3 Reasons Why Trump Wants to Kill Obamacare for Vulnerable Americans (Part 2)
Jan. 16 is the deadline for the healthcare program’s enrollment in 2024…
Maybe you don’t care much about Obamacare, even though Donald Trump is again vowing to demolish the broad-based landmark healthcare program providing vital medical needs for tens of millions of Americans.
If you don’t have or can’t afford private health insurance, this could be your last chance to sign up for Obamacare before a potential second Trump Administration tries to eradicate it once more — as the twice impeached former president promises in campaign appearances.
The deadline for enrollment in Obamacare is now less than one week away — and counting — via HealthCare.gov
Terminating the Affordable Care Act (ACA), more commonly known as Obamacare, would decimate healthcare for about 40 million vulnerable Americans.
Prior to the implementation of Obamacare, these citizens in need of healthcare had been locked out of the private insurance system for decades based on discriminatory reasons.
Some of these reasons include socioeconomic status and preexisting conditions, which impact minority groups the most.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (which bills itself as, “The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news”):
- “The largest coverage gains under the A.C.A. [Obamacare] have been among Hispanic, black and Asian patients — many of the groups that had the highest uninsured rates before the law.”
- “At least six in ten Black adults (60%) and Hispanic adults (65%) report difficulty affording health care costs compared to about four in ten White adults (39%).”
- “Adults in households with annual incomes under $40,000 are more than three times as likely as adults in households with incomes over $90,000 to say it is difficult to afford their health care costs (69% v. 21%).”
“These costs rank as a top financial worry and health care affordability is one of the top issues that voters want to hear candidates talk about during the 2024 election.” — Kaiser Family Foundation.
Why care about Obamacare?
Perhaps you don’t care about ending Obamacare because you already have private insurance through your current or former employer.
But disregarding the plight of the most vulnerable citizens among us is selfish, cruel and not the American way. Is that the type of country the USA has become in the age of Trump’s triviality, toxicity and tribalism?
- Consider that you may have a son or daughter in their early 20s who has been on your healthcare plan but will soon be booted off due to age limits imposed by the insurance industry. The same is true for your friends and relatives who have children in college.
Does that make you care about Obamacare?
- Consider that you or a loved one could lose your job, change jobs, or join the increasing number of Americans working as freelancers in the “gig economy” for whom affordable healthcare is unavailable?
Does that make you care about Obamacare?
- Consider that many private health insurance plans include exorbitant premiums and deductibles which are out of reach for many Americans.
Does that make you care about Obamacare?
If not, then consider what President Biden recently said regarding Obamacare:
- “Right now, four out of five Americans who sign up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act can find health care coverage for $10 a month or less.”
- “Extreme Republicans want to stop these efforts in their tracks. That would raise costs for millions of people, especially older Americans and small business owners who rely on the marketplace for their coverage.”
- “And that’s just a stepping stone toward Republicans’ larger plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act, just as my predecessor repeatedly tried and failed to do.”
“At every turn, extreme Republicans continue to side with special interests to keep prescription drug prices high and to deny millions of people health coverage.” — President Biden
Right-Wing Recalcitrance
Trump has been adamant on the campaign trail about his desire to eradicate Obamacare. CNN recently reported the following:
- “Former President Donald Trump is doubling down on his vow to repeal Obamacare if he wins the White House again.”
- “It began in November, when he posted on his Truth Social site that Republicans should ‘never give up’ trying to terminate the law.”
And Trump has been intent on eliminating Obamacare from the day his presidency began, as CNN reported on Jan. 20, 2017:
- “Within hours of taking the oath of office, President Trump signed an executive order aimed at trying to fulfill one of his most impassioned campaign promises: Rolling back Obamacare.”
- “With his signature, Trump sent a powerful signal on Day One of his presidency: His top priority in the Oval Office will be dismantling the health care law that covers some 20 million Americans.”
“Obamacare is a catastrophe. Nobody talks about it,” Trump recently said at campaign event in Iowa.
Trump also wrote the following on his social media platform (Truth Social): “The cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare.”
The most likely explanations for Trump’s renewed war on Obamacare are threefold:
- To discredit Barack Obama’s historic signature policy achievement as America’s first Black President, and/or
- To payback the powerful insurance and pharmaceutical industries who bankroll the campaign coffers of Trump and the Republican Party, and/or
- See third answer below…
Despite its success, Obamacare remains the target of relentless partisan attacks. Republicans have done everything possible since its passage in 2010 to kill Obamacare or eliminate significant parts of it.
