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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe GOPs Obamacare Replacement Is Just a Gigantic Tax on Women
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/03/07/the-gop-s-obamacare-replacement-is-just-a-gigantic-tax-on-women.htmlThe GOPs Obamacare Replacement Is Just a Gigantic Tax on Women
Under the Republicans health care bill, women would face financial repercussions for being poor. Or using birth control. Or being pregnant.
Erin Gloria Ryan
03.07.17 6:10 PM ET
After seven years of grandstanding and hand-wringing, this is the best Republicans could come up with?
The GOP answer to the Affordable Care Act was unveiled only yesterday, and its already about as big a hit as New Coke. Nobody seems to like it or even see it as an improvement over what we already have, save Paul Ryan and the underlings whose job it is to convince the public that they agree with Paul Ryan. Liberals hate it. Conservatives hate it. And low-income Americans will definitely hate it, once they realize whats in it.
As policy analysts wade their way through the 123-page bill in an attempt to glean its exact ins and outs, one thing is clear: this bill is not kind to women. In fact, portions of it read as though Republican lawmakers deliberately set out to make having female reproductive parts even more of an expensive headache than it already is. The AHCA contains several ways in which low-income women could be further encumbered with higher healthcare costs and fewer choices.
The GOPs plan guts the Medicaid expansion, defunds Planned Parenthood, and sunsets a federal rule that requires that qualified insurance plans cover things like mental health care, maternity care, and pediatric dental and vision care, among other things. That means that states could individually choose not to require insurance plans to cover maternity care, and that women who are planning on having a child would need to purchase special insurance riders, which would likely be prohibitively expensive. Further, the fate of the ACAs birth control mandatewhich allowed women to obtain contraception at no out-of-pocket cost, ostensibly because making it extremely easy for a woman to not get pregnant is more cost effective than dealing with a woman who is pregnant and does not want to beis also up in the air.
In short, if the House GOP plan were signed into law as-is, women could face financial repercussions for being poor, or for using birth control, or for not using birth control, or for giving birth, or for having children who need medical care. How many iPhones does an out-of-pocket Cesarean Section cost?
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Maybe its time for a second opinion.
dalton99a
(81,531 posts)caroldansen
(725 posts)Care about is themselves. Shame on them!
George II
(67,782 posts)neeksgeek
(1,214 posts)A family planning clinic. Sometimes there are a few - like three or four - anti-choice protesters there. They usually have signs with images of aborted fetuses on them. I assume these people are pro-death penalty, and pro-war... I've been known to yell rude things from my car if my windows are down, but I digress.
I've only seen one woman among the protesters in two years. All the rest are always white men. Anyway I bet they just love this new bill.
George II
(67,782 posts)George II
(67,782 posts)...are all against it.
If it went to a vote today, I'd bet it wouldn't get more than about 150 votes.
ffr
(22,671 posts)Republican women.
Independent women.
Non-voting women.
Young and old women.
Green Party women.
Democratic women.
I think it's clear enough. They hate you all equally. Question is, how far are you willing to let them rollback the clock on your rights?
PatrickforO
(14,582 posts)Everything they do penalizes women, the poor, minorities. And poor working white men aren't going to do very well, either.
Oh, but the billionaires are going to do fine!
pangaia
(24,324 posts)Paul Ryan, for example, is as much a lunatic as trumpo.. It just doesn't manifest in the same way.
MiniMe
(21,718 posts)This bill is not kind to senior citizens, it will kill many of them. They are getting rid of the subsidies and cutting out the part to limit costs for older americans.
JudyM
(29,251 posts)down our throats as fast as they can.
Thanks for posting this.