To the editor:
Now that President-elect Trump believes that he has a mandate to overhaul the United States healthcare system and repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), here are some guidelines for the new TrumpCare that will benefit everyone, especially New Hampshire residents:
1. Target working individuals and families who do not otherwise have access to affordable health insurance.
2. Create a system that relies on competition between private healthcare companies and that will complement and expand existing programs such as Medicaid.
3. Empower individual states to create healthcare systems based on the specific needs of their residents. For example, Vice president-elect Mike Pence expanded Medicaid in Indiana to cover 400,000 citizens.
4. Set a goal of reducing the rate of uninsured residents of the United States to 8.6 percent, the lowest in the history of the country.
5. Insure coverage for all with pre-existing conditions.
6. In New Hampshire, create insurance for over 90,000 residents, especially lower-income workers who staff our stores, restaurants, construction and home-care industries and are the true backbone of the local economy. Finally, expand New Hampshire Medicaid with plans that include coverage for substance abuse treatment in response to the heroin and opioid epidemic.
So, will this be the future model of TrumpCare? It should be. Despite all the distortions and exaggerations, all the above are results of the Affordable Care Act since implementation in 2010. It’s not perfect, and needs updating, but over 20 million people across America now have the security of healthcare insurance.
Trump’s plan for a quick repeal with the reconciliation process may be easy, but replacement is not.
Neither he, nor the Republicans in Congress, have any detailed plans and likely will also move to privatize Medicare.
Contact your state and federal representatives and tell them to say no to TrumpCare that hurts our fellow citizens.
Christopher Gallagher
Dublin