Why can't Republicans give straight answers about their health care bill? Because the truth is ugly

MONDAY, MAR 13, 2017 05:00 AM EDT

Why can’t Republicans give straight answers about their health care bill? Because the truth is ugly

Behind all the buzzwords about freedom, the AHCA isn't about health care. It's just another tax cut for the rich

GARY LEGUM

My fondest wish for the next journalist who interviews Paul Ryan about the American Health Care Act, the Obamacare replacement Republicans are trying to jam through Congress, is that he or she asks the speaker of the House, “Are you an idiot, or are you just assuming the American people are idiots?”

Honestly, I am torn about which is the answer.

This theoretical journalist could ask the same question of just about any Republican proponent of the AHCA. Some even tried to over the weekend as members of Congress and the Trump administration fanned out across the networks to pitch the plan. Mostly what they got for their trouble were assertions without evidence that Obamacare is “collapsing,” interspersed with a blizzard of conservative buzzwords: “patient-centered,” “choice” and that ever-reliable standby, “freedom.”

Asked to consider that the AHCA might result in an increase in health insurance premiums or the loss of coverage for millions of people, Republicans simply refuse to acknowledge the possibility. Ryan, by all available evidence, does not appear even to understand how insurance works. I watched John Dickerson " target="_blank">interview him on Sunday with the faint hope that the “Face the Nation” host would ask Ryan about his apparent unhappiness that in health insurance pools, “the people who are healthy pay for the people who are sick,” which of course is the entire point of health insurance.

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http://www.salon.com/2017/03/13/why-cant-republicans-give-straight-answers-about-their-health-care-bill-because-the-truth-is-ugly/