GOP No Care would harm 7 million veterans

Alternet = Among the great many negatives in the Republican plan to repeal Obamacare, it seems that one of their hastily-added “improvements” to the bill could wind up making 7 million military veterans ineligible for health care tax credits... The snafu was discovered by Chris Jacobs, the Former Policy Advisor for the House Republican Conference under Chairman Mike Pence. Here was what Jacobs discovered:

The most recent estimates suggest about 9.1 million individuals are enrolled in VA health programs. However, a 2014 Congressional Budget Office score of veterans’ choice legislation concluded that about 8 million [veterans] qualify to enroll in VA’s health system but have not enrolled. Subtracting for VA enrollment gains since that CBO score leaves approximately seven million veterans eligible for, but not enrolled in, VA health programs, and thus potentially affected by the House’s ‘technical’ change.

Just when you thought these disingenuous, greedy lawmakers couldn’t possibly get any more evil, they go full-blown Lex Luthor. Here was the very angry response from Will Fischer, Iraq War Veteran and Director of Government Outreach for VoteVets:

What started as a bad bill has now turned into a grotesque Frankenstein monster, a crude and rushed patchwork of mini-bills that hurt people who can least afford it. Now, we find out that Trumpcare will strip tax credits from potentially millions of veterans, and flood the VA with new patients at a time the VA is understaffed to handle a rush, thanks to the Donald Trump’s hiring freeze.Since the freeze went into effect, we’ve already seen wait times lengthen; the claims backlog that President Obama had virtually eliminated, starting to grow again. This will only cause things to get worse. We cannot put it more simply than this: Trumpcare will punish veterans.