UPDATED - GOP lawmaker: Poor people would have health coverage if they didn't spend money on...
Last edited Tue Mar 7, 2017, 12:32 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: RawStory
GOP lawmaker: Poor people would have health coverage if they didn't spend money on 'that new iPhone'
BRAD REED
07 MAR 2017 AT 08:22 ET
The Republican Partys proposed Obamacare replacement plan is [link:http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/healthcare-sold-separately-internet-ruthlessly-mocks-trumpcare-vs-obamacare/already facing a storm of criticism], and Republican lawmakers are scrambling to defend it on cable news networks.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) appeared on CNN Tuesday morning to explain why obtaining health care is a matter of personal responsibility for millions of Americans, and not an area that requires government intervention.
In particular, Chaffetz said that, under the new GOP plan, poor Americans would be forced to make wise financial decisions if they really wanted to have access to health care.
You know what, Americans have choices, and theyve got to make a choice, he said. And so maybe, rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and want to go spend hundreds of dollars on, maybe they should invest in their own health care.
-snip-
Link to tweet
Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/gop-lawmaker-poor-people-would-have-health-coverage-if-they-didnt-spend-money-on-that-new-iphone/
UPDATE:
I Didnt Say it as Smoothly as I Could: Chaffetz Responds to iPhone/Healthcare Comments
by Justin Baragona | 11:23 am, March 7th, 2017
Hours after he made a bit of a firestorm for stating that Americans may need to make a choice between buying an iPhone and healthcare coverage while defending the GOPs Obamacare replacement plan, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) appeared on Fox News and attempted to clarify them.
Towards the end of an interview with host Shannon Bream, the Utah lawmaker was asked to respond if he was suggesting people on the lower-income spectrum would need to give up things to make sure they have healt coverage.
What were trying to say and maybe I didnt say it as smoothly as I could but people need to make a conscious choice and I believe in self-reliance, Chaffetz stated. And theyre gonna have to make those decisions.
He would further add that he wants to make sure people have access to affordable healthcare and they are covered if they have pre-existing conditions, but that he doesnt like the individual mandate.
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http://www.mediaite.com/online/i-didnt-say-it-as-smoothly-as-i-could-chaffetz-responds-to-iphonehealthcare-comments/
dancePop
(54 posts)ColemanMaskell
(783 posts)Moostache
(9,895 posts)Fuck you Jason, you slimy coward. Go tell your daughters about why its OK for the president to grab their pussies...
ColemanMaskell
(783 posts)Orrex
(63,086 posts)Unless you ever get, you know, sick. An ER visit with a blood tests and X-Rays can easily cost you thousands of dollars, so the cost of your iPhone wouldn't really be a big factor in your ability to repay that amount.
Sadly, this "wasteful peasants" attitude shows up even here on DU now and then, and you can bet that Trump's supporters--many of whom need extensive governmental support--will be among the first to support Chaffetz in this current iteration of the war on the poor.
dalton99a
(81,081 posts)I have routine quarterly bloodwork done, and even with my (honestly not terrible) employer-provided healthcare, it's about $225 each time. Without insurance, I'd be spending well in excess of $500 for each of these tests, and god forbid they find something that needs to be treated!
OnDoutside
(19,908 posts)Orrex
(63,086 posts)They set an artificial and arbitrary standard and then condemn anyone who fails to live up to it.
NewJeffCT
(56,827 posts)also offer pretty big discounts if you switch from Verizon to Sprint or T-Mobile or AT&T, so you typically end up paying less than list price for the phone.
Orrex
(63,086 posts)Hadn't even considered that, and it makes Chaffetz all the more slimy.
Yavin4
(35,357 posts)Orrex
(63,086 posts)ColemanMaskell
(783 posts)There are a lot of naive people who have grown up in a soup of right wing culture and never stopped to give it much thought. Not necessarily bad people, just simple people who were raised in that culture, the way a person is born into and raised in a religion. When a naive person like that hears talk about poor kids being denied health care, it might prick their natural conscience. So people like the Republican representative make up, or at least propagate, lies like the cell phone fantasy, hoping to deflect the perception of blame onto the parents for wasting money. Repetition of that sort of lie makes it more difficult for an ordinary naive person to starting thinking for themselves. Add to that the fact that they lack self-confidence and the gentleman representing Utah projects an air of confidence and authority; on top of that, a lot of people raised in the USA have difficulty with math. It's an unfortunate fact. So rather than try to find out the numbers and do the math themselves, and risk ridicule within their circle by suggesting a contradiction of a seeming authority figure, many such people will just say to themselves, Oh, I guess what he's saying must be right. So this type of lie is a ploy not just to continue to oppress people rendered vulnerable because of poverty and illness, it is also a ploy to continue to subjugate the subdued naive within the Republican subculture.
