I don't get this

radilcalnan
100% with you there. Having relatives born and bred in the U.S I can speak for their experiences.
Remoaning Brits who don't appreciate our NHS need a dose of Obama Care.

Well said maryeliza54 not many show that 'old-fashioned' attribute so easily anymore, grace and dignity.

sometimes I think he just hates Obama because he's black - really I do. And intelligent, good looking who has an amazing wife and together they are bringing up two young women who show Trumps children up for the shallow self servers they are ( learned from DT of course).

I say that all the time when I hear stories about the US system.

Trump has made it a personal mission to absolutely clean the slate of all things Obama, regardless of its worth. as whitewave said. All making valid points but why is he fixated with Obama? Surely Trump needs to look at what his country needs at the present time instead of spending the country's money to have committee after committee, meeting after meeting, hour after hour fixated with reversing all Obama did to try and help those less fortunate, surely? He just continually looks like a ruce man obsessed with his predecessor.

IMO Trumps behaviour is either knowingly or not pandering to the worst form of racism in undoing all of Obama’s work, and his recent remarks.

As ww says upthread, Trumps changes are nothing to do with the cost of providing contraception and everything to do with pandering to the conservative ( hypocritical) right who fund him and share his complete and utter contempt for women. The health insurance schemes apparently use the word 'preventative' care and that includes birth control. By taking birth control out, it clearly discriminates against women ( for an activity which clearly includes men) and so the ACLU are going to challenge it in the courts. As for Obama, one if the reasons he didn't achieve as much as he wanted ( although he did a great deal) was that the Republicans stood in his way over and over again. Never has a President been so disrespected from the birther movement onwards ( and that was initially supported by DT). The racism that he and MO suffered was outrageous and it says much about them both that they behaved with such grace and dignity throughout.

Another 'moral' person who insists on do what I say and not do what I do. It's amazing how some people want to impose a moral code on others that they are incapable of living by themselves.

Thanks Rhinestone for your letter from America. It sounds every bit as bad as we fear it is. Good luck and keep fighting for truth, justice and the (correct) American way!

Oh the birth control thing... employers can decide if they want their employees to have birth control. I know someone whose company founder is extremely religious. He will not let birth control be part of his insurance plan for his company . Yet this “ moral” person has been having an affair with a woman from his business.

Be thankful for what we have!! The NHS! I wish people would stop abusing it however!! I know people (my generation, baby boomers mainly) who get many over the counter drugs on prescription because they don't want to pay for it. However, the NHS are now trying to do something about it! Hoorah!

rhinstone thank you for your post, albeit sad and unsettling.

RadicalnanI live in the states and T is a very dirty word over here. 3 million did NOT vote for him. He is alienating us from everyone with his mouth. He criticized the mayor of Puerto Rico( our territory) because she was begging for help for her country after the hurricane. He IS someone to be hysterical over. I could write volumes about how he has divided the country. His latest with his party is that tut will be illegal to have an abortion after twenty weeks. Next comes no abortion. Our healthcare under Obama allowed everyone to be covered. It’s not perfect and could use improvement but it’s a start. Obama did more than be cool as you say. He took us out of a very very bad recession/ depression. He saved the auto industry, got Iran to stop its nuclear program and got rid of Bib Laden, got us in the Paris accord about climate change, protected children who were brought here when young from being deported, allowed same sex marriage to happen, I could go on and on.
Trump is a divider not a uniter. His tweets about people are disgusting not presidential. He finds every opportunity to talk about himself. Would you like a leader to be a bully? When the neo nazis were marching in Charlottesville he said there were good people on both sides meaning good nazis and good anti nazis. Really a good Nazi? He made fun of a handicapped person during the campaign, said you could grab women by their private parts and they would let you. He won because of our electoral college not the popular vote.
I have never seen so many people so mad angry and upset. After this last incident in Las Vegas he said it’s not the time to talk about gun control. Oh I guess the 59 people who died meant nothing? And the shooter who went into a school and shot kids was okay too. I’m disgusted and disappointed in my fellow man and for the first time ever think of moving to another country.

"a womans right to murder" I despair of some women.I really do,that attitude will take us back to the days of illegal botched abortions and deaths .As for JRM he MAY have "principles" but very strange ones they are that let him profit from the sales of pills that are used for abortion in another country...of course as he said....its not ideal but sometimes life is like that !! I dont LIKE abortion but it is necessary to be able to have one sometimes ...for reasons you or I may not agree with, thats why TWO doctors have to sign it off.Its never just asked for and given .If contraception isn't paid for by insurance there will without doubt be many more unplanned babies...and who in that great land of the free!!!Will say they'll help to pay for the lives that result or the lives ruined by an unplanned child .Maybe Radical will stump up as she's so anti women or anti anything that helps them

It isn’t about the cost but everything about the attitude towards women and Obama -it is all of a piece with Trumps mysoginy and reactionary politics.

Contraception is free on the NHS. $4 a month doesn't sound much but what if you're already struggling financially.

As women are the people who take the contraceptive pill it seems that this is yet another way of undermining a woman's right to choose. Again something that will appeal to the Christian right.

I don't think it will make a significant difference to most people. Many insurance companies have a co-pay element to prescriptions and the pill is often cheaper to buy without insurance. Of course, it depends on your State and your insurance, but buying all medication without your insurance is quite often a news item in the US.
It's similar to people being able to buy prescription items for less than £8.60 here. Walmart prices start at $4/month. It's hardly a prohibitive cost - in line with an NHS prescription charge.

It's another way of making sure the Christian right continue to help fund him.

"We live in a democracy.... all sorts of people and viewpoints" - well said radicalnan.
I think you're unfair about Obama though - didn't he improve his golf handicap?

radicalnan
I couldn't agree more. Well said.

Just noticed 'woman's right to murder' - how absolutely disgusting, uninformed and hysterical is that?

you can't compare private health care cover here with employer health benefits in the USA which is the main way that many Americans get health cover at all. The change that Trump is bringing in is absolutely nothing at all to do with cost - it is pure ideology. I think it's also extremely bad form to accuse people who don't agree with Trump of being 'hysterical' given your ranty post

radical I think you would be better named reactionary.

I never cease to be amazed at the socially conservative who want to impose their views on others through legislation rather than allowing people to make their own choices - or, to be more accurate - socially conservative men who want to impose their views on women.( unless it's their possibly pregnant mistress who then of course must have an abortion)

Why is it such an issue? Medical insurances with different levels of cover apply here in the private sector. Contraception is a personal choice, plenty of affordable solutions out there, is it too much to ask people to think about it for themselves?

When cost is an issue all health services have to make choices, just as the NHS is doing now and Trump is offering to Americans. Stop being so hysterical about him and thinking everything associate with the T word must be bad.

I aso think it is a poor criticism to mention JRM, no one knows what he thinks about this, all we know is that he is a Catholic and adheres to his principles, are peope not allowed principles anymore? We live in a democracy which means we have to encompass all sorts of people and viewpoints. RM was very clear on television, his principles are his, he seeks no changes in the law, meanwhile others are trying to raise the ime limit on abortions which aready kill approaching 200,000 babies year because a woman's right to murder has been enshrined in law here.

I despair of the 'Obama was better mantra' too, he did very little apart from turn up and be black and cool.