‘It will simply devastate lives’: Jan Brewer paints damning picture of GOP health care plan
Tom Boggioni
19 Mar 2017 at 16:02 ET
Responding to reports that the GOP plan to replace Obamacare will cause 380,000 people in Arizona to lose their Medicaid insurance coverage, former Governor Jan Brewer (R) broke ranks with her fellow Republicans saying a loss of coverage would “devastate lives.”
In an interview with The State , Brewer, who has not been one of President Donald Trump’s biggest backers, said the plan proposed by House Speaker Paul Ryan “weighs heavy on my heart.”
According to an analysis of the state’s current Medicaid plan, keeping residents insured would cost Arizona close to $500 million a year by 2023 in a conservative state where tax increases are nearly impossible to pass.
Of concern to Brewer is the loss of coverage by Arizonans, who were able to take advantage of Medicaid after the former governor expanded coverage before she left office. The move added about 400,000 Arizonans out of the 1.9 million covered by Medicaid in the state.
Speaking on the Ryan proposal that would replace the Affordable Care Act, Brewer harshly denounced it.
“It just really affects our most vulnerable, our elderly, our disabled, our childless adults, our chronically mentally ill, our drug addicted,” she said in regard to those who were able to enroll due to her efforts. “It will simply devastate their lives and the lives that surround them. Because they’re dealing with an issue which is very expensive to take care of as a family with no money.”
Brewer also stated that she hoped that President Trump would pressure Republican lawmakers to make major changes to their initial proposal.
“I’m hoping that there will be a coming together of the House and Senate and people weighing in will get heard,” Brewer said. “I don’t believe that Donald Trump wants to damage these people. He promised when he campaigned that he would not do that to them. I hope he maintains that clear thought moving forward.”
Sunday morning, Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton referred to Medicaid as a “ welfare program ” and said “able-bodied people” should be booted off of it.
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I never thought I'd find myself agreeing with anything Jan Brewer says, but these are strange days
What bothers the me the most is that Tom Cotton considers Medicaid a "welfare" program when nothing could be further from the truth. It is meant to provide some healthcare for people who are too sick to work (the majority kep their Medicad.of them) and a few people who can work, but not at a job that will give them health care benefits. So they're stuck in a catch 22. If they can not find a job because the are too sick to get a job, but Medicaid demands they get one or lose their benefits So no one will hire them, especially a company with health care benefits because they are unhealthy people who will cost the company's insurance company money. So they don't get a job and the Medicaid people take away their benefits because they can get a job but they don't because no on will hire them because any place that has befits will not hire them, so they are cut off, Then there are the ones that do find a job, with no benefits and the Medicaid people say, well you have a job now so you don't need Medicaid. Either way they are screwed and that is the plan. That is the idea. That is the goal. To put people on Medicaid in position that is impossible for them to keep their benefits no matter how they do what they are told to do. They are still sick. They still they still need help, but the goal of the program now is to screw as many of them as possible because right wing thinks of these poor people as nothing but takers, think they are just garbage to be thrown away, instead of our fellow Americans who need help from us. Who are a part of our great American family that need help. That need help like any other human being would give to any other human being. But to these church going pious republicans they are not human beings.
It's a rare day when I agree with Jan Brewer, and this is one of those rare days.
She actually hit the nail right on the head.
It's amazing. The GOP now has absolute power - Presidency, Congress, Supreme Court. They can pass any legislation they wish. The Dems are irrelevant.
But our wingnuts are still complaining about the Dems.
Hey people! You WON! Now you must govern...
For at least since Ford the GOP has been good at criticizing and good at winning some election, but are just terrible at governing. This has become much worse in the past few decades and seems to be getting worse all of the time to the point where it seems as if it has become impossible for them to govern at all. They are good at tearing things down and apart, but when it comes to creating anything in government, to actually write a positive bill that helps people, they are completely helpless. Helping the American people goes against their ideology and nature.