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Health See other Health Articles Title: Trump's Healthcare Plan Worse Than Obamacare Trump’s Healthcare Plan Worse Than Obamacare by Stephen Lendman Trump is a fast-talking, shoot-from-the hip demagogue with a style uniquely his own, a political anomaly with no redeeming qualities other than he’s not Hillary Clinton. Expect nothing positive from an administration he heads if elected president in November. Supporters will be sorely disappointed - the sad reality following each US electoral cycle, notably post-9/11. Obamacare is a healthcare industry crafted rationing scheme, benefitting drug industry bandits, predatory insurers and large hospital chains - Americans ripped off for maximum profits. The so-called Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) does neither for the majority of Americans, millions left uncovered, costs skyrocketing out-of-control, universal coverage never considered, the only fair and equitable system - assuring everyone in on a level playing field, no one left out. Ralph Nader earlier called Obamacare “the disgrace of the Western world,” a predatory system too dysfunctional to fix. Wait until he examines Trump’s alternative. Instead of mandated universal coverage, Trump wants all Americans on their own, pay or die, under his seven-point industry-enriching plan. 1. Repeal Obamacare, he advocates, replaced with greater predatory marketplace medicine than already. He’s right, saying no one should be forced to buy insurance they don’t want - one of Obamacare’s many deplorable features. 2. He’s unaware of existing law, saying he’ll change things to let insurers sell policies nationwide - already legally allowed. Claiming “insurance costs will go down and consumer satisfaction will go up” under his plan is complete rubbish. Insurers are in business to make money, maximizing premiums, minimizing payouts. 3. He’ll let individuals deduct insurance premiums from their tax returns. Under single-payer universal coverage, predatory insurers providing no healthcare are eliminated altogether, rendering his deduction scheme irrelevant. If implemented, it would help high income households, not others earning too little to benefit from tax schemes. It’s unclear how he’ll handle Medicaid, saying he’ll “review basic options…and work with states” with little elaboration on how. 4. He endorses so-called Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), a boon to employers, not workers, shifting the cost of healthcare entirely to them if falling for the scheme. Insurers and financial services predators stand to benefit most, reaping huge profits from fees from managing funds in HSAs. Trump claiming these plans “should be particularly attractive to young (healthy) people ignores their later in life needs when they won’t have enough coverage to handle extraordinarily expensive treatments for serious health issues. 5. It’s unclear what Trump means by requiring price transparency from all healthcare providers, especially doctors, hospitals and HMOs. Small print disclaimers and other deceptions are longstanding practices in all industries. Saying “(i)ndividuals should be able to shop to find the best prices for procedures, exams or any other medical-related procedures” is pure deception. When ill, people need immediate care, in no condition to shop for the best deal. 6. Trump favors shifting the Medicaid burden entirely to states “to preserve our precious resources,” he says, a scheme to eliminate this vital service altogether eventually. 7. He supports the right of consumers to freely buy “imported, safe and dependable drugs” from overseas. Opposing mandatory insurance coverage and having access to cheaper imported drugs are the only redeeming features of his otherwise deplorable industry-friendly plan. His ideas will do nothing to lower skyrocketing healthcare costs, or assure all Americans have access to the most fundamental of human rights, along with food, shelter and clothing. Martin Luther King explained “injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane” form of inequality. Obamacare and Trump’s scheme to replace it are Exhibits A and B. No US politician of prominence is a populist champion. They’re all part of the dirty system serving what John Adams once called “the rich, well-born and able” - the privileged class running America for its own self-interest. Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III." http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 1.
#1. To: Stephen Lendman (#0)
As a side note I encourage everyone to come down to Costa Rica and see what socialized medicine really looks like. Child birthing is about as far as I trust them. And even then watch out.
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