Barack Obama has condemned the Republican’s new healthcare plan, which was released on Thursday.
Obama wrote in a Facebook post that the new bill “is not a healthcare bill,” but just a “massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest people in America.”
“Simply put, if there’s a chance you might get sick, get old, or start a family, this bill will do you harm,” he wrote. Obama took the opportunity to highlight controversial provisions in the legislation including tax breaks to top earners and drug and insurance companies.
“Those with private insurance will experience higher premiums and higher deductibles, with lower tax credits to help working families cover the costs, even as their plans might no longer cover pregnancy, mental health care, or expensive prescriptions,” Obama wrote. “Discrimination based on pre-existing conditions could become the norm again. Millions of families will lose coverage entirely.”
“Small tweaks over the course of the next couple of weeks, under the guise of making these bills easier to stomach, cannot change the fundamental meanness at the core of this legislation.”
“I recognize that repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act has become a core tenet of the Republican party,” Obama wrote on Facebook. “Still, I hope that our senators, many of whom I know well, step back and measure what’s really at stake, and consider that the rationale for action, on healthcare or any other issue, must be something more than simply undoing something that Democrats.”
“After all, this debate has always been about something bigger than politics,” he added. “It’s about the character of our country – who we are, and who we aspire to be. And that’s always worth fighting for.”
Whilst Obama has largely steered clear of politics since leaving The White House, his concern that Trump’s new administration would dismantle the Affordable Health Care Act led him to have his say.
Obama has encouraged members of Congress to be strong when approaching healthcare, saying it required “some courage to champion the vulnerable and the sick and the infirm”.