'World's Greatest Healthcare Plan of 2017’ Is The Actual Title Of A New GOP Healthcare Bill

There’s a GOP healthcare proposal titled ‘World’s Greatest Healthcare Plan of 2017.’ Yes, seriously

Earlier this week, House Republicans revealed their plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act with a bill they’re calling the American Health Care Act. While Trump has tweeted about the bill, calling it “wonderful”, conservatives and liberals alike are already voicing some serious concerns.

But not to worry. In the event that the American Health Care Act doesn’t pass into law, Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) has a pretty ballsy plan B waiting in the wings. His bill, which was introduced March 1, is humbly titled, “World’s Greatest Healthcare Plan of 2017.” Yes, really.

To be clear, this isn’t a nickname, like how the Affordable Care Act became known as Obamacare. It’s the bill’s official title, as seen on Congress.gov. In fact, section one, subsection (a) of the bill is dedicated to making sure we all know that this bill is the greatest one there is. “(a) Short Title.—This Act may be cited as the “World’s Greatest Healthcare Plan of 2017”.

Sessions claims on his website,”H.R. 1275 The World’s Greatest Healthcare Plan isn’t full of onerous regulations, unnecessary mandates, or discriminatory policies.” Pretty sure that just makes a bill legally compliant and not the greatest in the world, but then again, I lack the confidence of a mediocre white male, so what do I know.

As exasperating as the title of Session’s bill may be, that’s nothing compared to some of the provisions that are in the proposed American Health Care Act, the bill that House Republicans are currently trying to push through and Trump has spoken out in support of.

Although current federal law prohibits Planned Parenthood from using federal funding for abortion services, the proposed American Health Care Act would repeal all federal funding for Planned Parenthood. As Planned Parenthood has explained over and over again, defunding them would be devastating for people who use Planned Parenthood for preventative care, like Pap smears and annual checkups.

While the proposed American Healthcare Act would allow children to stay on their parents’ plan until age 26 and keep in place current coverage protections for people with pre-existing conditions, it would allow insurance companies to raise premium prices if an individual ever has a lapse in coverage.

As currently written, the proposed American Healthcare Act would restructure the Medicaid program so each state would receive a set sum of money from the federal government every year. Medicaid experts warn that this change could result in millions of people losing the insurance access they currently have under the Affordable Care Act.

The American Healthcare Act, the World’s Greatest Healthcare Plan of 2017 or any of the other healthcare bills that are currently in play still need to pass both the House and the Senate before going to the Oval Office for signature. But if these bills are any indication of what the future of health insurance in America will look like, whatever he ends up signing certainly won’t be great.