Yes, Trump and the GOP are coming after your healthcare

Trump may only cop to having a "concept of a plan" for healthcare law in the US, but JD Vance spills the tea:

Democrats are always hoping for a break that’ll thrust kitchen-table issues like health care into the headlines. Suddenly they have two to work with.

Donald Trump provided them the first one at last week’s presidential debate, when he admitted, nine years after he began trying to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, that he only has “concepts of a plan” to replace a law that tens of millions of Americans depend upon for their health insurance.

Now comes another.

Asked Sunday on Meet the Press to elaborate on Trump’s health care “concepts,” his running mate JD Vance explained that the Trump health-care agenda is to wreck protections for pre-existing conditions (while lying about it).

That comes from Brian Beutler's substack (paywalled, except for the teaser paragraphs). I think The New Yorker has an extensive article as well, but it is so paywalled that we don't even get a teaser. Maybe one of my usual go-to bloggers with access to either of these sources will do the deep dive I won't be able to.  There are only so many subscriptions someone on my paygrade can afford, and quite honestly, I see too little value added in order to justify skipping meals. MSNBC at leasts offers something of a free article, although it only seems to scratch the surface. 

The basic gist is that the "plan" as Vance would put it amounts to charging those with preexisting conditions more for coverage or to put them into a separate insurance pool than those without preexisting conditions. Got that? In other words, if you have any preexisting condition, your healthcare will be more expensive and inaccessible. 

From personal experience, I can tell you how much of a pain in the ass it was to get someone insured with a preexisting condition during the bad old days before the Affordable Care Act became law. The Trump/Vance plan is to go back to those bad old days to the fullest extent possible. When I think of how that would personally affect me and most of my extended family, we'd all be harmed if Trump had his way. It's safe to say that my health insurance premium that I pay for myself and my remaining dependents will go up and I will have considerably less money to simply pay the bills, let alone be able to financially cover an any emergency situation (healthcare related or otherwise). That's just the reality I would face. I've been blessed with an autoimmune condition, so yeah, Trump and Vance both would just smirk and tell me I'm screwed. 

The Harris campaign and any Democratic candidate down-ballot want to hone in on the sorts of kitchen table issues we Americans face, and they truly shine when the media's attention is squarely on those issues rather than focusing on whatever the hell it is Trump and Vance are doing to divide us all even further. Our media will fail us as usual, so we need to stay vigilant and stay focused. The reality is that right now the protections we already have under the Affordable Care Act will remain in place during a Harris presidency. The worst case scenario in which Harris is President and inherits a divided Congress is the status quo for healthcare affordability. That status quo is a hell of a lot better than what Trump and Vance and their Project 2025 buddies are peddling. Vote like your health depends on it.

 

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