Faso, Marino vote for Trumpcare

Posted 5/10/17

One of the more memorable scenes prompted by the current debate about healthcare in the United States is one that involved a resident who grew up near Congressman John Faso’s home in the New …

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Faso, Marino vote for Trumpcare

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One of the more memorable scenes prompted by the current debate about healthcare in the United States is one that involved a resident who grew up near Congressman John Faso’s home in the New York 19th Congressional District. Before that first vote on the American Health Care Act (Trumpcare) was canceled in March, Andrea Mitchell had an exchange with Faso that was videotaped. She said, “I have a brain tumor and a spinal condition. When it was first diagnosed, I was kicked off my insurance. I need you as a human being to say, ‘I promise that we will not take this away from you.’”

He hugged her and said, “I promise, I promise.” Then, on May 4, Faso voted in favor of moving Trumpcare forward.

Mitchell’s healthcare is covered by Medicaid. Not only does Trumpcare plan to do away eventually with the expanded Medicaid program that allowed 14 million Americans to afford health insurance, it also reduces the amount of spending on Medicaid over the next decade by 25% or $880 billion. That’s not consistent with Faso’s promise to his constituent and neighbor with the extensive medical needs.

But Trumpcare was never really about providing working and middle class people with better health care. Instead, it was about providing a tax cut for the rich, such as the two billionaires who helped fund Faso’s congressional campaign. It would rescind the 3.8% surcharge on earnings and investments of the top .1% of income earners that was included in Obamacare to help pay for expanded coverage for lower-income people.

According to an article on Vox (tinyurl.com/lsdpb4p), “And for the true elite in the top 0.1%—people like designated White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and many major campaign donors—the tax cut is truly enormous. Households with incomes of more than $1.9 million would get an extra $165,000 a year in take-home pay under full repeal [of Obamacare].”

Tom Marino, who represents constituents on the Pennsylvania side of the river also voted in favor of the plan. One of the reasons he listed for doing so is that Trumpcare “ensures no one can be denied coverage based on pre-existing conditions, and prohibits lifetime limits on coverage.”

That may be technically true, but if premiums are so expensive that millions of people can’t afford to have health insurance, those guarantees are meaningless. The amended Trumpcare plan allows insurers to hike the cost of insurance far higher than they now can for people who have allowed coverage to lapse for more than 63 days, and the hike can be based on the status of a person’s health. Further, the bill allows states to apply for waivers that would let them permit insurance companies to deny coverage to people with existing conditions, even without that 63-day lapse.

Marino also wrote that Trumpcare “is a vast improvement over Obamacare and it will give the American people the freedom to choose their own health care.”

Seriously?

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which is the official scorekeeper of the impacts of large federal bills like Trumpcare, said that over the next 10 years, the bill would cause 24 million people to lose healthcare coverage in the states. Faso and Marino voted on the amended Trumpcare bill before the CBO scored it, but everyone understood in advance that the modifications to the original bill would not significantly affect the number of people who would lose coverage.

The reaction to the vote on the Facebook pages of both men has been harsh. Marino’s constituents left comments on a post where Marino said he had to withdraw his name for consideration from a post in the Trump Administration because of an illness in the family.

Kim Alexa Lesamiz wrote, “I truly hope your family member has access to any health services necessary to make a full recovery. That said, I am beyond disgusted that you voted to strip millions of Americans of their health care, hurting the very constituents you were elected to represent.” The vast majority of comments opposed his vote.

Vicki Long wrote: “Way to vote against all of us while you enjoy healthcare we pay for.”

On Faso’s Facebook page the posts also were overwhelmingly opposed to his Trumpcare vote. Dirk Baxter wrote: “Being a resident of Delaware County, a very rural and poor county, many of my friends have been helped enormously by the ACA. Many of [them] voted for you, believing you would stand for their best interests.”

A few commenters predicted that Faso and Marino would be voted out of office in 2018. So far, neither of these two elected officials will face their constituents in an open town hall meeting, and their votes suggest they have priorities that have nothing to do with the people who voted to put them into office.

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