It’s hard to know which one to remark on: the healthcare follies, the fraudulent recent speech, the growing number of boats sunk, the Trump-Kennedy Center, cutting loose Ukraine, the gluttonous ballroom, and of course the manhandled Epstein files. The pileup of these things is just astonishing.
I thought about this and looked back at the following piece, written in 2017, that shows how far we’ve progressed in eight years. It will be part of my forthcoming book, Trumpworld Begins, publishing next month. George Santayana’s classic comment applies here; “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Russian-Style Healthcare as seen in 5/6/2017
Paul Ryan brought his troops together for a final pep talk. “Look, boys, the Russian connection is real and we might as well use it. Since we can’t get together on a model, why not do what the Russians do? Benefit our benefactors, the one percent. Give ‘em the biggest tax cut ever in this health care bill. Vladimir makes damn sure his supporters get their due.”
The troops cheered. Dance with the one that brung ya. They voted to take money from the poor and middle class to support a program that provides them much less and will cost them much more. Torpedoing Medicaid, making it conditional on state support. Whacking those with pre-existing conditions. Sticking it to the elderly and the sick.
“The poor we will always have with us,” declared Trump in celebrating his victory. “’How am I doing?’” he asked, before answering his own question and posing another. “’I’m president. Hey, I’m president. Do you believe it, right?’”
Then he went back to his desk to call Putin and tell him the good news. “I said to Turnbull [the Australian prime minister] just yesterday, ‘we have a failing health care and you have better health care than we do.’”
The Australian system is government-run, single-payer, universal health care. Trump has long flirted with such a system but has been seized by the Republican obsession to keep health care private and free market. And by his need to have a legislative winner—which indeed can only turn out to be a loser.
“Vlad, how can I try single-payer here and screw the Democrats who could never bring it off?”
“Simple: don’t put enough money in it. You’ll get credit for covering everybody, that is, everybody who can pay.”
It’s all about money, of course, and while support for single-payer is growing, polls indicate that people of both parties who want it don’t understand how it could be financed and delivered.
The Democrats finally have an opportunity to capitalize on the Republicans’ monstrosity and offer something of major impact to everyone. But it will take a massive public education effort. The biggest obstacle (as I learned working on the Clinton Health Security Plan in 1993) will be the special interests, including the insurance industry and big pharma, plus those in your own party who abandon you.
Bernie’s Medicare for All approach may be an opening salvo but, I guarantee you, will not be the end of this fight. For now the best news is that the Trump bill is opposed by virtually all of the health care industry.