Thumbs Down CBO Score on Trumpcare 2.0

by Stephen Lendman

House passed Trumpcare is heartless legislation, designed to deny millions of Americans the most fundamental of human rights, along with food, shelter and clothing, so business and high-net worth individuals can get huge tax cuts - including Trump family members and cronies.

According to CBO scoring, at least 23 million of America's most vulnerable will lose coverage, many millions more forced to be way underinsured.

Instead of everyone covered at lower cost, Trumpcare 2.0 assures higher premiums with skimpier coverage than under deplorable Obamacare - through stiffer deductibles and higher out-of-pocket costs.

Individuals with pre-existing conditions and older Americans will be especially hard hit. Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republicans lied, claiming the GOP plan assures coverage for all costing less than now.

The CBO estimates Trumpcare 2.0 will cut around $300 billion in subsidies to low and moderate income Americans now available through Obamacare.

States waiving ACA consumer protections let insurers shut out individuals with serious pre-existing conditions - unable to buy coverage at any price, according to CBO's analysis. Insurers won't take them unless legislation mandates otherwise.

Less healthy individuals will face "extremely high premiums…continu(ing) to increase rapidly" ahead, according to CBO.

Some plans won't cover major medical risks, and won't "provide enough financial protection in the event of a serious and costly illness to be considered insurance," CBO explained.

Along with individuals with pre-existing conditions and older Americans, others most at risk are those needing maternity care, mental health and substance use treatment, or requiring expensive drugs.

Even in states maintaining consumer protections, coverage will cost more than now, except for younger healthier people.

Slashing over $800 billion from Medicaid over the next decade is a major step toward ending the program altogether - Medicare and Social Security eventual targets.

America works for its rich and powerful, increasingly nightmarish for the vast majority.

Americans for Tax Fairness executive director Frank Clemente put it this way:

"(B)etween Trump's healthcare bill and his budget, (he's) breaking three core promises he made to his supporters over and over again: that he wouldn't cut Medicaid, that he wouldn't cut Social Security, and no one would lose their health insurance." 

"Why? So that millionaires, billionaires, and corporations can get giant tax cuts. Does the president think it's worth breaking core promises to his working-class voters in order to deliver giant bags of cash to his CEO friends" and high-net-worth ones like himself?

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. 

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. 

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