The Republican Party's health care bill has a "devastating detail" hidden inside of it, according to a Nobel Prize winner.
Award-winning economist Paul Krugman has warned the current plan the GOP is trying to push through the House will leave Americans much worse off than they are under the current health care plan. Writing in his Substack, Krugman suggested the public should be wary of sweeping changes made by future Republican health care plans.
He wrote, "So Trump says that he’ll replace the current system, in which people buy their own health insurance with the aid of government subsidies, with a system in which the government gives people money they can use to buy their own health insurance. How is that different?"
The crucial difference is in what has not been said about the bill, with Krugman arguing Republicans will make health care more expensive for the average person through "stingier" politics.
Krugman explained, "In fact, it isn’t different except for one devastating detail: Republicans in Congress will never approve subsidies adequate to make health insurance affordable."
"Because the Republican plan would be far stingier than the one currently in place, millions of people will be forced to drop their insurance. And as I said, because it’s the younger and relatively more healthy that will drop their coverage, the pool of those who keep their coverage will be older and sicker."
"And you know what happens next – premiums go up even further. No wonder that four Republican congressmen in purple districts defied Mike Johnson and voted to extend the Obamacare subsidies."
Krugman would go on to suggest the health care problems, along with the cost of living crisis and recent national address, highlight how Trump does not know how to govern coherently.
The Nobel Prize winner wrote, "But leaving the short-run politics aside, the speech revealed something important: Namely, Trump has no idea how to govern. Faced with adversity, he’s unable to propose policies to improve the situation. All he can do is continue to gaslight the public and claim that everything is great, while smearing his opponents."
"That was a short speech, but it presages a very long next three years for ordinary Americans. And for congressional Republicans, it presages a very ugly November 2026."