The Christmas that GOP Grinches stole your healthcare
Dear TAT readers,
Well my friends, the holidays are upon us and we all look forward to the holiday cheer, time with family and friends as well as looking towards what lies ahead for the New Year. Well at least we were until the GOP Grinches, snuck out the backdoor before voting on saving the healthcare of up to 14 million Americans. Today, Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson adjourned the House of Representatives before voting on the very bill, that four republicans crossed the aisle to vote for in yesterday’s “discharge petition.” Then… three of them voted for the GOP’s alleged healthcare bill immediately afterwards, which does not include the ACA subsidies. This means that come January 1st, millions of Americans will see their premiums skyrocket, likely leaving them uninsured. The GOP representatives are the Grinches that stole Christmas for millions.
"The House on Wednesday cleared a Republican health care package, 216-211, that does not extend the expiring Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies. Four moderate Republicans who had earlier Wednesday bucked GOP leaders and signed a Democratic-backed discharge petition voted in favor of the health care package. Rep. Thomas Massie was the only Republican no vote. The measure now goes to the Senate, where it's unlikely to pass, meaning Congress is set to leave for the holiday recess as millions of Americans will see their health care premiums skyrocket." - House passes GOP health care bill that doesn't extend ACA subsidies - ABC News - By Lauren Peller, Jay O'Brien, and John Parkinson - December 17th, 2025
Unlike the perennial children’s Christmas classic, How the Grinch stole Christmas, there is no happy ending with a GOP that is fully committed to steer profits to the Healthcare oligarchs that contribute massive donations to their campaigns. One particularly villainous group is Unitedhealthcare, whose CEO was allegedly murdered by Luigi Mangione in 2024. Healthcare costs have been outpacing inflation for a few years now and things are getting worse. If Speaker Johnson and Senate majority leader Thune get their way, things will get far worse in January due the the Big Ugly Bill and GOP leadership maneuvering to kill off the ACA subsidies.
Allowing the ACA subsidies to expire, was the primary reason for the recent, longest ever government shutdown. Republicans refused to even consider maintaining affordable premiums, with the full knowledge that millions of our family and neighbors will likely lose their coverage or pay double and sometimes triple monthly premiums. Even if those who can afford the dramatically higher premiums make those payments, services from providers have consistently decreased, further enraging customers. For example, Unitedhealthcare dropped a million Medicare Advantage Plan customers just last month.
The GOP bill, H.R. 6703 passed yesterday is laughably called, Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act and in no way lowers healthcare costs to consumers.
The Republican bill will not receive any love from voters considering that the ACA subsidies are already popular with most Americans, especially in the wake of Trumpflation.
So last night, Trump took over evening TV programming to ask the American people to be patient waiting for inflation to drop. This address was largely a desperate attempt to take the pressure off of the GOP Congressmen being thrashed in their home districts over Trump’s and the GOP’s economic failures. Most Americans already struggle with their healthcare costs.
Of course, what GOP bill would be complete without more restrictions on abortion?
"Starting in 2027, federal payments, known as cost-sharing reduction payments, would aim to lower premiums for some low-income Americans. Health plans that provide abortion coverage would be excluded." - After failure in the Senate, House GOP has its own health care proposal - NPR - By Jude Joffe-Block - December 13th, 2025
Summary
As I wrote last in last Friday’s essay titled, The Republican Party is trying to kill us... again, Republicans have been trying to eliminate healthcare and our national social safety net since the Great Depression. Since the ACA/ Obamacare was passed in 2010, Republicans in congress have tried to repeal, limit, modify or limit it 70 times.
Since January 20th, Americans are being buried by the Trump/ GOP economy. A recent AP-NORC poll shows that “consumers aren’t having a very merry holiday season” due Trumpflation and are nervous about what to expect in the coming year, especially regarding healthcare premiums and access to healthcare.
Unavailability of healthcare, poor healthcare and limited access is considered a national security threat, which we found out painfully during the COVID-19 pandemic. The GOP doesn’t care. Considering that our new NSS/ National Security Strategy looks as if it were written by Putin and global oligarchs, it’s no surprise that the Republican Party could care less about the national security implications of their approach to American Healthcare.
Well my friends, this essay should be of great concern to most Americans trying to survive this most un-American administration. We all know by now that healthcare is a must and a lack of, can wipeout a middle class family’s future, with one serious illness. The GOP, based on nearly a hundred years of their behavior, doesn’t care. We cannot expect anything different from them. If we do not remove their power to harm us further, it will be painful to millions of Americans. Trump loves to have the electorate afraid of him, just like his idols, Putin and Hitler. This isn’t hyperbole either. Project 2025 is patterned on the Nazification of Germany by Hitler and the Nazi Party. Selective healthcare policies were very much a part of Germany Nazification.
Cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and being priced out of healthcare will have a terrible effect on our nation’s citizens with the least means. This clearly shows that for all of their boasting of being Christians, their actions are quite the opposite and more along the line of Christian Nationalists. Such behavior by a major American political party, undermines our national security, imperils our family and neighbors while also negatively impacting employers, already suffering labor shortages due to draconian ICE and CBP activities. Sooner or later, all of these factors will coalesce into an unmanageable crisis that impacts every one of us. It doesn’t require a degree in economics to understand this either. It’s plain old common-sense.
In closing, I wish to add an administrative note or two. As that Chanukah is ongoing and next week is Christmas, I’ll only be writing as time allows. Time with grandchildren for a few days, is the most welcome of priorities. Finally, regardless which of the holidays that you celebrate this time of year , I wish all of you the most joy possible. I’ll leave all of you with a holiday wish that old soldiers hold dear, Peace on Earth.
May the warmth of my hearth, reach all of yours.
Happy holidays,
Paul