Yet Republicans have failed legislatively and in the courts every time they sought to dismantle Obamacare, including during Trump’s presidency.
But now the former divider-in-chief is up to his old tricks, vowing to repeal the Affordable Care Act despite its beneficial impact to the nation.
If Trump tried to quash Obamacare when he sat in the Oval Office before, what makes you think a second presidential term would be any different?
No Good Answer
Ironically, terminating Obamacare would hurt Trump’s own voter base, whom the twice impeached former president purports to represent.
“Trump’s renewed pledge on social media and in campaign rallies to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act has put him on a collision course with a widening circle of Republican constituencies directly benefiting from the law,” reports The Atlantic.
In Trump’s would-be authoritarian fantasy, only the super-rich, the rich and the upper middle-class would have access to health insurance of their choice, while the rest of the population simply withers on the vines of despair.
What will happen to the tens of millions of working-class and low-income Americans without any health insurance prior to Obamacare because they can barely afford to make ends meet?
Will Trump just disregard those in need of affordable healthcare the most, including within his own voter base, albeit after he no longer needs their votes and support?
So, what’s the third reason why Trump and his ilk aspire to end affordable healthcare for the most vulnerable Americans?
The baffling third answer: There is no good answer for Trump’s recalcitrance and callousness.
Morally Indefensible
With the above in mind, it’s worth looking beyond partisan politics to take account of the moral implications and practical impact for millions of low-income and indigent Americans if Obamacare is canceled by Trump.
Again, detractors of Obamacare still claim that their individual and constitutional rights are being infringed upon at the expense of another government mandate, one for which they don’t want to pay.
But I’ll bet those vacuous voices who continue to castigate Obamacare have always enjoyed generous health benefits.
Let’s also remember that medical care for the uninsured, including expensive hospital visits, is reflected in inflated prices and premiums for the rest of the insured population.
We all pay for healthcare, or lack thereof, in one way or another.
Prior to Obamacare, steep annual premium hikes were the norm despite a lackluster economy slowly rebounding from The Great Recession.
Ask yourself a few pertinent questions:
- What’s wrong with the wealthiest Americans — the so-called “one percent” or “super-rich” — paying their fair share for the greater good?
- Why should the richest country in the world allow healthcare for only the richest among us, while simultaneously lining the pockets of the giant insurance and pharmaceutical industries?
- Do the previously swelling ranks of uninsured and under-insured Americans agree that access to affordable healthcare is a personal infringement our nation can do without?
The answer from Trump appears to be: Tough luck, too bad, so sad. If you can’t afford health insurance, then Trump disdains your plight.
Final Thoughts
If you or someone you know currently lacks affordable healthcare, then please remember the deadline for Obamacare open enrollment is Jan. 16 for the year ahead.
This might be your last chance to obtain affordable health insurance if Trump somehow evades the consequences of four pending criminal lawsuits against him and wins the presidency again in November.
- “More than 20 million people have signed up for plans on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces during the annual open enrollment period, far surpassing last year’s record of more than 16 million enrollments,” President Biden said yesterday.”
- The New York Times noted: “The figures were a landmark moment for the 2010 health law, underscoring the significance of enhanced subsidies for Americans and the continuing reach of the marketplaces after years of Republican efforts to whittle them down.”
Yet regardless of whether you care about Obamacare or not, remember this:
Every American deserves health security as a fundamental freedom inherent in a democratic republic based on the central principle of “We the People.”
Don’t you agree?
Please share your important insights in the comment section and read Part 1 in case you missed it…
References:
- Kaiser Family Foundation: KFF Health Tracking Poll: The Public’s Views on the ACA
- The White House: Statement from President Joe Biden on Historic 20 Million Enrollees in Affordable Care Act Health Care
- The White House: Statement from President Joe Biden on Record 2022 HealthCare.Gov Enrollment
- Cable News Network (CNN): Obamacare would be even harder to kill now, but Trump promises to try anyway
- CNN: Trump issues executive order to start rolling back Obamacare
- The New York Times: More Than 20 Million People Have Signed Up for Obamacare Plans, Blowing by Record
- The Atlantic: Trump Is Coming for Obamacare Again
- Trump Social Media Post: Truth Social
