There’s nobody better than an emergency room doctor to destroy Republican lies about the deadly effects of their Big Billionaire Tax Cuts Bill.
Democratic Pennsylvania state Rep. Arvind Venkat said he knows that the bill will be fatal because he saw patients before Medicaid was expanded under the Affordable Care Act “when 20% of my patients had no insurance” and “would come into the emergency department too late for me to treat them.”
The bill’s “sick tax” will make the bad situation worse. According to Venkat, the bill requires the working poor to spend up to $1,000 of their income for medical care unless it’s an emergency. We all know that will push people into using hospital emergency rooms when they could have gotten care elsewhere. That will also further strain ER departments and cause longer waiting times for all of us.
Venkat went on to call out the obvious GOP cover-up about their bill’s effects:
VENKAT: And we need to call out the cynicism from our Republican colleagues in Congress. On the one hand, they’re saying they don’t want to take away coverage from anybody. “No one is going to lose coverage.” But then they’re happy to brag that they’re going to save $1.7 trillion in decreased federal funding. And the only way that happens is if people lose insurance or stop seeking health care when they need it.
He concluded with a plea for Republicans to “reverse course.” “You do not want to see what I have seen in my career and will again see if this bad dangerous bill is enacted into law,” Venkat added.
Let’s hope those “pro-life” Republicans can bring themselves to care.