Politics USA reports that Speaker of the U.S. House Of Representatives Paul Ryan's Powerpoint Presentation on the Republican Party's plan to replace the Affordable Care Act was "laughingly bad," and that the speaker is being "mocked across the country." The publication offered that the PowerPoint presentation seemed aimed more at educating President Donald Trump, as well as House Republicans, about "how a bill gets passed using reconciliation." One Twitter user suggested that Ryan's presentation would make a "hilarious SNL skit."
In CNBC footage, Speaker Ryan can be seen speaking about a need for a "stable transition" to new coverage under the Trump presidency, and that no one have the rug pulled out from under them.
Ryan described protecting coverage for Americans with preexisting conditions as a "cornerstone" of the Republican healthcare platform. The conservative continued that new legislation would allow children to be covered by parents' plans until they reached 26 years of age.
Republicans want states to control Medicaid
Paul Ryan also described a problem with Medicaid being controlled too tightly by the federal government, not giving individual states the opportunity to tailor programs to what suits their population best. He asked, "What good is your coverage if you can't get a doctor?" after explaining the situation he sees under Obamacare, where many physicians are choosing to simply not accept Medicaid patients.
The speaker cited former President Ronald Reagan's view that states "should control Medicaid." He expressed the view that the Medicaid program needs to be "modernized," so that it "doesn't go bankrupt."
PowerPoint presentation: fodder for social media participants
Jason Easley, with Politics USA, offered the opinion that Speaker Ryan was attempting to portray himself as a "hip professor," but expressed the view that he had actually presented himself as a "used care salesman." Easley wrote that the speaker appears to hold a belief that insurance should be "for healthy people," as evidenced by his plan to group the sickest people into pools where benefits are capped, thereby restricting access to insurance for those who "need health insurance the most."
Many on social media called attention to Paul Ryan's scholarly appearance during his PowerPoint presentation. "Professor Ryan! I have a question," one Twitter user satirized the conservative. Another wrote of Ryan's speaking tour, with dates at the University of Chicago and Harvard.