HR 676. It'll take less than an hour. Medicare for All is a very good plan, just read it and decide.
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@Richard Bittner
Thank you Richard . I have indeed read the old HR 676 . I have also read the new S1129 (Sanders) bill . I think the exclusion of private insurance companies- and in the case of the Sanders bill, the additional punitive exclusion of physicians providing private treatment - risks to create a one size fits all type of health care and would not be terribly appealing to many Americans .
Having said this, of course, both are rooted in the same concept I outlined (and for which I claim no authorship ) that affordable health insurance is, in the 21st century, an absolute right . To that extent, and absent a better solution, either of these bills should be strongly supported, even if they need to be amended to comply with the political and social realities in America .
3
So long as the US health care system is a) profit-based: a service run by private companies in order to make a profit, b) a chaotic patchwork of many organizations, each with outsized bureaucracies adding to the overall cost, and c) dominated and overshadowed by huge multinational pharmaceutical companies who have enough political influence to keep their USA prices FAR above what they charge anywhere else, the overall cost will never come down very much. The US health care system is by FAR the most expensive on the planet, yet on a nationwide basis it delivers far less than many other much cheaper health care systems. Only radical changes can alter this reality.
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@Joseph Ross Mayhew: how right you are. There are too many vested interests, pigs at the trough, if you will to undertake a radical overhaul any more competent than the ACA, unless you had political consensus to expand Medicare, to Medicare for all. But that depends on price setting, as Medicare has the power to do.
The GOP is a party that depends on the largesse of the very constituencies that keep prices high. Yes, we have the most costly, wasteful, and ineffective fragmented system of healthcare in the world, paying more per capita for every patient and medical event also because we don't have universal coverage, like most rational countries in the western world.
It all comes down to who political parties value--healthcare money men or the American people.
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@ChristineMcM
I worked for a medium sized East Coast corporation for 22 years, in benefits. We paid our brokers to put our insurance out to bid every year. I had a bookcase full of booklets for branch use. We would have been grateful to pay into a national plan. We could still have offered supplemental plans to employees who wanted them at cost. Big insurance companies have overhead which they pass to corporations. They are gatekeepers, nothing more. They could work for national coverage; they would not be gatekeepers; they could oversee cases in a humane way.
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@Linda Miilu: I spent the last third of my career as a healthcare communications writer specializing in managed care and drug reimbursement rules. Even as the ACA was being developed, I firmly believed that insurance companies were parasites inside the healthcare system, middlemen who added to the costs of care doing nothing to help delivery. Now that I've been on Medicare for a few years, I see its basic simplicity: the government decides what gets covered after rigorous testing, they set prices for surgeries, and adjudicate claims. The role of insurance companies is reduced to two roles: as supplemental insurers to cover what Medicare doesn't pay and as prescription drug administrators. They still must follow rules set by CMS. Seniors love Medicare, because costs are predictable, not extravagant. Insurance companies should be claims processors only, not adjudicators of care. But of course, they are huge donors to the Republican party so they can continue to grab their piece of the healthcare mess, whereby we pay more for less coverage and poorer health outcomes than most industrialized nations.
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While replacing the ACA may be simply a political stunt for Trump to divert attention from his failures as also a cunning way to benefit the select private insurerers, it is the only affordable health insurance cover for the millions who can look for some kind of healthcare access in the current highly commercialised healthcare market.
5
Young, healthy, and without health insurance. A friend of ours 22- year old grandson was out surfing when he suffered a major stricken and is now in an induced coma. His family is upper middle class, he is partially covered under their medical insurance, and yet they have had to resort to crowd funding to cover the mounting medical bills. This is under ACA/Obama Care. I can’t imagine what it will be like if Trump get’s his way and overturns the ACA in favor of some undefined health care scheme that will only add to the financial burden faced by millions of American families.
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Trump is destroying the Republicans by way of the Republican "repeal and replace" healthcare sloganeering.
O, there is a saying for that: the chicken is coming home to roost! Except this is political avian flu.
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Bring it on If he can even remember that he said anything
Trumpcare repeal and replace 1/20/17
What a target!
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Trump the undoer. He does not really care what he undo, he just knows that if it does not bear his name, it just has to go. The ACA, the Paris Climate Agreement, TPP, the Iran deal, a multitude of regulations set in place to protect the citizens, the constitution...
He wants monuments over himself, remember when he tried to set him up for the Nobel Prize?
He never has any ideas of how to actually create something other thann discord.
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It is always good to learn something from other countries. US should set up a committee to study how Universal Health Care system is managed and run by some European countries such as Germany , Sweden, Norway or even UK. It is doable and affordable and mostly beneficial for the low income and middle income earners. If there is a WILL, there is a WAY.
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@Asian Philosopher
FYI: that's exactly what Obama did.
It's how Obamacare was created.
To be able to get to Obamacare 2.0, there's only one solution: the GOP has to be massively voted out.
This is not a problem of not knowing what works. It's a problem of fighting against fake news, cynicism and gerrymandering.
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@Ana Luisa
Thanks Ana for pointing that out. GOP will not learn the lesson from previous election defeat for the House. They will learn only when US citizens voted out the majority of senate members and their Lying President in 2020.
