I’m not American but this sounds scary. Trump may prevent Covid survivors from getting health insurance if he repeals ACA (Obamacare)

[Tellmetruth4]

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/27/obamacare-trump-covid-health-insurance

This is so mean and horrible.

[SpiderStan]

WTAF?! What a time to be alive. Well, we'll know how his country feels about his poor decisions in November. For the sake of the USA I truly hope he doesn't make it to second term, however looking at who he would be up against, I'm not sure the opposed would be any better, but certain;y can't be any worse!

[SpiderStan]

Just to add, I do not have a violent bone in my body, I have never harmed a thing and not so much as even punched a wall or kicked something out of frustration. But Trump makes me feel violent. Anytime I watch his public speeches or press conferences, he makes me want to hurt myself or destroy a nearby inanimate object. For this reason, I avoid Trump videos.

[knittingaddict]

He's the one person that I would wish real harm on, except I then think about the people who support him and keep him there and I don't mean the voters. I mean the Republican government and Evangelical Christians. People like Pence and Barr. They should all be added to my hate list.

[Goggle1968]

I don’t really understand politics and I certainly don’t understand Trump but why would he do this? Surely it doesn’t benefit anyone & as Leader if any country your job is to protect and do the best for the people who live there. He’s an utter disgrace. So sad for the people of the US. Such uncertain times around the world let’s hope November brings a positive change for them

[Wbeezer]

He had an irrational hatred ofObama and anythingassociated with him, its pathological.

[ChequerBoard]

He's been trying to kill off Obamacare since the start of his presidency, Healthcare is big business in the US and the republicans hate any attempt to provide free healthcare. They don't care that many people in the US can't afford healthcare.

[lljkk]

Trump is self-serving... he's tapped into a support base that very rabidly wants to erase Obama's legacy. Trump would preserve the legacy if that's what that support base wanted. Instead it's red meat to his base to keep chipping away.

Funny thing is, it's an impossible task. Nothing can erase Obama being the first not-white-male president.

If anyone wants to chat about US politics, would nominating Val Demings as VP scupper Biden's chances to be Pres? I like VD a lot (unfortunate initials), but she will be an open goal attack figure for the bigoted right. So frustrating.

[Doingtheboxerbeat]

The theory behind this is to trash shit up on his way out because he is having a melt down over poor poll rating. He is severely unhinged.

[bluebluezoo]

i can see why americans are so against lockdown.

Shops, cafe’s etc shut, people lose their jobs.
Lose their jobs the lose their health insurance.

If they do get COVID they won’t get treatment anyway.

So either no lockdown, increase your risk of catching CV but you will have healthcare if you get ill;

Or lockdown, less risk of catching CV but if you do, no chance of a ventilator.

[areyoubeingserviced]

Trump is obsessed with President Obama and will do anything to destroy Obama’s legacy even if that includes risking the lives of other.
Obama is everything Trump is not; educated, attractive and respected.
Trump is a narcissist and a very dangerous man

[bluebluezoo]

Healthcare is big business in the US and the republicans hate any attempt to provide free healthcare. They don't care that many people in the US can't afford healthcare

I’ve seen interviews with people with no healthcare, who are against obamacare because the thought of other people getting something for free is so alien they’d rather go without themselves.

It’s a really bizarre mentality.

But then I’ve also seen americans convinced we pay 60% tax, and they think we’re stupid paying for other peoples healthcare when we could buy a cheaper insurance policy and just pay for our own.

It does seem an everyone out for themselves culture...

[Justajot]

There seems to be a section of American politics that thinks it is important to have the right to choose not to have any healthcare and this overrides any right to have access to healthcare. I know they are protective of rights in the US, but I find this a really odd argument.

[Binswangers]

@lljkk

I don't follow US politics avidly but I saw Susan Rice on Bill Maher and I liked the idea if her as a running mate for Biden. What do you think?

[UKsounding]

@Justajot

There seems to be a section of American politics that thinks it is important to have the right to choose not to have any healthcare and this overrides any right to have access to healthcare. I know they are protective of rights in the US, but I find this a really odd argument.

I am not sure that they literally want the 'right to choose'. What they actually want is the 'right to have things denied to people who are not white' (even if it means that they might end up not having it either if they lost their income). Most of this stuff is simply motivated by white supremacists who are happy to cut their own noses off...

[UKsounding]

@lljkk I think that Val Demings police background makes her a non-starter.

