The Democrats nearly ruined America’s healthcare system with Obamacare, subjecting millions of Americans to out-of-control medical expenses. Now they want taxpayers to pay for their mistake.
Socialist Senator and Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders recently released his plan to make taxpayers foot the bill for $81 billion of past-due medical bills, declaring that it is “unacceptable that one out of every six Americans have past-due medical bills on their credit report, totaling $81 billion.”
You’re right, Bernie. That is unacceptable — but so is redistributing taxpayer dollars paid by working people with pre-existing conditions in order to pay for others’ unpaid medical bills.
Bernie’s so-called debt forgiveness would only be a one-time solution to a continuous problem of rising costs in healthcare. Before we can eliminate medical debt, we must eliminate the catalyst responsible for spiraling costs — the “Unaffordable” Care Act.
When Obamacare passed, not only did premiums skyrocket, but so did medical spending, which surpassed a collective $3.5 trillion, for a per-person cost of $10,000 per year. Subsidizing health insurance costs the federal government hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars per year, and compromised care has led to millions of medical mistakes reaching estimates of almost $1 trillion. And these are only the financial — not physical — costs.
If we couldn’t afford the “Affordable” Care Act, how will we pay for $81 billion of medical debt forgiveness, much less the $40 trillion in “free” healthcare that Bernie also intends to give away?
Medical debt is a problem the Democrats created when choosing to cheapen rather than champion care — by taking the “health” out of healthcare and leaving us with Obamacare. These same all-talk, no-action politicians surely want to ignore the disastrous results they created, but the American people certainly won’t forgive or forget.
“Repeal and Replace Obamacare”? That wasn’t just a Republican slogan, but an American one that echoed throughout Forgotten America, especially after people with pre-existing conditions were told the “Lie of the Year” — that we could keep our doctors and keep our plans — only to have Speaker Pelosi’s “unreadable” bill become our unlivable reality. Thanks, Obama!
Instead of multi-trillion dollar give aways, here’s an idea, Bernie: how about making Americans more prosperous so they can pay their own bills?!
In fact, as a result of President Trump’s historic middle-class tax cuts, Americans are able to pay our own medical bills with our own money. Knowing there is a “dramatic link between healthcare spending and tax refunds,” President Trump is already beginning work on a new phase of tax reform to complement the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which will let us keep even more of our hard-earned money so that we can pay for, pay down, or pay off our medical expenses.
In addition to reducing tax burdens, the strong and growing Trump economy is making healthcare more affordable for millions of Americans. People with disabilities are working in record numbers, enjoying the benefits of our country’s rapidly rising wages and steadily-increasing labor force participation rate.
But empowering Americans to attain financial freedom and sustainability through economic prosperity isn’t the only successful strategy President Trump is employing to erase medical debt. In order to provide much-needed relief for the many Americans who couldn’t afford the “Affordable” Care Act, President Trump repealed the individual mandate, which cost 8 million Americans more than $3 billion in penalty payments in 2016. The Trump administration is also fighting to end surprise medical billing, bring down astronomical prescription drug prices, and expand health savings accounts. And he’s just getting started!
America has had enough of Democrats putting the politics of pre-existing conditions first. President Trump is putting people with pre-existing conditions first.
And we’d like to keep it that way.
Natalie Harp is an entrepreneur and Advisory Board member for Donald J. Trump for President.
