Bad Governance and Public Policy: The AHCA

Well, the American Health Care Act lived close to one day before being diplomatically shelved by leading Republicans in the Senate so they can write their own version. While the Senate version will be written with more thought and probably more pragmatic compassion than the House version, they will probably still come up with a bill that hurts more than helps so their base (uneducated poor and middle-class individuals who think Medicare  government program and rich conservative elites who have their first dollar framed in their bedroom) will be happy. This is a recipe for bad governance and public policy. Not only is it bad because hardly anyone read it before voting on it, (unfortunately, this attention to detail is more common than you think) and time was not allowed for adequate hearings and for amendments to be offered (in contrast to Obamacare which took over a year and had several hearings and discussions followed by amendments offered by both parties), it moves the country backward. The people that support this program need to know that the good ole days are not returning and in some cases, the times were not as good as some people recollect. We need to move forward and people having access to affordable health insurance is a way to do that. The legislation passed yesterday does not do that.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/05/us/politics/house-democrats-health-repeal-republicans.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/04/health/health-care-bill-criticisms.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news