In a new interview, the incoming U.S. president with a widely reported history of making and breaking promises randomly vowed to offer "insurance for everybody" in his alleged Affordable Care Act replacement plan. Speaking with the Washington Post Saturday, Trump refused to offer any details on his plan but presented the public with what may turn out to be yet another batch of snake oil.
"We're going to have insurance for everybody," Trump claimed without offering specifics. "There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can't pay for it, you don't get it. That's not going to happen with us." Additionally, Trump claimed, those covered under the alleged replacement plan "can expect to have great healthcare" that's "much less expensive and much better."
Trump is not, however, entertaining the idea of a single-payer strategy. "I don't want single-payer," Trump claimed. "What I do want is to be able to take care of people." For those not in the know about the single-payer system favored by Canada and others, here's a great explainer from NPR:
"A single payer refers to a system in which one entity (usually the government) pays all the medical bills for a specific population. And usually (though, again, not always) that entity sets the prices for medical procedures. A single-payer system is not the same thing as socialized medicine. In a truly socialized medicine system, the government not only pays the bills but also owns the health care facilities and employs the professionals who work there."
Republicans have quickly started taking initial steps towards repealing the Affordable Care Act, despite having not revealed a replacement plan or offered any definitive comfort to those who could potentially lose coverage entirely.
But before you go getting stoked, thinking maybe Trump has had some change of heart about the lives of everyday Americans, remember this: This is the same guy who promised a highly controversial Muslim ban before later changing his wording to "vetting." This is also the same guy who falsely declared President Barack Obama "the founder of ISIS." Furthermore, this is the same guy who tweeted that climate change was a Chinese hoax before later saying on live TV that he never tweeted such a thing.
And the list goes on.
