Sneak Attack on Healthcare: Keep Your Eyes on the Prize, People

Cynthia Dagnal-Myron
Bullshit.IST
Published in
3 min readApr 4, 2017

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Saw it comin’.

Yep, I knew Trumpcare wasn’t dead. In fact, this morning I’ve read a series of articles warning that the Trump administration is taking a subtler approach to slip Trumpcare past us.

Yes, I did use the words “subtler” and “Trump” in the same sentence. Justifiably.

It’s not a new tactic. I’m a Chicagoan, so I’m used to back room political wheeling and dealing. But we’ve gotten so used to Trump’s bombastic behavior that the sneaky deals being quietly brokered with the Freedom Caucus and others, one Congress member at a time, might go unnoticed by the public-at-large.

In fact, the same Freedom Caucus that killed the first bill is now floating the idea of bringing back an even more merciless version. How merciless is it, exactly?

New Republic didn’t mince words, warning that:

Under the new GOP framework, insurers in states that waived community rating couldn’t tell sick customers to take a hike, but they could jack up premiums enough to make insurance plans for these customers unaffordable or useless.

While the New York Times added that insurers could also:

…decide to opt out of provisions that require insurers to cover a standard, minimum package of benefits, known as the essential health benefits.

And warned that:

An insurance market that did not include cancer care — or even any cancer patients — would be one where premiums for the remaining customers were much lower. The result might be a market that is much more affordable for people with a clean bill of health. But it would become largely inaccessible to anyone who really needs help paying for medical care.

In other words…WTF?

Yes, yet again we see that some Republicans really don’t know how insurance works. Or why we need it. Or maybe they don’t think we need it at all. I don’t know.

I’m constantly confused by this kind of cruelty. I just don’t know what planet these people were raised on. Obviously one where everyone’s rich and nobody ever gets sick. Or pregnant. Or old. Or…oh, never mind.

Upshot is, they’re going to stop strutting and start doing the dirty work in secret, while Trump keeps tweeting silly stuff that keeps his ego occupied and some of the media from picking up the “scent” of the nastiness going on behind closed doors.

They know Trump has been hamstrung by the defeat of the Muslim ban(s), the defeat of the first Trumpcare bill and a whole lot of complications threatening that big bad wall he promised to build so easily.

And of course there’s this Russia thing that might just get him booted out of office pretty soon. (Hope springs eternal, doesn’t it?)

It’s all getting to their formerly fearless leader, too, apparently. I mean last week, Trump called in the media to watch him sign some executive orders and then, after a brief initial statement, wandered out of the room leaving those executive orders on a desk, unsigned. Sad.

The clock is ticking. The Russiagate dots are starting to connect. It’s clear that Trump can’t live up to all those big promises he made. And he’s turning the government into a family business, bringing in his daughter and son-in-law instead of seasoned vets to do the heavy lifting.

So his minions are going to handle bidness for him. Quietly. No Spicey, no PR at all. Behind closed doors.

So keep burning up those phone lines, sending emails, letters, faxes. Keep showing up mad as hell at those town hall meetings.

And most of all, start talking to any “wobbly” Trumpsters you can find. The ones now breaking ranks as they begin to realize that the health care and tax “reforms” they voted for may actually ruin their lives. Don’t say, “I told you so.” Say, “I feel your pain.” Because we do.

The end may be near. But a whole lot of damage can and will be done in the meantime. So keep your eyes on the prize, people.

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Photo credit: NBC, http://www.nbcnews.com/video/highlights-from-trump-s-rnc-speech-730126404000

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Award-winning former features reporter for the Chicago Sun Times and Arizona Daily Star, HuffPo contributor and author.