America’s health care
The very existence of the American Health Care Act (AHCA) is deplorable because it was rushed together as essentially a piece of political propaganda. Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act) provides affordable health care to millions of Americans but it is not without faults. The Trump administration used “repeal and replace” on the campaign trail and figured that a piece of legislation that took the Obama administration years to pass should be easily passed by a Republican. It’s this sheer ignorance that embodies the entire AHCA.
The AHCA gets rid of the ACA’s insurance tax credits, which are based on many factors including income, and replaced it with a flat tax credit that is based on age. Essentially, the older you get the more money you get. This is simple in theory but when applied it is extremely destructive to many people. For example, if you are 60 years old and earn around $50,000 per year, you would receive a tax credit of around $13,350 under the ACA. Compared to the AHCA you would receive $4,000.
The biggest issue I see with the AHCA is that people of lower income would be particularly disadvantaged if it could ever pass. Speaker Paul Ryan wants to de-federalize an entitlement, block granting it back to the states and capping its growth. This means the AHCA would cut an estimated $370 billion in Medicaid, which most people in poverty depend on. Essentially, the states need to make up for the draining of federal funds by providing health care, which is nearly impossible, and when these states fail to make up for the lost funds, an estimated 15 million people will lose healthcare coverage.
I have learned that when people are set to be spurred by the law there are always people that benefit from it. So when I see a piece of legislation and see who is harmed by it, I look to see who will benefit from it. Not surprisingly, wealthy Americans are the only ones who would profit from the AHCA, in forms of huge tax cuts, which is similar to corporate welfare in my opinion. This plan is almost step-by-step taking money from the poor and giving it to the rich.
Based on just these three reasons it is easy to see why both liberals and conservatives absolutely passionately dislike the AHCA. Added together with the number of issues I did not address it is obvious why the AHCA was dead as soon as the ink hit the paper.
Michael Arguelles, Edinburg
Rebuttal to Thursday letter
Leslie Gower’s choice of candidates for the next county election should certainly be respected but in Gower’s Thursday letter, in which I was mentioned, I should not have been accused of making “connections” that are not there. The individuals I mentioned in my May 31 letter as the “over the hill gang” have only one commonality; that of no longer being in office. Two, including former Hidalgo County Judge Eloy Pulido and former Hidalgo County District Attorney Rene Guerra, were removed from office by the majority of Hidalgo County voters. Two were removed for criminal activities. The commonality again is they were all removed from office due to their own actions or lack thereof. Also my letter contained no premise about age. Is everything OK now? Do I support those presently in office? No! Should we go back and retry what didn’t work before? That’s another and much bigger NO!
Ned Sheats, Mission
