Trumpcare is dead. Now what?

The finger-pointing has begun, and naturally Trump is excelling at it.

Trump gamely tried to put the blame on Democrats. “We’re not going to own it,” he said “I’m not going to own it. I can tell you the Republicans are not going to own it.”
The public would disagree. Americans say they would blame Trump and Republicans for a problems in the health care system over Democrats by 59 percent to 30 percent, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll taken June 14-19.

It's not surprising that Trump got this one wrong. After all, he is totally disinterested in the actual work of being president, and seems only interested in the appearance of being president.

One might think that Trump, having suffered through the embarrassment of an ill-fated health-care bill in the House, would have placed his shoulder more forcefully behind the Senate's effort. But where was the president over the weekend? He was playing golf at the Bedminster, New Jersey course he owns and treats like a home. He also took the time to tweet a bunch of advertisements for a professional tournament his business hosts there:

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The failure of Trumpcare was a blessing, but our health care system is sick and Obamacare did nothing but buy a few years.
Neither Trumpcare nor Obamacare was the solution, and we still need a solution.

Many Americans think their system is expensive because it’s very good. They are wrong: The US ranks 28th, below almost all other rich countries, when it comes to the quality of its healthcare assessed by UN parameters (pdf, p. 13).

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This isn't new information. We spend the most to get the least.
However, there is another side that doesn't get talked about as much as it should: our health care system is a job-killer.
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While retirement plans got less generous, spending on current workers' health insurance soared, Willis Towers Watson said. To keep up with the rising cost of health care in the U.S., employers doubled their spending on health care as a percentage of employees' pay, from 5.7 percent in 2001 to 11.5 percent in 2015.
...By 2015, health care for current employees was 63 percent of all benefit spending.

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Workers aren't necessarily getting much for this extra health spending. In fact, other studies have shown that workers' contribution to their own health care, in the form of deductibles and co-pays, is also up.
Unfortunately, the rising cost of health care is hitting Americans twice. While they're working, health costs are bleeding away their ability—and their employers' ability—to pitch in for retirement. After retirement, unless current trends change, they face the daunting prospect of higher and higher medical bills.

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Repubs can't lead

Congress is on pace to pass the least number of bills in 164 years, David Faris, associate professor of political science at Roosevelt University, wrote Tuesday in The Week.
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@gjohnsit

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Wink's picture

@gjohnsit
a bad thing given the asshats voting on them.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

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Saw this from David Sirota. A comparison what the American people think important, and what the media thinks is important. Right on the thee top issue is health care. The mass media is ignoring it while the independent progressive media is definitely not. But I can see it. If health care does rise to the top in terms of media exposure, say good bye to establishment democrats.

Good essay.

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ggersh's picture

@MrWebster The elite live in a bubble of their own choosing, hence
the results of the polls.

It's also a reason why passing of any bills only enhances
the wallets of the 1% and not the people.

Last but not least, surprisingly or maybe not "wars" are nowhere
to be seen

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

karl pearson's picture

Looks like Trumpcare may still be on life support.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) insisted the Senate will take a procedural vote to move to ObamaCare repeal next week following a White House meeting between President Trump and the Senate GOP conference.
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Has anyone who thinks our healthcare is expensive because it's good actually needed to use it?

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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

@Dr. John Carpenter
Like people in the UK waiting six months for an operation.

Also, the (R)'s claim people in Canada come to US Hospitals because Canadian hospitals are shitty or non-existent. They based that on Canada sending some people to the USA for certain rare treatments/procedures. Given that they are a small country with specialized facilities nearby in the (much more numerous) USA, it's obviously more cost effective for the Canadian government to pay a US hospital than it is to maintain largely unused facilities in Canada. But (R)'s twist it into Canadians voluntarily going to USA because Canadian hospitals are bad/unavailable. Talk radio repeats the lie with Goebbels-like repetition.

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I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.