Politics - News Analysis

Trump Brags About ‘Lowering Drug Prices …’ Except He Is VERY Busy Doing the Opposite

We really aren’t sure what the hell Trump is talking about when he brags about lowering drug prices.

There might be some program somewhere about favored nation status that lowers drug prices 15% but – even though we watch the news closely, and even though some of us have taught healthcare law – we can’t figure out what he’s talking about.

Here is the guy telling us what he’s up to at his rally in New Hampshire earlier today:

We now return you to our regularly scheduled reality.

On November 10th, exactly one week after the election, the U.S. SCOTUS, will be asked to do what the Republicans couldn’t do even when they had the presidency and both chambers of congress. They will be asked to get rid of Obamacare for good. You will, of course, recall that Obamacare includes all the things people like, such as ridding insurance of pre-existing conditions, lifetime caps, allowing kids to stay on parental insurance until 26 (because employers no longer offer health insurance anymore, in case you hadn’t noticed, so it’s important to keep them on insurance from the good old days, and – of course – it allowed universal coverage. People like this family could pay $280 a month (supplemented) for insurance that would otherwise cost thousands and cover half.

That’s gone. A president cannot “order” what remains of healthcare insurance to cover pre-existing conditions. That is nothing but an election strategy.

So we’re not exactly sure how “lower drug prices” help anyone? How many Americans actually HAVE great insurance through work that would benefit? Would fifty percent be generous? Is it likely not even that? We looked it up, 49%. (We told you we taught this).

So to the extent that the half of Americans without insurance notice that drug prices went down, it would be quite safe to say that the $5800 Emergency Room bill more than makes up for paying $38 instead of $49 for “lower drug prices” due to Trump.

Why get rid of Obamacare? Because it proved that government could help people. Republicans simply cannot have that. It sets up expectations, it ruins “the government is the problem” thing.

One last thing. Conservatives talk about “activist judges”? What could be MORE activist than a court that looks at a piece of legislation passed by Congress, signed by the president, then endured ten years worth of attempts to rid the nation of it through presidents and Republican congresses, and just couldn’t do it. So they ask the court to strike it down because all the elected people couldn’t do it. You tell me what is more activist? One that does that? Or one that says everyone has the right to marry whoever one wants?

One involves legislation. One involves civil rights. We know which one we pick.

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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMicia

meet the author

Jason Miciak is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is originally from Canada but grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He now enjoys life as a single dad raising a ridiculously-loved young girl on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He is very much the dreamy mystic, a day without learning is a day not lived. He is passionate about his flower pots and studies philosophical science, religion, and non-mathematical principles of theoretical physics. Dogs, pizza, and love are proof that God exists. "Above all else, love one another."

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