
The Trump administration is now citing the communications and airline industries as models for the future of American health care — two industries that are infamous for terrible treatment of customers in pursuit of corporate profits.

White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said that the Trump administration wants the health care industry to change its business practices.

Specifically, he said they should emulate the widely hated airline and telecom industries.

Speaking to CNN, Scaramucci tried to talk up the effort by Trump and his Republican allies in Congress to force through health care repeal.


And he offered a bizarre and appalling message to the public.

Americans should "trust the process of the free market like in telecom, like in airlines."

Actually, @Scaramucci, Americans don't want their health care to be like an overbooked flight https://t.co/iXu4rw8Oxc pic.twitter.com/QQCFdjMudS — American Bridge (@American_Bridge) July 26, 2017

SCARAMUCCI: Why not disrupt and decentralize the system, make it more price-competitive, increase competition for the insurance companies, reevaluate the way we’re entering the primary care market the way Secretary Price wants to do it, and trust the process of the free market like in telecom, like in airlines.

There's just one problem with this idea.

There are few companies more disliked in America than those in the telecommunications and airline industries, and citing them as the model for a service as critical as health care shows an administration considerably out of touch with the rest of the country.

Comcast, the cable television giant, was recently voted as the most hated company in America — an "honor" it has received multiple times — receiving low marks from customers, employees, and the public at large. While Scaramucci cited telecom as a free market model, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently fined Comcast $2.3 million for charging customers for services that they never authorized in the first place.

Imagine the same practice being applied to already bloated hospital bills.

In the same survey, other telecoms were also ranked among the worst performers, including Sprint, Charter Communications, and Dish Networks.

As for the airline industry, it is practically legendary for the ways in which it has mistreated customers. Whether it is dragging them through the aisles, killing their pets, mangling their wheelchairs, or simply charging to check bags while cutting legroom, the business is a textbook example of how to harm and upset the customers who rely on you.

American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates summarized Scaramucci's absurd proposition, noting, "This administration is out of touch, and these comments, coupled with Trumpcare’s plan to ditch healthcare benefits in order to fund tax cuts for the rich are just the latest examples. "

The health care repeal plan championed by the Trump administration and the GOP is awful enough on its own. To cite two of the worst industries as models for health care's future would be laughable — if it were not so terrifying. SaveSave SaveSave

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