Squeezing the old and the poor

Denying people health care to give tax cuts to the rich is neither right nor smart

Watching what the Republicans are up to under the leadership of President Donald Trump and, in the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is truly astonishing in terms of political acumen.

They are trying to steamroller through America’s legislative process an arrangement that would do the following: Cut Medicaid and therefore access to health care to America’s oldest and poorest, sometimes the same people. Transfer to the states the burden of providing care, despite their being very uneven in terms of ability and willingness to do so. (Have any of these people ever been to the Mississippi Delta, or southern Ohio for that matter?) Do this in the name of sticking their fingers in the eyes of former President Barack Obama, or, worse, making possible a tax cut for the rich.

I suppose they think Americans will continue to vote for them anyway. In the House, they may think their districts are sufficiently gerrymandered that they don’t really have to worry about being re-elected with the system as corrupt and perverted as it is.

There had been a distinct reluctance on the part of the white males in the Republican-controlled Senate who drew up the Senate version of the Trumpcare bill to leave time for debate. The little dears planned, but failed, to force a vote before heading off on their Fourth of July break, coming hard on their spring break, preceding their August break.

Pre-American greatness again, U.S. health care is embarrassing by comparison to the rest of the world. We are 48th in life expectancy, after Cuba. Never mind the European and Asian developed countries. But we are No. 1 in health care spending. So, bottom line, we are getting shafted by a combination of federal and state government, medical “care” companies, Big Pharma and theoretically nonprofit behemoths such as UPMC with their fangs positioned strategically in key blood vessels of our tormented bodies. (I know, not all of them.)

Some of the congressional serpentine writhing is due to buyers’ remorse and to hatred of Mr. Obama, or, going back even to early 1990s, dislike of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Some of it is due to a legitimate need to tweak Obamacare, although I do not include in this category any reduction of the number of Americans covered by medical insurance or Medicaid. Some of it is due to the Republicans feeling the need to do something, to do anything. There is somehow the thought on the part of some Republicans that they have to repeal Obamacare and then, if they do, put something else in its place to save themselves from voters observing that they don’t care about people.

Absent health care legislation, voters will have seen nothing from Republicans — no tax reform, no immigration reform, no wall (even with solar panels) and certainly no job-creating infrastructure improvements. Still, it’s difficult to believe that anyone would expect to win votes by stripping health coverage from millions of the poorest and oldest Americans in order to give tax cuts to the rich.

I personally favor a single-payer solution. I say that in full knowledge of government ineptitude. I live in a state that still collects a Johnstown flood tax on alcoholic beverages, dating from an 1936 inundation. And I note that the Department of Defense just spent $28 million on uniforms for Afghan Army troops that are camouflaged for green forests, apparently so the Taliban will find it easier to shoot them in Afghanistan’s arid, tan terrain.

Nevertheless, tell me exactly who, other than the government, is going to battle over costs with Big Pharma and institutions such as UPMC? If you doubt the power of Big Pharma, take a look at the nightly news before dinner: “Ask your doctor if you should be taking Aarkzone. If you take it, you will get to play catch with your adorable grandchildren and perhaps your even more adorable dog!”

I don’t know how we get from where we are in health care to where I think we should be. Let us not count on the leaders of the Senate or House. Mr. McConnell is bought off, despite his supposedly representing Kentucky, one of the poorest states in the union with a high percentage of people on Medicaid, by Mr. Trump’s having named his wife secretary of transportation. It is possible that whatever bill the Senate passes, if it passes one, will come a cropper when it gets sent back to the House for passage, but I doubt that. It is almost inconceivable that Mr. Trump could have a change of heart even as the elderly and poor are about to be put on a medical iceberg. He almost certainly hasn’t even read the bill.

The hope for jettisoning the GOP health care legislation apparently lies in frightened Republican senators. We are, however, told that Mr. McConnell will try to buy off their votes with little emoluments they can carry back to their donors and voters.

As potentially great Americans once again, we should want to see as many of our people as possible receive as high-quality medical care as possible at as reasonable cost as possible and not rank 48th in life expectancy while spending more on health care than any other country in the world. If that means cutting into Big Pharma’s profits and medical conglomerates’ executive compensation, so be it.

The way things are now, and considering how Republicans want to make things worse, America’s most suffering citizens are going to be squeezed harder and more painfully to benefit the rich. This is just flat wrong.