Anyone who saw Samantha Bee’s devastating takedown of Maine’s Republican Governor Paul LePage last fall would probably never turn to him as an expert on anything other than racism, xenophobia and hate mongering. But on Fox News, he’s a health insurance expert – because he’s touting a dubious fix to make Trumpcare 2.0 palatable.
In Bee’s profile of Page (video below), he describes himself as “Donald Trump before Trump became popular.” That may be the only credible thing he ever said. Want a taste? He’s a guy who wants to bring back the guillotine and have public executions. “We could even have which hole it falls in,” he added. He’s also rather corrupt.
Yes, that guy is the guy Fox News host Neil Cavuto trotted out today as a credible voice to tout Maine’s health insurance as a reason to trust Trumpcare’s high-risk pools. Not surprisingly, Cavuto mentioned none of Page’s disturbing background.
LEPAGE: Have the high risk pool. It’s very important, it worked in Maine. We lowered premiums by 69% in the individual market.
[…]
A high risk pool simply means that people go out, they register for insurance and then we know whether or not they have a pre-existing condition, and they go in the back room and they get their insurance and move on.
[…]
If you go to the high risk pool and let that work out like it did in Maine, I think everybody’s going to be surprisingly satisfied with what’s happening. Premiums will go down, more people will get insured, and the system works.
Well, not really. TPM has a detailed explanation about the Maine plan and why it’s not the success story Republicans like to tout. One big reason? It’s propped up by the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare, which Republicans hope to repeal. There’s also this:
Like Maine’s program, the GOP plan in its current draft would allow states to offer cheaper insurance plans that cover fewer health care services. Like Maine’s program, it is projected to significantly increase costs for older, sicker Americans who do not yet qualify for Medicare. But unlike PL90 in Maine, with its monthly fees structure, it includes no ongoing funding to bring down costs for people in the high-risk pool.
Yet Cavuto mentioned none of this important and relevant information to the “We report, you decide” network’s viewers.
Watch Full Frontal hilariously destroy LePage below. Then watch Fox erase his history below, from the May 2, 2017 Your World.