Dear Editor:

Repeal Obamacare and replace it with a hastily drafted supposedly better and cheaper Trumpcare type plan without knowing if it's actually better and cheaper? That's apparently what we are being asked to accept -- that's like buying a pig in a poke!

It's been claimed that GOP healthcare will be much better and cheaper than Obamacare. Better and cheaper -- really? We would or should all endorse any healthcare plan if it's better than Obamacare. The fact is though that many Republicans are "politically invested" in repealing Obamacare no matter what.

At one point it was also claimed that the new GOP healthcare plan would "cover everyone," but according to a March 9 Brookings Institution report, the GOP plan will cause "15 million fewer people to have health insurance," adding that there could even be millions more uninsured. Trumpcare supporters are now preemptively bashing the Congressional Budget Office report due this week that is also expected to conclude fewer will be covered, despite President Trump’s promise of “insurance for everybody.” Of course -- bash news you don't like -- seems like a familiar pattern, doesn't it?

On March 12, Ryan, a chief architect of Trumpcare, admitted that under Trumpcare insurance premiums will go up even further, not down. Senator Angus King said, the GOP healthcare plan “would more than likely force Maine seniors and low-income folks to pay higher costs and ultimately would result in more people being uninsured than we have now.” Senator Susan Collins says "I want us to slow down to take more time to be sure we get this right," a position we should all applaud.

Apparently though, the strategy is to rush through Trumpcare as quickly as possible to beat the April congressional recess and avoid scrutiny before people better learn the downsides of Trumpcare. The GOP plan would have been raced through in only a month compared to the 15 months of thoughtful congressional examination of Obamacare.

For those still wanting to quickly repeal Obamacare before we know the final the details of the replacement Trumpcare plan and its ramifications -- I have a "pig in a poke" I'd like to sell you.

Jerry Topinka

Boothbay Harbor