During CNN's town hall with HHS Secretary Tom Price, a cancer survivor confronted him with a simple enough question.
"Why do you want to take away my Medicaid expansion," he asked. He explained that having Medicaid had saved his life and continues to because it covers treatments he can't otherwise afford on $11.66 per hour.
Price's answer was just stunningly evil. After explaining that he was a doctor and had treated many, many cancer patients, he launched his litany of lies. While I'm sure orthopedic surgeons may indeed have cancer patients in the course their practices, I'm skeptical of the idea that he "treated many, many of them."
But the next part. Whoa.
“The fact of the matter is we don't. We don't want to take care away from anybody," Price said with a straight face. "What we want to make certain, though, is that every single American has access to the kind of coverage and care that they want for themselves,”
He went on to yammer about the guy having refundable tax credits -- YIPPEE -- and being able to choose his own kind of care.
Let's just stop for a minute. At $11.66 per hour, assuming a 40-hour work week, Mr. Kline would be making just over $24,000 per year. That's probably a high estimate, but we'll go with it for now.
After Social Security and Medicare withholding, that amount comes down to around $22,000. He's supposed to pay his rent, food, utilities, transportation and an insurance premium, which under Trumpcare, will give him AT MOST, a $4,000 tax credit on coverage likely to cost him between $12,000 and $15,000 per year to cover his cancer treatment and prescription costs.
Seriously? That's no answer to the question. The right answer to this man's question is a simple YES, we do want to take your Medicaid expansion away and we hope you die before you're eligible for Medicare.
Price just lied, and lied some more to that man. Fortunately, I don't think he was buying it.
