Like having No Health Care at all: Trump to strip ACA of ALL Protections, allow Denial of Life Saving Health Care base on Religious Belief!!!

"Thank God for Trump" cultists (MAGA voters) continue to happily accept their health care costs going up and their health care access going down. The mindnumbing infallibility of Trump does not extend to any Democratic lawmaker, who if they had pulled this sh**, would have been vilified as a tax and spend liberal who kills jobs. 

1. Trump's Over-the-Top Complete End to ACA: Remember when Republicans desperately ran and lost on the issue of keeping preexisting conditions no matter what happened to ObamaCare? It turns out it was all a lie, again. The Trump God is getting rid of it all...

The Trump administration has formally called on a federal appeals court to strike down the entirety of the Affordable Care Act ... argued that the repeal of the individual mandate in 2017 rendered the entire ACA unconstitutional. Prior to this, the DOJ instead argued that portions of the law could continue without the mandate in place. “The remaining ACA provisions should not be severed from the individual mandate, regardless of whether the government might support some of those provisions as a policy matter,” DOJ wrote in the brief.

Gone? Any hope of keeping preexisting conditions (which would have been incredibly expensive to keep without the entire ACA in place), keeping your kids on your policy until they're 26, or getting a tax credit to help pay for those ever-increasing premiums.  

2. Trump allows Religious Beliefs to Deny Health Care to Americans: Religious freedom is a protected First Amendment right, but not your need for life-saving health care. So, it's that simple. It's a kind of "thoughts and prayers" escape clause to deny treatment for anyone, maybe even sinful liberal socialist who back choice or science? You never know:

President Donald Trump during remarks on the National Day of Prayer, (announced he) finalized a new 440-page rule strengthening protections for healthcare workers who refuse to provide care that violates their religious or moral beliefs ... provides enforcement tools for 25 laws passed by Congress that are already on the books.

"Refusing to provide care" sounds dangerous, doesn't it! This is "dominionism, Christian political ideologies that seek to institute a nation governed by Christians based on their personal understandings of biblical law." This is part of a final push to declare the US a Christian nation, as other religions are vilified and banned via immigration policies.

Trump Wants to make it even Harder to get Health Care!!! Like I said, religion has constitutional protections and providing life-saving health care does not. This quote says it all:

"The regulation will allow anyone from a doctor to a receptionist to entities like hospitals and pharmacies to deny a patient critical — and sometimes lifesaving — care."

So instead of making it easier to see a doctor or get the best hospital care and declaring health care a right and not a privilege, we're instead subject to surprise denials of treatment at the most critical point in our lives.  

Roger Severino, director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which will enforce the rule, said "We are giving (25) laws life with this regulation," adding his agency wants to keep workers from being “bullied” out of healthcare because of their beliefs. 

ALERT: TRUMP NOT PROTECTING PEOPLE WHO NEED HEALTH CARE, BUT INSTEAD...

...The rule will protect providers, individuals and other healthcare entities from having to provide, participate in, pay for, provide coverage of or refer for services such as abortion, sterilization or assisted suicide. It also includes conscience protections with respect to advance directives.

In other words, if you are given power of attorney and given the responsibility to cease life support as directed by your loved one, you could be stopped from carrying out their last wishes. As you can see below, this is more political than it is religious:

For instance, (Severino said) students cannot be excluded from medical training ... adding that the OB-GYN profession should not be a “pro-life free zone.”

And not one news outlet thought to explain what the heck the 1,300 complaints were about, or whether the public comments were for or against this policy:

Last year, HHS received more than 1,300 complaints alleging discrimination in a healthcare setting because of religious beliefs or conscience issues. “There is a problem out there … We’ve seen troubling actions across the country,” Severino said.

The rule has been controversial since it was proposed last year, and OCR received over 242,000 public comments, Severino said.

The reaction!!! Now let's hear from the reality-based health and legal community: 

1. The American Civil Liberties Union said the final rule will allow discrimination. “Denying patients healthcare is not religious liberty. Discriminating against patients based on their gender or gender expression is not religious liberty. Medical standards, not religious belief, should guide medical care.”

2. Physicians for Reproductive Health, a doctor-led national advocacy organization, called the rule “outrageous” in this tweet, “BREAKING: The Trump-Pence administration just finalized a rule that would allow personal beliefs to dictate patient care. This is outrageous. #PutPatientsFirst”

3. The Center for Reproductive Rights branded it the "Denial of Care Rule” rather than the “Conscience Right in Healthcare Rule." “For decades, there have been well-oiled systems in place to make sure medical professionals can opt out of procedures that go against their beliefs. These systems respect religious liberty and make sure patients get the care they need. This new policy leaves zero safeguards for the patient,” said Susan Inman, the group’s chief counsel for federal policy and advocacy.

4. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America called the rule “dangerous” and said it puts patients’ health at risk, especially women and LGBTQ patients. The rule could result in a pharmacist turning away a patient seeking birth control or antidepressants because of personal beliefs or a pregnant woman being denied life-saving treatment because a hospital administrator personally believes the treatment could harm her pregnancy.

5. “Discrimination is insidious, sometimes guised as religion, which is why the National LGBTQ Task Force is working for full legal protections,” said Rea Carey, the group’s executive director.

Still to come, the following story and blog post in the works...

Why is the US making it so hard to stay healthy and alive? Seriously.