Sean Spicer Can't and Won't Tell the Truth about the GOP Healthcare Proposal

At today's White House Press Briefing, Sean Spicer answered a question about how many people would be covered under the Republican healthcare plan with this ridiculous dodge:

.@PressSec: "How many people are going to be covered?" isn't right question, but "how many people are going to get the care they need?" pic.twitter.com/xJMcJN4TYH

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) March 8, 2017

As I mentioned yesterday, and I can't overstate this, there's a difference between having a card and having care. Being told you have coverage, and not being able to use it, is no good. And that's the thing that I think is really important. It's, it's— When we get asked the question so often "How many people are going to be covered?" it's—that's not the question that should be asked. "How many people are going to get the care they need?" Having coverage with a high deductible, and, in some cases—or not having a plan that allows you to get the coverage you need, or afford it, isn't real coverage. It's a card. And I think that's the big difference in the approach that we're taking here.

Sure. Yes. The issue is healthcare access. But how many people are covered is a rather crucial part of the access question.

So why won't Spicer answer it?

Because he can't. Not honestly, anyway. Because, as Abby Goodnough and Reed Abelson report at the New York Times: Millions Risk Losing Health Insurance in Republican Plan, Analysts Say.

Millions of people who get private health coverage through the Affordable Care Act would be at risk of losing it under the replacement legislation proposed by House Republicans, analysts said Tuesday, with Americans in their 50s and 60s especially likely to find coverage unaffordable.

Starting in 2020, the plan would do away with the current system of providing premium subsidies based on people's income and the cost of insurance where they live. Instead, it would provide tax credits of $2,000 to $4,000 per year based on their age.

But the credits would not cover nearly as much of the cost of premiums as the current subsidies do, at least for the type of comprehensive coverage that the Affordable Care Act requires, analysts said. For many people, that could mean the difference between keeping coverage under the new system and having to give it up.

...The Congressional Budget Office has yet to release its official estimates of how many people would lose coverage under the proposal, but a report from Standard & Poor's estimated that two million to four million people would drop out of the individual insurance market, largely because people in their 50s and early 60s — those too young to qualify for Medicare — would face higher costs. Other analysts, including those at the left-leaning Brookings Institution, have estimated larger coverage losses.

That is simply not something Spicer is willing to admit. So he spins fairy tales about better access, to deflect attention from how devastating this proposal really is.