The Health Care Vote Further Exposed A GOP Empathy Gap

Thursday’s vote on the American Health Care Act (AHCA) that passed by a four-vote margin in the U.S. House of Representatives further exposed a growing empathy gap between the majority of House Republicans and the tangible realities of their constituents. The bill would strip at least 24 million people of their health insurance. The ACHA also “turns Medicaid into a block grant, enabling states to kick otherwise-eligible people off their coverage and cut benefits if I choose… and slashes Medicaid overall by $880 billion over 10 years,” according to the Washington Post’s Paul Waldman. It would be useful for members of Congress to actually experience what it is like to need medical attention and not have access to health care services. It is unlikely that they would be so nonchalant about taking away health care coverage from millions of Americans if they had to go without it themselves. An empathy deficit is likely what led them to cast the vote that they did on Thursday. This empathy gap was exemplified in the remarks of GOP House Member Raul Labrador of Idaho when he said on Friday that “nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care.” Labrador and other members of Congress should feel that sense of desperation that millions of uninsured families feel when they need medical services but are denied access. It is unlikely that they would be so nonchalant about taking away health care coverage from millions of American...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news