Must-Read: Sarah Kliff: Trump doesn’t know what’s in his health bill

Must-Read: Sarah Kliff: Trump doesn’t know what’s in his health bill: “Either the president doesn’t understand the proposal — or isn’t telling the truth about it… http://www.vox.com/2017/4/30/15492354/trump-ahca-interview

…President Trump gave a lengthy interview Sunday morning to CBS’ John Dickerson…. His responses to basic questions—like what provisions the bill includes or how it would change the health insurance system—suggest he either doesn’t understand how the American Health Care Act works, or doesn’t want to tell the truth about it…. Dickerson is the first journalist I have seen… [who] isn’t asking about the politics of the bill and whether it will pass. Rather, he focuses on what are arguably basic questions: what elements are in this bill, and what do you think of them? Trump stumbles. He says that people with pre-existing conditions will be protected. Under the latest amendment to the American Health Care Act—the one that got the Freedom Caucus on board—they won’t be. He says that deductibles will go down under the Republican plan. Non-partisan analysis expects deductibles would go up. The health care plan that Trump described on Face the Nation is not the one that the Republican party has offered. His answers suggest an unfamiliarity with basic policy details of a plan that has been public for nearly six weeks at this point—a plan that his administration has pushed Congress to pass….

His answers on CBS suggest that, if he actually read the Republican bill, he would find it sorely disappointing—and at odds with his health care goals…

April 30, 2017

AUTHORS:

Brad DeLong
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