This is it: Urgent action needed to save prevention and healthcare for ALL Americans
Today, Senate Republicans finally unveiled their plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act and it is even WORSE for the nation’s health and wellbeing than the version that passed the House last month. We must act NOW to stop this destructive bill from passing the Senate.
The Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 would:
- Repeal the Prevention and Public Health Fund starting in Fiscal Year 2018 (which starts October 1, 2017). That means funding for prevention goes away even sooner than the House proposed, and the CDC loses 12% of its budget-- a tremendous blow to efforts that support health, equity, and safety in all 50 states.
- Restructure Medicaid by converting the program into a block grant for states, a move that will sharply cut benefits and coverage. The bill also phases out the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, which has been responsible for the greatest gains in insurance coverage under the ACA.
- Cut taxes for the wealthy by ripping people off of Medicaid.
- Shrink subsidies to help people afford health insurance, and prohibit subsidies from being used for plans that cover abortion services.
- Cut all federal funding from Planned Parenthood for one year, to the detriment of millions of women nationwide.
- Remove the requirement that mid-size and large companies provide coverage to workers.
- Slash employment in the healthcare industry across the nation, causing harm to the economy.
- Provide just $2 billion to states in 2018 to address the opioid crisis, rather than the $45 billion, 10-year funding in the House bill.
The Senate is expected to vote next week (likely between Wednesday, June 28, and Friday, June 30th). Senate champions for healthcare note that there hasn’t been the same level of pressure and agitation against this bill as there was with the House version; it is crucial that we raise our voices, take action, and encourage others to do so.
If we want to save the Affordable Care Act and its landmark investments in healthcare coverage, prevention, and public health, we need to convince three Senate Republicans to reject the Better Care Reconciliation Act.
This vote will be close, and every senator – Democrat or Republican -- needs to hear from their constituents. Find out how to contact your senators by phone and email here. Encourage your friends to do likewise.
Your message can be simple:
“I am gravely concerned by the Senate’s efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. I do not support any efforts that would take healthcare away from millions of Americans and oppose all efforts to repeal the Prevention and Public Health Fund. Please oppose efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and the Prevention and Public Health Fund.”
If your senator is a Democrat, please thank them for their opposition to repeal efforts and tell them why you support the Prevention and Public Health Fund.
If you are a constituent of any of the following Republican senators, please take the time to contact them-- they are our best hope for stopping the repeal process:
If you have friends or family members living in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, Maine, Nevada, Ohio, or West Virginia, please forward this email to them and ask them to take action TODAY.
This bill threatens to unravel the progress we’ve made as a country to expand healthcare coverage and invest in community health and wellbeing. Medicaid cuts on this scale would touch every community, especially those communities that are struggling most with longstanding health inequities and communities hardest hit by the opioid and other substance misuse crises.
As Larry Levitt of Kaiser Family Foundation tweeted this morning, "In broad strokes, the Senate bill is just like the House: Big tax cuts, big cut in federal health spending, big increase in the uninsured."
We can’t afford to go backwards. Too many lives are riding on the outcome of this vote, and time is running out.
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