Healthcare is set to change dramatically under President Donald Trump. While he couldn’t get the Affordable Care Act repealed or replaced, he found a way to undermine it instead. Hello, Trumpcare.
On Oct. 12, the president issued an executive order to help promote “healthcare choice and competition.” In reality, this order will lead to disastrous impacts on communities of color and low-income families already overburdened by the healthcare system, and by pollution.
Environmentalists should be appalled by it.
The people of Flint, Michigan, are a prime example of those who stand to lose the most. Without access to healthcare, those families are going to have a hard time recovering as they grapple with the public health crisis resulting from drinking lead-contaminated water for years. Or how about people in Houston still dealing with health impacts from Hurricane Harvey’s dirty floodwaters? Or the power plants that spewed toxins into their air long before Harvey?
Polluted environments have everything to do with healthcare. A person’s health depends on a healthy environment. When their air or drinking water harms them, they’re gonna need a doctor.
And we all know how those doctor’s bills look. They’re bound to look worse if the Trump administration peels back protections under this proposed healthcare system.
