Trump correct on failings of US healthcare: Analyst

The United States has the worst healthcare system in the world and President Donald Trump promises to make it even worse than it is, according to Myles Hoenig, an American political analyst and activist. 

Hoenig, a former Green Party candidate for Congress, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Saturday, a day after Trump tweeted that “everybody” has better healthcare than the US.

In the most contentious congressional vote of Trump's presidency on Thursday, lawmakers voted 217 to 213 to pass the bill, the American Health Care Act, and to dismantle Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

“Of course the Australians have better healthcare than we do -- everybody does. Obamacare is dead! But our healthcare will soon be great,” Trump tweeted on Friday.

“Every once in a while the Idiot-in-Chief of the US says something right. He’s called CNN fake news, which is correct, only that his reasons were not supported by any facts. They are basically the mouthpiece of the Democratic Party, along with the Pentagon and State Department and thus present their versions of the news,” Hoenig said.    

“During the campaign he constantly called Hillary corrupt which proved correct with the release of the Podesta files. Now he’s saying that the US has the worst healthcare system in the world and how terrific Australia’s is.  There’s no doubt about that!” he stated.  

“It is also ironic that before he became a ‘political’ figure, he was an advocate for Single Payer, Medicare for All,” the analyst revealed.

Hoenig said “President Trump was successful in getting the House to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare. There were many ‘good’ aspects of it, if you consider having any type of corporate health insurance to be good.”

Read More:

• US Senate puts Obamacare repeal in slow lane 
• 'Everybody' has better healthcare than US

“People with pre-existing conditions are now covered but then people are heavily fined for not buying their product they don’t wish to. How it’ll fare in the Senate is unknown, but it’s not likely to be a friendly companion to the House version,” he said.

“What Trump likes about Australia’s healthcare plan is that it is publicly funded, universal coverage. It does have a private health insurance plan with it, as well. What is so desperately needed in the US is to remove the health insurance industry completely from our healthcare system,” he noted.

“Tens of millions, even with ACA, are without coverage and Trump’s plans guarantees even more. American bankruptcy due to healthcare bills has not been alleviated with ACA and neither will the new Republican version,” the activist said.

“As Trump is now known for his many policy reversals -- US taxpayers will be paying for the border wall, NATO is OK, Hillary will not be jailed -- one could only hope that he has put healthcare under such a microscope that the majority opinion in the US for real universal coverage, like Australia’s and many others, will overwhelm Congress and force them to accept that as the only real alternative, or lose their seats in 2018,” Hoenig concluded. 

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