It's the same with the right-wingers trying to suppress birth control under guise of suppressing abortion -- do these guys really care if the poor use birth control? Not so much; they want to use denial of access to birth control as a method to continue subjugating young women within their own subculture.
So, yeah, absolutely you've got it right. Health care costs way more than cell phones. Most of the poor know it, the ones who think for themselves at all. The Dems know it. Who is the lie aimed at, then? The argument is aimed at weak-minded weak-willed people currently nestled within the Republican camp, but who might bolt if they ever woke up and looked around.
And, as you say, a lot of these naive victims falling for the lies are themselves victims of the evil policies also, they just don't realize that in time to save themselves.
What's that Il Trompe often twitters as his punch line? Oh: SAD. Yeah. So True.
dalton99a
(81,081 posts)SCVDem
(5,103 posts)Is this the new version of the Cadillac welfare queens?
llmart
(15,502 posts)because they could control more of the news you're getting. And you couldn't post things on social media that aren't in line with the gestapo.
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(48,790 posts)jpak
(41,742 posts)yup
muntrv
(14,505 posts)HockeyMom
(14,337 posts)when they need to make a call?
DinahMoeHum
(21,737 posts)LakeArenal
(28,729 posts)Calculating, dishonest, merciless, soulless, manipulative, uncaring, superior, condescending, crooked, patronizing, heartless,
sickening, part of the death panel... But not stupid, the repukes know exactly what they are doing and why....
Keep people in hock to healthcare and insurance companies and they will work for any dismal pay to stay alive....
AllaN01Bear
(17,383 posts)1: icu visit week 1 i bet ya was at least $2000 dollars a day.
2: i bet ya the ambulance was $1000 for the ride for one mile with everything itemized.
3: the skilled nursing home was a pretty penny too.
plus all the drs visits and so fourth.
how will that $500 dollars pay for all that you jerk.
im sick of this let them eat cake routine. good thing i had medical (medicade to most of you )and my supplimant . i havnt even seen any bill for that whole excursion.
HughBeaumont
(24,461 posts)We're MILES behind the industrialized world on Health Care.
MILES.
The whole world is laughing in our FACE right now.
Jonny Appleseed
(960 posts)If anything a 500 dollar phone buys you more healthcare via the free medical apps than the monetary equivalent would be at a hospital.
NewJeffCT
(56,827 posts)and miss phone calls for potential employment opportunities, you'll fault them for not having a phone when they're unemployed, or under employed.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)ColemanMaskell
(783 posts)WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)Sunlei
(22,651 posts)*wealthy entitled republicans who think 'they know' why people aren't 'wealthy'
Kber
(5,043 posts)Sunlei
(22,651 posts)They always edit out what they don't like on 'their' face book.
IronLionZion
(45,264 posts)since there are huge price variations between providers for the same procedure. Promoting transparency helps level the playing field.
UpInArms
(51,253 posts)it's shit like this that shows how out of touch these people are
my family's health insurance (am self employed) - there are three of us - one a full-time college student -
annual cost?
$18,750 -
no, I don't have an iPhone ...
sheesh
PsychoBabble
(837 posts)I hope some interviewer rips his face off about that iPhone crap. We've heard this playbook before.
Kber
(5,043 posts)Unless he is saying that the new GOP plan will provide insurance for $500 for 2 years plus $79 / month.
Otherwise, hold onto the iPhone so you can look up WebMD and know call an ambulance.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)co pays and what's not covered by 'decent' insurance.
bekkilyn
(454 posts)But Republicans believe it's everyone's personal responsibility to suffer poverty, sickness, and death if the Prosperity Cult God doesn't bless you with millions of dollars, so no surprise here. They make this world worse and worse for most people every single day.
louis-t
(23,199 posts)yurbud
(39,405 posts)Paladin
(28,204 posts)Think of the sort of snotty, dismissive excuse for a personality Chaffetz must have, to come out with a statement like that.
