© nicolasjoseschirado, fotalia.
For all the years of screaming over the Affordable Care Act, dubbed Obamacare by the sea of conservative idiots, who insisted death panels would be a comin’ for everyone, what actually happened was that a multitude of people not only lived, but they got healthier, too. That’s generally what happens when people have heath care. In my view, ACA isn’t enough, uStates should grow the fuck up and join all the places in the world who have figured out that healthy citizens are a good thing, and that healthcare is a basic right.
Oh, but we can’t have that, not here in this pit formerly known as America, why that, that might smack of socialism, oh no! It’s juvenile, willfully ignorant conservatives who are going to bring death, which to them, is by far more preferable than having healthcare for all citizens. Now, those who are sitting on nice piles of cash and can afford good coverage, they aren’t worried. It’s just the rest of us who will suffer, and conservatives have never rated on the empathy scale, they just don’t give a fuck about anyone except themselves. Oh, yes, conservatives are, by and large, spiteful assholes, and they just can’t wait to kill off healthcare, out of spite. Yes, a lot of people are going to die because of spite. There’s no reason to dismantle the ACA, it works. It’s not the best plan, but given how many obstacles conservatives kept throwing, it was a near act of brilliance to get most people desperately needed healthcare. When people don’t have healthcare, they can’t face any debt care would bring, and medical debt piles up fast, ask anyone who has had a medical emergency. One emergency can land you in a pit of poverty for a lifetime. Just why in the fuckety fuck do moron-minded conservatives think that’s a dandy plan? So, when people have no insurance, no care, they just keep going until they drop, literally.
Why does that define “exceptional America”? Because to me, that’s a good description of a 3rd world pit with despotic rule, where there’s at most a shrug over people dying. Condemning people to death should not be a source of pride. It should be a source of shame, but, conservatives seem to have no sense of shame, along with no empathy.
Not long ago, Americans learned that the average life expectancy for white people in this country – those most likely to have voted for Donald Trump – actually declined for the first time in many years. The pathologies and frustrations believed to have driven that decline may have motivated the tiny handful of votes that gave Trump his Electoral College victory.
But not long after their euphoria over his inauguration fades, they are going to learn why his administration is so likely to drive those statistics in the wrong direction. Despite his promise to protect Social Security and Medicare – and his vow to replace the Affordable Care Act with “something much better” – Trump’s cabinet appointees and his allies in Congress plan ruinous changes to those programs. And that will mean ruin, and in thousands of cases death, for the mostly white and working class people who depend so heavily on them.
Unless the Republicans come up with a plausible bill to replace Obamacare, which has eluded them since 2009, millions of their constituents will lose the health insurance they have only recently gained – and yes, thousands of those people will die next year.
