Trumpcare And Global Warming Will Kill The Same People
The Senate’s Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 would reduce the deficit by $321 billion in the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office, in part by cutting Medicaid. It would also cause a full 22 million people to lose insurance. After several Republicans refused to endorse the legislation, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced he would delay voting on the bill until after the July 4th recess.
If passed, Americans with chronic health issues will likely be at risk. According to environmental health advocates and experts, the most pronounced impact would fall on the same shoulders that climate change disproportionately affects: communities of color and low-income people. Because of higher premiums, “few low-income people would purchase any plan,” the CBO estimates. And fifteen million people would lose Medicaid coverage under the current Senate proposal. “It becomes a death sentence,” says Tamara Toles O’Laughlin, executive director of the Maryland Environmental Health Network.
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Advocates are working hard to connect the dots between climate change and healthcare policy for lawmakers. Toles O’Laughlin rattles off a “laundry list” of climate-related threats facing Maryland communities, including mosquito-born disease, truck traffic, and high heat. All of them also have health consequences.
“We as a human species are impacting the environment,” says Miriam Rotkin-Ellman, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Those conditions can and do impact our health — particularly for children or our most vulnerable populations.”
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http://grist.org/justice/trumpcare-and-climate-change-will-have-the-same-victims/