Donald Trump confronted a series of self-imposed debacles last week, but among the most dramatic was his decision to promote a weird image that depicted him as Jesus. Pressed for some kind of explanation, the president claimed that the image showed him “as a doctor.” He added, “It’s supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better. And I do make people better, make people a lot better.”
Given the relevant details, the defense was laughable, but it did get me thinking: Whatever happened to the White House’s health care plan, which would ostensibly “make people better” and which generated a handful of underwhelming headlines for about half a day in January?
Evidently, he hasn’t yet forgotten about it.
Speaking Friday at a Turning Point USA event, the president boasted: “We will pass the great health care plan. We call it ‘the great health care plan’ to stop all payments to big insurance companies.” He added that, under his vision, the federal government would give consumers some kind of stipend, “and you go out and buy your own health care.”
For good measure, Trump went on to assure his conservative audience, “We’re going to get it done one way or the other.”
He really isn’t.
The most glaring problem with the president’s rhetoric is the inconvenient fact that he doesn’t actually have a health care plan. Whether Trump fully appreciates this or not, what he unveiled was a pitiful joke that was quite a bit shorter than the length of the blog post you’re reading right now.
And if your health care plan is shorter than a blog post, you don’t actually have a health care plan.
As for the idea that officials “will pass” the plan, it’s important to emphasize that there is nothing to pass. There was no bill when the vague hodgepodge of conservative ideas was unveiled. And three months later, there’s still no bill. The plan, for all intents and purposes, does not exist.
A Washington Post report noted in January, “The administration released no legislative text nor timeline for related congressional action. … Asked how the proposal would advance in Congress, administration officials said it was a ‘broad architecture’ intended to guide lawmakers on next steps.”
“Broad architecture” was a nice euphemism for “we couldn’t actually come up with anything more than vague goals.”
As Trump’s comments on Friday indicated, at the heart of the proposal was a demand for one significant change: The administration wants federal funds that are currently going to insurance companies to go instead to consumers — who in turn would give the money to insurance companies.
Why would that be better than the status quo? I honestly have no idea, and neither the president nor anyone on his team has made any effort to answer these questions that have lingered for months.
Finally, there was the president’s assurance: “We’re going to get it done one way or the other.” If he could explain what “it” referred to, and how he intends to advance an imaginary blueprint, that would be a big step in a constructive direction.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
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