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@Asian Philosopher
The lie stares us right in the fact and still we must wonder if Trump's supporters can see it. He says he will provide something "terrific" and then calls universal health care socialism. Doesn't anybody else see the emperor has not shame, no conscious and no clue? I know you do but when I say anybody, I mean people who voted for Trump. One question always bothers me, if someone came into your home looking like Trump, sounding like Trump and acting like Trump you would probably say "honey, get the kids out of here, go to the neighbors and call the cops, I'll try to distract it until they get here". And yet others have seen and heard the same thing and thought this was what should be president. It is amazing to say the least.
20
I would be overwhelmed and thrilled to have an enlightened healthcare system, without the managerial industry based on profits from denying healthcare, from anyone, even The Unindicted Co-conspirator.
It would be a major achievement, one that Obama didn’t even bother to attempt when he had the whole country in the palm of his hand.
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@Lilly
Sorry, but unfortunately President Obama never had the whole country in the palm of his hand. That's magical thinking. President Obama had full control of Congress for only 4 months.
16
@Mary And with Democrats like Lieberman and Manchin in the Senate, President Obama did not have "full control" and was lucky to even get the ACA passed.
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@Lilly
He did not have Congress "in the palm of his hand". He got what he could from a GOP Congress indebted to big insurance donors. They tried 40 times to get rid of the ACA. If you don't believe that D.C. is crawling with insurance company lobbyists, I have a bridge for you in Brooklyn. I worked for a political law firm in D.C. for 5 years. I saw it up close on K Street. Lobbyists walked on to the Floor of the House because they were former Reps. They wrote legislation and handed it to the Reps they knew. They hired law firms to write their legislative proposals. That is how it works in D.C. The Democrats would be open to progressive legislation. The GOP is a Minority Party in debt to big donors, especially the for profit insurance industry. Obama fought hard. You insult him and what he tried to accomplish. We were lucky to have him for 8 years.
9
Excellent. I want Great Britain’s NHS. Do you think Donny can negotiate that for the American people? If he were to accomplish this commendable feat my opinion of this man of straw would change from pure contempt to profound adulation.
13
@WATSON, believe me, you don't want our NHS. Seriously, you don't.
If it was left to the NHS then I would be dead by now, and the only reason I'm still alive is because I went abroad for my treatment.
If you look at developed countries then you'll find the best health care is in country's which use Germany's Bismark model of health care, i.e. public and private insurance companies and strict government regulation.
You really don't want the government to run your health care facilities, but you want the government to enact strict regulation which (together with universal health insurance mandate) keeps prices in check while improving outcomes.
3
@WATSON the NHS has it's flaws too, mainly chronic underfunding by a conservative government and the fact that a vast amount of funding that does go in is currently sliced off and given to private corporations for sub-standard services the NHS used to provide internally (again a conservative policy), but by and large it is still an amazing healthcare service that benefits the people of the UK massively. I know a lot of people who are only alive today because of the hard work and dedication of our Nurses and Doctors, and more importantly because when they were in the middle of a life changing crisis they didn't have to worry about their insurer stiffing them, or paying a vast deductible, or whether this was going to destroy their premiums for the rest of their life.
28
The fact that my UK friends can’t conceive of not being able to spend a month in hospital receiving excellent care if necessary, without spending anything substantial, let alone not going bankrupt and losing their home says a lot.
We Americans dream of that kind of... suffering... somehow slogging through.
16
This is another of those “secret” plans he promises to show in a few days or weeks, he sells as “terrific” and never happens to materialize.
Shamefully he will somehow end up claiming a victory by, at best, renaming the current plan as something else which looks pretty much identical OR, at worst, by insulting and defaming any and every other competent plan, institution and/or individual around the issue.
.... and Wall Street will boost the Dow another thousand points on the strength of yet another lie ....
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He promised better, cheaper and would cover more people. What we got was an assault on the ACA and a proposal for cheap plans that don’t cover anything
Trump doesn’t have a plan, he never had a plan and he doesn’t have one now. Republicans aren’t for anything that doesn’t drive more profits to the wealthy and corporations.
America has been Trumped. Don’t let it happen to you again.
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@Deirdre
The only “plan” will be a folded piece of paper he waves, but won’t share.
Reporters will figure out the paper says only: “Health Plan.”
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@Deirdre
It shows how gullible Americans are that almost 50 years after they could elect Nixon who claimed a secret plan for ending the Vietnam War that he couldn't tell anybody about until after he was elected and which ended up being nonexistent, they could elect Trump claiming he had a better, cheaper plan for health insurance but had to keep that a secret.
When P.T. Barnum said "There's a sucker born every minute" he sure knew about the American voter.
4
This is the fundamental problem. Politicians are not incentivized to fix the problem. They're incentivized to position themselves to look better than their opponent. The driving force for Trump to propose a healthcare plan is not to solve the needs of many Americans without proper coverage (or no coverage at all!). It is only to gain a political advantage for the next election cycle.
In an ironic and sad twist, politicians benefit when this kind of political gamesmanship is revealed to the public. It disheartens the public and an apathy grows among centrist-minded people. Then, what you're left with are the polarized extremes that are happy to mud-sling their way to a short-term "victory".
9
Trump’s Republican advisors are right; his nebulous healthcare proposal offers a great opening for Democrats. They need to keep his feet to the fire on coming up with a specific, written proposal. The same goes for congressional races, especially those races against ardent Trump-supporting incumbents.
Healthcare and climate change, followed by education and infrastructure, are the issues Democrats should run on.
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"Midway through his third year in office, many remain skeptical that Mr. Trump will produce the plan he is now promising to unveil in a month or two."
All this winning is just exhausting.
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