I hate to say it, but I am not sure that a VP who is both a POC AND a WOMAN is going to work as a running mate for Biden. Being a woman is probably too much of a liability in the eyes of the Democratic apparatus.

[DGRossetti]

It's interesting to wonder what would happen if it turns out C-19 does leave long term effects and insurers in the UK decided it was reason enough not to pay up. There's no profit in chronic conditions, so they get dumped (for now) on the NHS.

Exciting times !

[bluebluezoo]

It’s also interesting that as of 1st July private m/w in the UK are no longer covered by their insurer, who is of course American.

I’ve read US healthcare has taken a massive financial hit with CV, and there are many nurses and HCP on furlough. Massive unemployment = massive sector with no health insurance, so the facilities are empty with no paying customers....

Thinking about it I’m suprised healthcare insurers havent placed restrictions - no mask, no staying im, not insured against covid type thing....

[BritishSleeperAgent]

I'm a Brit who has lived in the US for over 10 years. The employer-provided healthcare was fought for by the labor unions and made sense at the time. The trouble is, it became too profitable and now it's difficult to change because the big insurers have lots of money to pay lobbyists.

But much as I despise Trump - this is actually not his doing, he's just along for the ride because it sticks it to Obama. It is the GOP who are trying to destroy the ACA, has been ever since it was passed. They have tried to undermine it and had some success alas.

Other posters above have said this, but yes there are people out there who would rather die in a ditch than offer help to poor people of color. It's weird to us, but if you grew up here, you'd have been saturated with the myths of freedom and independence that are supposedly at the root of this country. It's the same reason we can't get gun control, despite the murders every day, despite the slaughter of young children in their classrooms.

So, when you suggest that universal healthcare should be a right, many people lose their minds, because in their heads it means government interference in their lives. The mantra of small government is so pervasive, even Democrats struggle to argue that sometimes a little government intervention is needed.

When I talk to people who feel this way, I always want to ask them if they have visited countries like Somalia. Definitely small government there. But I don't say it because I don't know who is carrying a gun and if they are the kind of nut to shoot a woman who doesn't agree with them. I live in a red state. It's a thing.

[bluebluezoo]

So, when you suggest that universal healthcare should be a right, many people lose their minds, because in their heads it means government interference in their lives. The mantra of small government is so pervasive, even Democrats struggle to argue that sometimes a little government intervention is needed

Yes we saw this with the Charlie Gard and Alfie cases. Lots of americans seeming to think the government just decided not to treat people because it was too expensive. They couldn’t get their heads round the fact the nhs runs on clinical best practice, and all decisions are made in the interests of the patient.

Which always seemed a weird concept in a country where your health insurance holds the ultimate decision over whether you get treatment.

They also couldn’t grasp that out courts are completely independent of government and politics.

[lljkk]

Rice is good. I suppose the people who would hiss about Rice (Benghazi conspiracy theory fans) would never vote for Biden anyway, so choosing her won't lose Biden any votes. Rice is solid establishment so will be a consumate safe professional; bit more experienced than Demings. Kamala Harris is a bit too much of a pundit without having enough executive experience, imho.

I think Whitmer & Klobuchar ruled themselves out(?)

Biden is running as the antidote to Trump, doesn't want to be a leftie mirror version, wants to brand himself as future hopeful diversity alternative vision of America, so he will choose a break-the-mould VP.

[User56788432567]

It’s rather disingenuous to state that Trump wants to repeal ACA without also stating that he wants to replace it with AHCA.

[BritishSleeperAgent]

Susan Rice is probably the bottom of my list. She's a hawk, she has never held elected office, she's an awful person and has no people skills. She's a terrible choice, and there are so many better ones out there.

She might appeal to some of the centrist Independents, but at the expense of pissing off the base. There's already a sense of frustration about Biden being selected over other better candidates.

Who knows, maybe Biden will surprise us. But in this play-it-safe environment, I doubt it. And that means almost certainly not a polarizing figure like Rice.

[BritishSleeperAgent]

Oh ho. The AHCA. The one that's the least popular piece of legislation in decades? That AHCA? Or maybe one of the other pieces of crap the Senate has tried to push through?

Those bills are callousness writ large, as is the legal challenge to the ACA. If throwing 23 million people off their insurance appeals to you in the middle of the worst pandemic threat in 100 years, then there's probably not much we can talk about.