*Election – Page 20 – * Failed Pols

Donald Trump is working to eliminate any scenario, including mail-in voting, that he believes would prevent his re-election. Not only is he trying to stop voting by mail, he is threatening to withhold already-approved federal funds to two states who have recently authorized mail-in voting.

In an effort to make voting as accessible (and safe) as possible during the COVID-19 pandemic, Nevada and Michigan, both states with Democratic governors, have recently decided to mail absentee ballot applications to all of their registered voters.

On Tuesday, Trump went on the attack. “Breaking: Michigan sends absentee ballots to 7.7 million people ahead of Primaries and the General Election,” Trump tweeted. “This was done illegally and without authorization by a rogue Secretary of State. I will ask to hold up funding to Michigan if they want to go down this Voter Fraud path!”

Later in the day, after it was pointed out that Michigan was sending absentee ballot applications, not ballots, Trump corrected “absentee ballots” to say “absentee ballot applications.”

Even if tweeting “ballot” instead of “ballot application” was an honest mistake, Trump still did not correct the false claim that allowing mail-in voting was illegal, and he didn’t remove the threat to hold up funds to Michigan if they followed through with the plan.

On the same day, Trump repeated the terms, “illegal” and “voter fraud,” along with his threat to hold up funds, when he aimed a tweet attack at Nevada: “State of Nevada ‘thinks’ that they can send out illegal vote by mail ballots, creating a great Voter Fraud scenario for the State and the U.S. They can’t! If they do, ‘I think’ I can hold up funds to the State. Sorry, but you must not cheat in elections.”

Voting by mail is not illegal, but we know what is: Threatening state leaders with the holding back of funds for their state. (Threatening to withhold funds from a government leader…Does this sound at all familiar?)

But, what funds, exactly? States are paying for any changes to elections through coronavirus relief measures that Trump has already signed into law.

It’s interesting that Trump is adamantly opposing Michigan’s and Nevada’s mail-in voting initiatives for all voters when five other states (Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Washington) have been voting by mail for years. Trump is also not threatening Republican-run states such as West Virginia, that have approved mailing absentee ballot applications to all of its registered voters during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When we realize how focused Trump is on stopping these particular two states from voting by mail, it removes all doubt about his main intent: to suppress voters.

Trump has continually insisted that mail-in voting increases the likelihood of voter fraud, and that if more voters voted, Democrats would win. (What he’s saying is that in a fair election, where a Republican is unsuccessful at preventing groups of people from voting, more Democrats will have a chance to vote.)

Contradictory to Trump’s belief that mail-in voting helps Democrats to win, data shows that this is not true. It’s also been shown that voter fraud, particularly by mail, is rare.

“There are still Republicans elected in many of the areas that have voting by mail,” says Thad Kousser, chairman of the Political Science department at the University of California, San Diego. “Democrats and Republicans alike appreciate this option.”

Trump says he wants to stop mail-in voting to prevent voter fraud, but he is also clearing the way to cry “voter fraud,” and for his base to start parroting him, should mail-in voting result in his losing re-election. This is Trump’s warm-up to contesting the election, should he be taken down.

If Trump can’t stop mail-in voting, he has another trick up his sleeve: vaporizing the U.S. Postal Service. As America focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump, who has long wanted to make “major changes” to the U.S.P.S., has rather quietly appointed a new postmaster general. Businessman Louis LeJoy, a trump ally and a top donor to the Republican National Committee, will join the other Trump cronies appointed to high government posts.

With LeJoy in command at the U.S. Postal Service, Donald Trump will have more control and influence over the independent agency. If the Postal Service continues to function up to the time of the 2020 presidential election, will anyone be surprised if large bundles of mail-in votes mysteriously begin to disappear?

Trump threatens to withhold funds from Michigan over mail-in voting
| Reuters [2020-0520]

Trump: We Don’t Want Michigan to Do Mail-In Ballots, Citing Voter Fraud | Bloomberg [2020-05-21]

Last year, I decided to leave my soul-killing corporate job that I had been staying in solely for the health insurance benefits, to go out on my own as a consultant. I wasn’t downsized or let go. It was fully my choice to leave.

Some of my colleagues called me “brave.” Why? Not because I was leaving a “permanent” salary to go out on my own to a more precarious situation, although that is definitely something to be concerned about. It was all about the health insurance. I was electing to give up a job where my very good (and very expensive) health insurance was generously subsidized by my employer. Yes, some of my colleagues called me “brave,” but I’ll admit that at least one or two others called me “insane.”

