Trump breaks his pledge on health care, drug prices

As Republican leaders in the U.S. Senate rush to pass a health-care bill that ultimately would result in millions of Americans losing health coverage, President Donald Trump chooses to play politics by blasting Democrats.

Over the weekend, Trump said that health care should be an issue that brings Republicans and Democrats to the table. We couldn’t agree more.

Indeed, that’s what Ohio Gov. John R. Kasich, a Republican, advised last week after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell unveiled a draft of the health-care bill designed to replace Obamacare:

“Sustainable solutions to the many complex problems facing our health-care system will never be solved with a one-party approach that’s developed behind closed doors without public discussion and input.

“I’m encouraging senators to step back and take a good, hard look at this important issue – and to reach across the aisle in working toward solutions. That’s the only way to address the flaws of Obamacare that we can all agree need to be fixed.”

Like other governors whose states have used Obamacare to expand Medicaid to cover millions of more Americans who would not otherwise qualify for such health-care coverage, Kasich has warned that the Senate bill, and the previously passed House measure, will hurt the most vulnerable.

Kasich is particularly concerned about individuals who are dealing with drug addiction, mental illness and chronic health problems and have nowhere else to turn.

If President Trump had kept his public pledge on health care and prescription drugs made Jan. 14, six days before he was sworn in, the Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare would be very different from what the House and Senate have produced.

“We’re going to have insurance for everybody,” President-elect Trump then told the Washington Post. “There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us.”

He added that people covered under the law “can expect to have great health care. It will be in a much simplified form. Much less expensive and much better.”

In the interview with The Post, Trump also said he would force drug companies to negotiate directly with the government on prices in Medicare and Medicaid.

“They’re politically protected, but not anymore,” he said of the pharmaceutical industry.

MILLIONS FACE INSURANCE LOSS

Yet, the president has endorsed the health-care bills passed by Republicans in the Senate and House. The Congressional Budget Office analyzed the GOP repeal/replace bills and concluded that millions of Americans would lose the health insurance they now receive under Obamacare,

The Senate bill, which was developed behind closed doors by a handful of Republicans, was made public only last week.

Majority Leader McConnell wants to put it up for a vote before Congress breaks for the July 4 holiday.

An initial analysis by the Associated Press of the bill shows that the tax penalties Obamacare imposes on people who don’t purchase would be erased. The Senate measure would allow insurers to cover fewer benefits and repeal tax boosts on wealthier people that help finance the statute’s expanded coverage.

The Senate legislation would phase out extra federal money that Ohio and other states receive for expanding Medicaid to additional low earners. It would also slap annual spending caps on the overall Medicaid program, which since its inception in 1965 has provided states with unlimited money to cover eligible costs.

The attack on low-income adults, their children and people with certain disabilities runs counter to Trump’s public pledge to ensure that all Americans have health care and that the drug manufacturers can no longer exploit people on Medicare and Medicaid.

The president must know that the health-care bills being pushed by Republicans in Congress will hurt many of his supporters.

He, therefore, should put a halt to what has been proposed and follow what many presidents have done in time of crisis: Bring Republicans and Democrats to the White House and lead a discussion on how to accomplish his goal of health care for all Americans.

Anything less and Trump will have conceded the moral high ground.