When it comes to reforming Obamacare, Senator Susan Collins, the Senator for Maine, does not care about the millions of citizens in her state who are struggling to pay for healthcare; she is only concerned about herself and advancing her own political career.
Her argument for voting against the Graham-Cassidy Bill, which President Trump is supporting, is that it would slash Medicaid for America's most vulnerable citizens. She is fundamentally wrong. Anyone who is receiving Medicaid now would not be thrown off the scheme. Impoverished children, the elderly and the disabled would still be protected should the Graham-Cassidy Bill transform into reality.
Welfare should never be used as an opportunity to entrap citizens in permanent poverty
Medicaid is a safety net, and welfare should never be used as an opportunity to entrap citizens in permanent poverty. That is the intention behind the Graham-Cassidy Bill. Medicaid expansion under Obamacare enabled able-bodied adults who can afford to contribute towards their own health insurance to access free healthcare, thereby enlarging it to irresponsible levels. Therefore, when many protesters took to the streets in 2009 and labeled the scheme a form of socialism, they were not far from the truth.
The last time Medicaid was expanded in Maine in 2002, hospitals owed $750 million in debt, budgets were shrinking, waiting lists rose, and there were low reimbursement rates for nursing homes.
Since the 1980s, Maine had a powerful law shielding those with pre-existing conditions, but that ended with Medicaid enlargement in 2002. The Senate has failed to learn from the past, and representatives like Senator Collins are so removed from reality that they struggle to comprehend the consequences of voting against measures designed to aid millions of Americans, and are more interested in harming President Trump.
Senator Collins has also voted to centralize power to Washington
Senator Collins has also voted to centralize power to Washington and deprive individual states of their liberty. The Graham-Cassidy Bill is designed to provide sovereignty to states to create their own Medicaid programs. It recognized Maine's needs are different to New Jersey's, for example, yet their own senator couldn't.
The program she voted to retain has hurt the finances of millions of low-income workers. In 2015, 34,000 Maine families preferred to pay $15 million in fines than pay for Obamacare. Graham-Cassidy would have provided Senator Collins' state with $1.5 billion more funding over the next nine years.
It is a stain to millions of Americans that the Republicans have had seven years to repeal this act and have failed. They cannot represent the best interests of those who serve them. They add impetus to President Trump's claim that Washington's swamp needs draining.
If politicians like Senator Collins are not careful, she will not have anyone left to elect her.
