A socialist policy for universal health care
11 March 2017
The announcement this week of the American Health Care Act (AHCA) by the House Republicans marks an intensification of the assault on health care that was initiated by President Barack Obama and the Democrats in 2010 with the enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), popularly known as Obamacare.
The legislation now making its way through various committees is expected to come up for a full vote by the House sometime this spring. The bill includes massive cuts and the de facto ending of Medicaid as an entitlement program. Medicaid, launched in 1965, is a health program jointly administered by the federal government and the states that provides insurance for the poor as well as for disabled and elderly people and pregnant women.
Under the AHCA, federal funding for Medicaid based on need would be replaced with a per capita cap, forcing states to cut benefits and deny coverage to qualified recipients.
Other measures in the bill would cut government assistance to those purchasing insurance, a key component of Obamacare, by ending government subsidies and replacing them with a minimal tax-write off based on age. It would remove requirements for large employers to provide coverage for their workers. It would also provide massive tax breaks for medical device firms and other companies and repeal the payroll tax increase on high-income earners.
The bill would prohibit federal funding for Planned Parenthood clinics for one year, limiting access to abortion and other health services to millions of women. It is estimated that as many as 15 million Americans would lose health insurance coverage in the first several years of the AHCA.
President Donald Trump repeatedly promised on the campaign trail that he would “repeal…