Republicans have shut down the government because they want to keep destroying our health care. Republicans don’t care that people are already struggling to get by and forced to choose between paying for life-saving medications and putting food on the table. Instead, the GOP is gutting tax credits for millions of hardworking families, ripping away critical funding from rural hospitals, and throwing the entire health care system into chaos just to pay for tax breaks for billionaires. Their policies will worsen care and drive up costs for everyone.
Here is just one story of the everyday Americans caught in the crosshairs of the GOP health care crisis:
When 64-year-old husband and grandfather Johnie Williams came to Mississippi’s Delta Health Center in September, his lungs felt like cement and bouts of extreme nausea made it hard for him to eat.
But Johnie was also just kicked off Medicaid because his and his wife’s combined income “was a few dollars over the limit,” he told the New York Times. Despite his health challenges, “it’s about to get to that point,” he said, when he might have to start avoiding medical appointments because he can no longer afford the care.
With the passage of the GOP health care cuts, stories like Johnie’s are tragically becoming all too common. Read more about Johnie and other patients like him in the New York Times.
Democrats have made clear that they are ready to vote for bipartisan budgets that stop this pain, but won’t be complicit in hurting the American people. Every single day that Republicans refuse to negotiate a path forward, Protect Our Care will shine a light on the real lives being harmed by this reckless crusade led by Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress. Read Protect Our Care’s report on Republicans’ assault on health care here.