What's at Stake with the GOP Senate "Healthcare" Bill, Beyond Simple Healthcare

Paul Krugman captures the truth in a simple graph:

The point is the Senate bill -- or BCRA -- is singularly ill-timed to serve the baby-boomer generation that by happenstance are reaching the critical care phase of their lives. If you cut Medicaid as the GOP wants to, you trap a whole generation in a vice of insufficient care (not all boomers have reached 65!) as well as booting many of them out of nursing homes. Who chooses to do that as public policy? Hmm... maybe the guys pictured below.

Assuming these guys aren't idiots, that answers the stupid-or-evil question.

From the Medicare page that speaks about long-term care (which Medicare doesn't cover):

How can I pay for nursing home care?

There are many ways you can pay for nursing home care. Most people who enter nursing homes begin by paying for their care out-of-pocket. As you use your resources (like bank accounts and stocks) over a period of time, you may eventually become eligible for Medicaid.

Got that? Whatever wealth you've acquired in your life is by design supposed to be eaten up by your long-term care. When it does, Medicaid is there. Unless, of course, the GOP gets its way. Holy shit. Talk about a death tax.

And just not to forget the rest of the poor and working class, regardless of age, the Senate bill dooms another 22 million to lose their coverage, though there's some overlap here. Anyway you look at it, it's a gruesome choice the GOP are making. People will die for tax cuts for the rich. Not close to funny.