Yesterday our Representative, Raul Labrador, voted to appeal the ACA to to create a miserly healthcare system we are calling TrumpCare.
WE MUST ATTEND THE TOWN HALL TONIGHT AT 6:30PM AT LAKE CITY HIGH SCHOOL TO DEMAND HE ANSWER FOR THIS VOTE.
LABRADOR VOTED FOR TRUMPCARE. HE VOTED TO:
- Take away health care from 24 million Americans. This is according to nonpartisan estimates by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). This will result in 24,000 – 44,000 more Americans dying every year from lack of insurance. Not to mention medical bankruptcies, lost wages, untreated illnesses…
- Hike deductibles by $1500 on average. TrumpCare pushes Americans into low-quality, high cost-sharing health insurance by providing meager tax credits compared to the Affordable Care Act. This is the opposite of what Trump promised in his campaign.
- End the federal protections for people with pre-existing conditions. TrumpCare incentivizes states to drop consumer protections, meaning insurance companies will be able to charge people more if they have a pre-existing condition. 130 million Americans have a pre-existing conditions. People could face premiums well over $100,000 a year.
- Allow insurance companies to charge older Americans significantly more for their health care. A single, 64 year old adult making $26,500/year would have to pay $14,600 in annual premiums—a 750% increase from current law.
- Cut $880 billion from Medicaid, a program that more than 70 million Americans, half of which are children, rely on. TrumpCare cuts federal funding for the program, which will result in states having to ration care and cut the quality of services.
- Put lifetime and annual benefit caps back on the table for even those with employer coverage. This means a baby with a serious medical condition could use up its lifetime limits in the first month of life under TrumpCare.
- Make women pay more for health insurance than men. Because insurance companies could charge more for pre-existing conditions like breast cancer or assault survival and because pregnancy care no longer would be a required benefit, women would once again pay more for health care than men.
- Defund Planned Parenthood. Nearly 3 million Americans, especially women and families, receive affordable health care services annually at Planned Parenthood facilities. TrumpCare prohibits any funding from going to these clinics.
- Harm children with special needs by cutting Special Education funds for schools. Medicaid funds a large portion of education for students with a variety of disabilities. Buried in the bill is a provision that no longer recognizes schools as required Medicaid providers, on top of the massive cuts to the program.
- And, it does all of this in order to pay for $600 billion in tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations.
The folks at IndivisibleGuide.com have put together some amazing resources to help us hold Labrador accountable for this monstrosity, and to keep pressuring him to vote NO the next time it comes around (which it likely will after mark-up in the senate, if it can even get through the senate).
http://www.indivisibleguide.com/stop-trumpcare/
Here’s what to focus on going forward from Indivisible’s website:
Unlike House Republicans, Senators have said they want to know what the full impact of TrumpCare will be before they vote on it. They will wait for a CBO score before moving forward, so it will be a week or two before any vote can occur. But they have already started negotiations, which means the time to put on the pressure is now.
Fortunately, the Senate is different than the House. It moves slower and is responsive to different pressures. That’s why you’ll have real influence over TrumpCare at several levels during this process moving forward:
- Most importantly, let your two senators know that TrumpCare is unfixable (here are 10 reason why). Tell them you expect them to oppose ACA repeal.
- If Republicans manage to bring TrumpCare for a vote in the Senate, remind your two senators they will have to answer for their vote for the rest of their career.
- If TrumpCare passes the Senate, keep the pressure on both House and Senate members, to try to stop them from passing an ACA repeal bill. (Let’s hope the bill doesn’t make it this far.)
Together for the Marathon… we won’t stop calling, writing, and holding our Members of Congress accountable. This is too important.
In service,
Rachel.
Sandpoint Indivisible 