Different Takes On The Latest GOP Health Law Repeal Talks; Improving Coverage
Opinion writers take a hard look at the GOP's latest crack at health care, the policies in play and what might be left on the cutting-room floor.
The Washington Post:
What’s In Republicans’ New Health-Care Deal? We (And They) Have No Idea.
President Trump and House Republican leaders want to take another crack at a health-care reform deal that went up in flames last month. Except it looks as though they're not really sure how to fix what went wrong — that is, a total implosion of their attempt to build a single-party coalition of moderate Republicans (who thought the original bill would take away too much coverage) and conservative Republicans (who thought it wouldn't go far enough). (Amber Phillips, 4/4)
Huffington Post:
Emerging GOP Obamacare Repeal Would Mean Sick People Pay (Much) More
Republicans have spent most of the past seven years vowing to protect people with pre-existing conditions, even as they have pledged to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. ... Now Republicans are trying to bring back Obamacare repeal. And the emerging deal would make a mockery of those promises ― by forcing people with medical problems to pay more for their health care, and in many cases leaving them unable to get insurance at all. It would be a breach of faith, but also a revealing window into what Republicans who support this measure think the world should look like. (Jonathan Cohn, 4/4)
The Fiscal Times:
New Obamacare Repeal Plan Would Leave The Hard Decisions To The States
It can be hard to know which of President Trump’s tweets to take seriously sometimes, but evidently, his claim that the White House and Republicans in Congress are still working on health care reform after last month’s debacle with the American Health Care Act was true. (Robert Garver, 4/4)
Los Angeles Times:
When It Comes To Healthcare, Republicans Need To Take A Hippocratic Oath To Do No Harm
When I became a doctor, I went to work in an emergency room that admitted and treated the kind of hard-working, low-income farmworker families I grew up with. For many of them, the ER was their first and last resort after avoiding the doctor for years because they had no health insurance. We didn’t check a patient’s political affiliation before treating them. I didn’t check the party affiliation of the other doctors and nurses, either, and they didn’t ask me for mine. Rather, we worked together as a team, following through on the Hippocratic Oath we had taken to treat patients to the best of our ability and, above all, to “do no harm.” ... If only politicians were required to take an oath to do no harm. (Raul Ruiz, 4/5)
Huffington Post:
More Proof Trump Doesn’t Know Or Doesn’t Care What Obamacare Repeal Would Mean
Deprive 24 million people of health insurance. Or don’t. If you’re President Donald Trump, it would seem, either outcome is just fine. During an interview with Financial Times that appeared over the weekend, Trump said he hadn’t given up on repealing the Affordable Care Act, even though House health care legislation fell apart last month when it didn’t have the votes to pass. ... In the FT interview, Trump said he hoped Freedom Caucus members would come around. But if they don’t, Trump said, he’ll simply cut a deal with Democrats instead. ... The idea that Trump could so easily toggle between appeasing the Freedom Caucus or working with Democrats is difficult to fathom, given what each side wants. (Jonathan Cohn, 4/3)
Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger:
How Can We Improve Health Care Coverage?
As the state with the highest poverty rate and the lowest median income, it should be no surprise that Mississippi has the highest medical debt of all states. ... Medical debt in our state remains the leading cause of personal bankruptcies, according to the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program. State leaders chose not to expand Medicaid to adults in poverty, so we continue to have a large number of people without health insurance. (Lynn Evans, 4/2)
