TEHRAN, May 7, YJC - The United States has the worst healthcare system in the world and President Donald Trump promises to make it even worse than it is, according to Myles Hoenig, an American political analyst and activist.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - Hoenig, a former Green Party candidate for Congress, made the remarks
in an interview with Press TV on Saturday, a day after Trump tweeted
that "everybody” has better healthcare than the US.
In the most
contentious congressional vote of Trump's presidency on Thursday,
lawmakers voted 217 to 213 to pass the bill, the American Health Care
Act, and to dismantle Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
"Of course the
Australians have better healthcare than we do -- everybody does.
Obamacare is dead! But our healthcare will soon be great,” Trump tweeted
on Friday.
"Every once in a while the Idiot-in-Chief of the US
says something right. He’s called CNN fake news, which is correct, only
that his reasons were not supported by any facts. They are basically the
mouthpiece of the Democratic Party, along with the Pentagon and State
Department and thus present their versions of the news,” Hoenig said.
"During the campaign he constantly called Hillary corrupt
which proved correct with the release of the Podesta files. Now he’s
saying that the US has the worst healthcare system in the world and how
terrific Australia’s is. There’s no doubt about that!” he stated.
"It
is also ironic that before he became a ‘political’ figure, he was an
advocate for Single Payer, Medicare for All,” the analyst revealed.
Hoenig
said "President Trump was successful in getting the House to repeal
parts of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. There were many
‘good’ aspects of it, if you consider having any type of corporate
health insurance to be good.”
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"People
with pre-existing conditions are now covered but then people are
heavily fined for not buying their product they don’t wish to. How it’ll
fare in the Senate is unknown, but it’s not likely to be a friendly
companion to the House version,” he said.
"What Trump likes about
Australia’s healthcare plan is that it is publicly funded, universal
coverage. It does have a private health insurance plan with it, as well.
What is so desperately needed in the US is to remove the health
insurance industry completely from our healthcare system,” he noted.
"Tens
of millions, even with ACA, are without coverage and Trump’s plans
guarantees even more. American bankruptcy due to healthcare bills has
not been alleviated with ACA and neither will the new Republican
version,” the activist said.
"As Trump is now known for his many
policy reversals -- US taxpayers will be paying for the border wall,
NATO is OK, Hillary will not be jailed -- one could only hope that he
has put healthcare under such a microscope that the majority opinion in
the US for real universal coverage, like Australia’s and many others,
will overwhelm Congress and force them to accept that as the only real
alternative, or lose their seats in 2018,” Hoenig concluded.