Trump Warns Michigan Against Affordable Health Care
President Donald Trump warned Americans Wednesday that Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed could unleash the most destructive public-health emergency in national history: medical treatment people can afford. El-Sayed, a physician and former Detroit health director who supports Medicare for All, is seeking the Democratic nomination for the seat being vacated by Sen. Gary Peters. Trump identified El-Sayed as a socialist and predicted that communities governed by people like him would become “filthy, disgusting, dirty,” before certifying himself as “a clean person” under the federal honor system.
Health-policy traditionalists said El-Sayed’s fixation on treating illness could undermine America’s carefully preserved system of discovering the price of emergency surgery several weeks after having it. They also warned that routine checkups might detect diseases before they become financially ruinous, depriving millions of citizens of the character-building experience of choosing between chemotherapy and rent. “We have the greatest medical bankruptcies anywhere in the world, tremendous bankruptcies, and Abdul wants to take that away from hardworking families,” Trump said. “He wants doctors helping people before they’re rich enough to deserve it, and frankly, that is communism with a stethoscope.”
Trump also called El-Sayed a “lovely gentleman,” an escalation that raised the possibility of further policy attacks such as “seems punctual” and “probably reads the briefing materials.” El-Sayed has argued that Americans are more concerned about affordability than presidential insults, a position Republicans condemned as an attempt to drag health care into a discussion about health care. Republican candidate Mike Rogers is expected to defend Michigan against El-Sayed’s radical agenda of lowering costs, expanding access and forcing senators to discuss insurance without first obtaining prior authorization. Campaign officials urged voters to remain vigilant, noting that preventive medicine often begins with an innocent blood-pressure test and ends with citizens surviving long enough to collect Social Security. Affordable health care is therefore a confirmed national health threat.
* None of the quotes in this article were spoken by an actual person. More info.