Albert Bigelow: It’s all in how you look at it

Protestors drop to the floor outside Congressman Steve Knight's office on Feb. 23 after they were unable to meet with anyone from his office about repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act. Katharine Lotze/The Signal
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Regarding Caforio’s OpEd piece in Wednesday’s Signal – Boy, it is really easy to use “facts” to suit one’s purpose! To begin with, Bryon may want to revisit the process for a bill to become law before attacking it. Unfortunately, the “facts” cited may only apply to the House version.

Remind Bryan that the Senate has not yet passed its version.

Only then does it go to the president for signing.

On one count Bryan is right. Washington is in a head-long sprint off a health care cliff. The real cliff is the ACA. Now, before jumping to guesses about what a final bill might look like for Medicaid, let’s look at what Steve Knight’s party is doing.

Fact: Medicare spending this fiscal year is $389 billion. Under the House bill it would grow to $469 billion by 2027.

However, Medicaid is already a fiscal ruin. Those states that opted for federal help got 100 percent of the costs covered. Even when it reduces to 90 percent, there’s little incentive to control costs.

Lastly, Bryan insists that Trumpcare will eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood. When and if a final bill is passed, it will likely just eliminate abortion funding. The answer to fixing ACA is for the Democrats (are you listening, Sen. Schumer?) to participate in the process instead of impeding it.

Caforio’s OpEd piece reminds me of the Democrats picture of Paul Ryan pushing a baby carriage over a cliff.

Albert Bigelow
Valencia

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