I decided to take the COBRA option, at least through the end of the year, while I shopped around for an alternative. At $1600 a month, COBRA was a drain on my finances, but since I have a daughter with a chronic illness, maintaining good health care coverage is important to me.

I have to acknowledge now that maybe my co-workers weren’t entirely wrong about my “bravery,” although it may have been naivete disguised as bravery. I thought I’d have no trouble finding a good and affordable insurance plan on my state’s Health Connector, one of the statewide insurance clearinghouses set up under Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA, or “Obamacare”). Several years ago, I had been able to purchase a nice plan this way when I needed to.

I found, though, that the previous variety of plans and providers was no longer available on the Health Connector. Those that were left were pricey, had high deductibles, and, unless I was willing to pay the amount I had been paying under COBRA, had numerous restrictions.

I ended up purchasing a plan that I’m not entirely happy with, because the premium was the maximum I could comfortably afford each month.

This experience was an acute reminder that in the United States, the reason many people stay in unsatisfying, toxic, or underpaying jobs is that it’s the only way they have access to health insurance. And not all insurance plans are equal in the coverage they provide, the restrictions they have, or the portion of the premium that employees must pay. Even for those who have employer-subsidized health insurance, many will still be at risk of losing everything, should they or a family member have a serious, long, or expensive illness.

We’re told that hospitals will often “work with you” to pay medical bills. Several years ago, I worked in a hospital financial services office. Our patients had to prove that they were practically destitute and had exhausted all other resources before we would “work with them.” Many impoverished people, not to mention those who aren’t destitute but who are still struggling, fall through the cracks.

No one should have to exhaust all of their resources for the sake of their healthcare. No one’s life should be turned upside-down because of healthcare expenses.

It’s no wonder that in a recent Gallup poll (along with numerous other polls), healthcare was the top issue for voters, with 35 percent saying it was extremely important, and 81 percent saying it was “extremely to very important.”

Whether one has insurance through an employer, through a state Health Connector, or through a broker, the cost of treatment and medications (and often, the premium itself) is prohibitive. For those without access to affordable insurance, the cost is impossible. More and more Americans are coming to realize that there but for the grace of God or their employer, go they.

Despite the dearth of great health care options on my state’s Health Connector, I am a staunch supporter of the ACA. For all insurance consumers, not just those using “Obamacare,” it has given us benefits that we have now come to take for granted. It requires that annual checkups be fully covered; prevents insurers from denying us coverage if we have a pre-existing condition (which is important for my family — most families, if we’re honest); provides for a number of previously not well-covered services including those for addiction and mental health care; and requires health insurers to cover prenatal care, among many other benefits that previously, insurers could wiggle out of covering.

Our current president wants to take all of that away. Not because he wants to replace it with a plan that will better serve Americans. Certainly not because he wants more Americans to have access to decent healthcare. He wants to take it away simply because the ACA was Obama’s idea (and was shepherded by Trump’s current rival, Joe Biden). Trump wants to obliterate all things Obama — and we know how Trump feels about Joe Biden, as well.

There is much about the ACA that needs improvement. But it is an important first set of steps toward creating a healthcare system that works for the majority of people, and that could eventually work for all of us. Its guidelines are the best we’ve ever had as far as patient protections, and it’s the best we could hope to have under Donald Trump.

Our health is important, and our healthcare is important. Access to healthcare, however, should not be the force that drives so many of the other major decisions we make about our lives — where we work, how long we stay in an unbearable work situation, how many jobs we have to work, whether we can afford to go to the doctor, and, for many, which other bills to hold off paying in order to pay a medical bill, or even whether to declare bankruptcy.

As more people have experienced or witnessed firsthand what it’s like to have to make life-impacting sacrifices solely for the sake of their healthcare coverage (or because of non-coverage), more and more Americans are coming together on the position that healthcare is a right, not a privilege.

As of Thursday, March 5, the Democratic race for the presidential nominee has been whittled down to two men and one woman. Voters will place their faith in one of these candidates to heal the condition of healthcare in the U.S. Each has a different approach, but Democrat voters have high hopes that one of them will free us from the power that the private health insurance industry has to destroy our lives.

Sanders: The current healthcare system is ‘pathetic’ | CNN [2020-03-02]

Wall Street Focuses on Health Care in Election | Bloomberg Politics
[2020-03-03]

Category: *Election

Editorial: Mail-in Voting: Snow, Rain, Heat, and Donald Trump

Editorial: Health Insurance Companies Shouldn’t Have the Power to Destroy Lives