I want these guys to pay for this sort of thing.
cagefreesoylentgreen
(838 posts)If the poor had nothing but a cardboard box to live in, the Repubs would still call it a luxury because it keeps the wind and rain out.
dhill926
(16,234 posts)MBS
(9,688 posts)bucolic_frolic
(42,679 posts)not a bargain most would make
Chastity, poverty, humility ... so so so so Republican, don'cha think?
NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)... it's going to get uglier.
turbinetree
(24,632 posts)Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders.
We should measure welfares success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added.
We cant help everyone, but everyone can help someone.
Governments first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.
Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.
My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose somehow we win out.
Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.
by
Ronnie Ray Gun
The last one was the last I could put down on this thread.
That last quote from Ronnie Ray Gun says everything about republican and them being fascists.
And just like the Chafftez's and there world view. We the taxpayers, the people who make up the "government" in this republic are asking people like Chafftez, to make my "rights" better, and he does want to make it better, he wants to hurt people, human beings that's how he looks at his job decription.
He can go F*** himself. And, if his ilk cannot give me or anyone that right then he should be voted out of office, he is a freeloader, he worked last year making $223,000 a year(2016) and was making $18,583 a month working only 110 days out of 365 and doing what with the other 265?
He was on a "pre-paid vacation like a freeloader".
I have a "right" to have good health care MEDICARE for ALL
Bengus81
(6,907 posts)Yup,it happens ONLY because they blow all their cash on big screen TV,smart phones,Xbox etc,large home. FACTS are,most BK years ago were MEDICAL bankruptcy.
That probably has lessened when the ACA was rolled out but before it was the MAJOR reason for filing BK.
Cryptoad
(8,254 posts)HeathCare CEO's are going to get big bonus out of this....!
hollowdweller
(4,229 posts)At that time wages were fairly high.
Consumer goods were also fairly expensive.
Now the ratio of stuff like consumer electronics to stuff like health care or the price of a house or car is way different.
That's because of free trade mostly.
I'm for clamping down on outsourcing but if they do it w/o raising wages then we'll be back in the 70's far as inflation to salary.
I hear republicans bitch about poor people having big screen tv's and stuff I know they are totally out of touch with how much stuff costs and how much people make.
harun
(11,348 posts)J_William_Ryan
(1,736 posts)SunSeeker
(51,378 posts)He gets his for free as a member of Congress.
Judi Lynn
(160,219 posts)Replacement healthcare plan would cost poor and older people the most
GOP Obamacare replacement bills key provisions include cuts to Medicaid and leeway for insurance companies to charge older Americans five times more
House Republicans reveal bill to repeal and replace Obamas healthcare law
Jessica Glenza in New York
@JessicaGlenza
Tuesday 7 March 2017 12.14 EST
House Republicans unveiled their long-promised plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, on Monday. And though Donald Trump promised Americans increased access and lower costs, many would in fact get the opposite.
Some of the bills key provisions include cuts to one of Americas largest social safety nets, Medicaid; less generous tax credits for individuals who buy insurance on the open market; and the undoing of incentives for younger Americans to buy health insurance.
To those proposals, add leeway for insurance companies to charge older Americans more, the end of taxes on pharmaceuticals and tanning beds and a 30% penalty for anyone who has a gap in insurance coverage. Many Republicans argue these proposals would help get the federal government out of the way of the market, and drive down prices by increasing competition.
What it would all mean for Americans pocketbooks is still coming into focus, but if the bill is passed into law, some effects are clear.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/mar/07/trump-replacement-healthcare-plan-cost-older-poor
ck4829
(34,977 posts)ymetca
(1,182 posts)which is to muzzle dissent with abject poverty.
Guilded Lilly
(5,591 posts)MissMillie
(38,459 posts)so shove it.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Rex
(65,616 posts)own refrigerators and AC that they are lucky and should just stfu about said millionaire not working a real day in their life.
Metsie Casey
(208 posts)Marthe48
(16,693 posts)Chaffetz goes after the cell phone industry.
What a steaming pile of bird turds.