Washington, D.C. – Today, President Trump released his so-called “Great Health Care Plan” in a sad attempt to continue gaslighting the American people. Since taking office, President Trump and his cronies in Congress have taken a hammer to American health care to enrich billionaires and big corporations. First, they slashed $1 trillion dollars from Medicaid, and then they doubled, tripled, and quadrupled health premiums for nearly 22 million Americans already struggling to get by in Trump’s unaffordable America. Now that it is clear that busting working families’ budgets is bad policy and bad politics, Trump is scrambling for a lifeline. The solution to ending the Trump-GOP premium disaster isn’t rocket science. It is the three-year, clean extension of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits that the House passed. This commonsense solution that Trump callously threatened to veto is now sitting on Senate Republican Leader John Thune’s desk.
In response, Protect Our Care President Brad Woodhouse issued a statement:
“Donald Trump calling this a ‘plan’ is an insult to everyone who is drowning in sky-high premiums, stuck with coverage that costs more and covers less, or lost health care altogether. This is just a rerun of broken promises that fail hard-working families. Trump once vowed to lower drug prices; instead, Americans are paying more while big drug companies cash in. Now he’s boosting a plan to send people a small check instead of doing the one thing that would actually lower health care costs: extending the health care tax credits that make coverage affordable.
“This does nothing to stop premium hikes or protect coverage. And buried beneath the rhetoric is the same dangerous agenda Trump has always pushed — rolling back protections for people with pre-existing conditions and dragging us back to a system where insurers decide who gets care and who doesn’t. Calling this a solution doesn’t make it one. For the millions of Americans facing skyrocketing costs and disappearing coverage, this isn’t help — it’s a joke.”
Background:
- This is nothing but a distraction from Trump’s Big Ugly Bill which:
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- Rips health care away from over 15 million Americans, including seniors, children, veterans, and people with disabilities.
- Cuts over $1 trillion from Medicaid and the ACA to pay for handouts to the wealthiest Americans.
- Puts 600+ hospitals and clinics at risk of closing or cutting services, forcing more Americans to travel farther for maternity care and emergency rooms, and face longer wait times and higher costs.
- His plan to hand out cash will fail to stop premiums from doubling and tripling, drown working families and those with pre-existing conditions in medical debt, and enrich only the wealthy. Health coverage is critical. Extending the tax credits and containing costs is the only viable solution to ensure millions of Americans can afford to see a doctor.
- Trump has only raised drug costs for Americans. Americans have yet to see a single penny from his drug pricing scam. Thousands of seniors will now pay more for lifesaving drugs, such as cancer drugs Keytruda and Opdivo, thanks to Trump’s Big, Ugly Bill.