'You violate that oath': GOP senator-physician blasted for supporting Trump insurance plan
U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D., (R-LA), took heat over the weekend after signaling his support for a Donald Trump plan some experts say could "kill a whole lot of people."
Trump over the weekend was met with ridicule after he unleashed a major plan that he said will provide a multibillion dollar payout directly to Americans as an alternative to funding government health care subsidies that have divided lawmakers amid the ongoing government shutdown.
“I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies in order to save the bad Healthcare provided by ObamaCare, BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE, and have money left over,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
Cassidy, a medical doctor, shared Trump's quote on X and added, "I agree with President Trump! We should give the money directly to the patients."
That led to outrage from observers.
Political scientist Norman Ornstein responded to the comment from Cassidy, saying, "First, do no harm. You violate that oath every single day. You’re opening up the door to sham plans that will not cover anybody, and reinstate the pre-existing conditions scam. You used to be a good and honest senator."
"What happened?" Ornstein asked.
Union communications official Collin Reischman chimed in, "'We should end subsidies for insurance by taking that exact same amount of money and giving it directly to people to buy insurance' yes masterfully done sir, why didn’t we think of that."
Virginia city councilman R. Kirk McPike said, "Replacing insurance with direct cash transfers to people would mean no one but the very rich could ever receive treatment for a chronic condition like heart disease or diabetes or an expensive disease like cancer."
Columnist Stephanie Grace also weighed in:
"Two things here. 1) Donald Trump knows nothing about the health care industry’s economics. 2) Bill Cassidy does and retweeted this anyway."
Personal injury attorney James Abrenio also added, "I'm convinced Trump has no clue how health insurance works but just hates that Obama did something could never come close to accomplishing."
Healthcare expert Heath Veuleman asked the senator, "Will physicians be able to offer direct care benefits unbridled by Stark and Antikickback? Will physicians be able to compete with physician-led enterprises? Any ideas on the physician-owned hospital moratorium? Or is all of this just a ploy to divert more taxpayer and consumer spending to hospitals and health systems? Are we going to restore the physician-patient relationship?"