“Spectacular.” For me, that word always evokes a particular moment in American television history. In the present, it’s the word The Man Who Lost The Popular Vote used to describe Trumpcare, i.e., the alternative healthcare plan his party was supposedly developing to replace Obamacare: “We've put together a group of four or five … they are going to work together to come up with something that's really spectacular … it's going to be far better than ObamaCare.” This spring Trump has also said that the Trumpcare plan would be “really great” and “wonderful.”
Shortly thereafter, the “four or five” men (what, you thought he’d let women work on something as important as health care?) indicated that they were not exactly anxious to get started. More recently, a week ago the Daily Beast interviewed the three senators Trump actually named: John Barrasso of Wyoming, Rick Scott of Florida, and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. Afterward, its reporters divined a new description of the would-be Trumpcare plan: It has been “totally abandoned.”
Mitt Romney is apparently developing his own alternative plan to replace Obamacare (which was, as you may know, modeled on the Romneycare plan passed in Massachusetts, but, hey, that was back when Mitt was pretending he was a moderate). Maybe this is how Romney thinks he’s going stand up to Trump.
On health care, the Trump campaign has no specific plan. Instead, it’s sent out its national press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, to spout right-wing pablum about Individual 1’s “free market policies” and support for “healthcare choice.” Nevertheless, Mr. 46% of the Popular Vote and his Republican buddies have changed our healthcare system in profoundly negative ways. For example, they got rid of the individual mandate as part of their Rich Man’s Tax Cut scheme. That’s the one that the Republican who pushed it through the House in 2017 now admits is not paying for itself as his party promised it would—however, he says it still might someday. Might? On that prospect I’ll refer you to the noted “economist” Wayne Campbell.
But back to Trumpcare. On its “Sabotage Watch”page, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has put together a terrific, comprehensive list of the harmful changes to Obamacare that Trump has wrought. And beyond those, the Trump administration is now on record calling for the Supreme Court to find the whole of Obamacare unconstitutional, following a ruling from a Texas federal court that the law should be tossed out.
Of the actions that have already taken effect, there’s one element of Trumpcare in particular that has been in the news recently. The details of how it has hurt Americans are really going to piss you off.