Six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the disease is raging anew because corporate-serving public officials rushed to “open the economy,” causing more infections and deaths.
So, gosh, what to do now? Of course, let’s take away the healthcare coverage of some 23 million Americans! Backed by Trump, that’s the brilliant healthcare priority being pushed by top Republican officials in 18 states.
Led by Greg Abbott, the mingy governor of Texas, these GOP-controlled states have chosen in our time of national health crisis to run to the Supreme Court, asking its Republican majority to strike down Obamacare.
If they get their way, millions of families would lose their health coverage—and insurance giants (which are major campaign donors to Abbott and other GOP officials pushing the court action) would again be able to restrict coverage that millions of others now have.
It’s perverse that any other governor would follow Abbott’s lead, for he presides over a health care disaster in Texas. The state has America’s highest number of uninsured people, including a record number of unprotected children.
Killing Obamacare would add another 1 million Texans to the 18 percent who are already uncovered. And it would remove a vital safety net for the 3 million other Texans expected to lose their job-based insurance policies in today’s growing pandemic recession.
The health care nightmare pushed by the Texas governor has been called “moral insanity.” So naturally, Donald Trump rushed to embrace it! He recently directed his attorney general to back Abbott’s effort to pressure the high court to scrap Obamacare.
However, this intentionally cruel right-wing political maneuver is so unpopular—especially today—that there was no trumpeting of the legal filing by the White House. Instead, it was tiptoed over to the court at 10:30 p.m. on a Thursday night, hoping you and I wouldn’t notice.
We do notice—and we’ll hold them accountable for trying to take health care away during a pandemic.
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OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. He’s also the editor of the populist newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown. Distributed by OtherWords.org.
