Yesterday afternoon, GOP Rep. Mo Brooksspoke with Jake Tapper about the AHCA’s provisions regarding pre-existing conditions: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGsIitxYOKc?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]
Transcript:
My understanding is that it will allow insurance companies to require people who have higher health care costs to contribute more to the insurance pool that helps offset all these costs, thereby reducing the costs to those people who lead good lives, they’re healthy, you know, they’ve done the things to keep their bodies healthy. And right now, those are the people who’ve done things the right way that are seeing their costs skyrocketing.
The backlash was pretty swift:
Everyone rich and poor, healthy and sick deserves to be able to get medical treatment if they need it. https://t.co/SLItdO5AtT
— SPLC (@splcenter) May 2, 2017
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GOP Congressman: People who lead good lives should pay less than those with pre-existing conditions https://t.co/fAm7B8YoVN pic.twitter.com/LU5EgJ494c
— Raw Story (@RawStory) May 2, 2017
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Republican says affordable insurance for sick people is unfair to "people who have done things the right way" https://t.co/jbYfucwANI pic.twitter.com/mfkxZV7XIe
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) May 2, 2017
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Republican congressman Mo Brooks says that sick people are to blame for their medical conditions https://t.co/LOqOxYYboK pic.twitter.com/XKSGvP9fC0
— Jezebel (@Jezebel) May 2, 2017
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Of course, those headlines left out the second part of Brooks’ remarks:
Now, in fairness, a lot of these people with pre-existing conditions, they have those conditions through no fault of their own. And I think our society under those circumstances needs to help. The challenge, though, is that it’s a tough balancing act, between the higher cost of these mandates which denies people coverage because they can’t afford the health insurance policies anymore on the one hand and having enough coverage to help those people who are truly in need. And it’s a very complicated question, and I’m sure over the years, there’ll be different permutations of it, both in the past and as we go forward.
In any event, one of the many people outraged over Brooks’ apparent callousness toward people with pre-existing conditions was former “Mythbusters” co-host Adam Savage:
Republican Congressman Says Sick People Are to Blame for Their Illnesses. My head is going to explode. https://t.co/HMU4qdcnvl
— Adam Savage (@donttrythis) May 2, 2017
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