Obamacare was a partial solution to an urgent crisis. Millions of people were uninsured in 2009, before Obamacare was signed into law. Millions of people were discriminated against due to preexisting conditions. After months of debate, hundreds of hours of expert testimony, a full CBO score, and then a few more months of debate just for good measure, Obamacare became the law of the land.
Obamacare was not a perfect bill. We still haven’t achieved universal coverage. Premiums still continued to rise — as they had before Obamacare was in place. America still spends 17 percent of GDP on health care, which is more than any other developed country by a long shot. And our health outcomes just aren’t keeping up.
It is with this backdrop that my 2018 congressional opponent, Mia Love, cast her vote for Trumpcare. This bill, which boasts a 17 percent approval rating nationwide, will result in 24 million Americans losing their health insurance. It opens the door for states to allow insurers to raise your rates if you have a preexisting condition. Trumpcare takes $880 billion from Medicaid — the poorest and weakest among us — in order to give a tax break to the wealthiest. It is an enormous redistribution of wealth from poor and sick people to wealthy and healthy people.
Trumpcare is scorned by both sides of the political aisle (from the right-leaning groups CATO Institute, Heritage Action and FreedomWorks, to left-leaning groups such as Center for American Progress) as incompetent and dangerous.
Not only did Trumpcare get rushed through without so much as a single hearing or a full CBO score, it is also condemned by every major medical group, patients’ rights group or medical professional’s association, including the American Medical Association; the American Nurses Association; the American College of Physicians; the American Academy of Family Physicians; the American Hospital Association; the Federation of American Hospitals; the American Psychiatric Association; the American College of Physicians; the National Nurses United; the National Physicians Alliance; the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons; the American Academy of Pediatrics; and the AARP.
So little of what happens in politics is clear, but Trumpcare has made things pretty easy this time. It is almost universally recognized as terrible public policy. It would be devastating to millions of families if it were to actually become law. And everyone who voted for it has said it’s worth that risk, as long as they get to settle an old vendetta with the past president of the United States.
Scoring political points might be fun and satisfying, but it is a betrayal of Utah’s most cherished values — families, children, and the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
If you agree, please join my campaign. We believe that your health is your sacred right, not a political punching bag.
Darlene McDonald is running for Congress in Utah’s 4th District. She works as a Technical Analyst at a large technology company in Lehi, Utah.