Advocates Across the Country Demand GOP State AGs and Governors Drop Their Lawsuit Against Our Health Care, and Urge Senators to Block Trump’s ‘Rubber Stamp’ on the Case
As oral arguments took place this afternoon in Texas v. United States, and the Senate Judiciary Committee continued hearing the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, health care advocates from coast to coast demanded their state and federal leaders protect Americans’ health care.
Cancer survivors Jeff Jeans of Arizona and Joseph Merlino of Nevada, and Air Force Veteran Kelly Gregory of Tennessee, currently battling terminal breast cancer, traveled to Washington, D.C. to urge the Senate to reject the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh, while local Protect Our Coalitions in ten states held events making the dangers of the GOP’s lawsuit clear.
In the nation’s capitol, Jeans, Merlino, and Gregory spent the day on Capitol Hill, speaking, meeting with senators, and attending the confirmation hearings, highlighting Republicans’ continuing war on health care. This morning, Gregory and Jeans joined House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, House Democratic Members, and other health care advocates at a press conference to discuss the threat Judge Kavanaugh represents to their health health care and that of millions of Americans.
And, as oral arguments took place in Texas, et al. v. United States, et. al., a lawsuit that could unilaterally end protections for the 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions overnight, local Protect Our Care coalitions and advocates living with pre-existing conditions held events outside the offices of their Republican attorneys general, urging them to drop this dangerous Trump-GOP lawsuit and instead protect our health care.
For example:
In West Virginia, health care advocates with pre-existing conditions visited the office of Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, one of the eighteen Republican attorneys general on the Texas lawsuit, discussing their concerns about his actions to end protections for the 738,000 West Virginians with pre-existing conditions.
In Florida, health care advocates gathered outside of the Jackson Memorial Hospital to denounce Attorney General Pam Bondi’s lawsuit and the repercussions which could come from it. State. Rep. Shevrin Jones also highlighted the urgency to protect these protections in his South Florida Sun-Sentinel op-ed, “We must continue to defend the Affordable Care Act.”
In Maine, health care advocates and people living with pre-existing conditions held a press conference discussing the dangers 548,000 Mainers would face, should Governor Paul LePage’s lawsuit prevail.
In Missouri, a group of Missourians with pre-existing conditions, including a strong Missourian currently battling breast cancer, met with staff of Sen. Roy Blunt at his district office, noting their concerns about Attorney General Josh Hawley’s lawsuit and Kavanaugh’s nomination.
In Tennessee, local health care advocates called on Attorney General Herbert Slatery to withdraw from the Texas lawsuit and instead support the protections for 2.7 million Tennesseans with pre-existing conditions. Advocates requested a meeting with Slatery, but representatives from his office instead would only meet with three of the six Tennesseans in question.
And in Arizona, caregivers and health care advocates joined with Protect Our Care, the Human Rights Campaign, and Planned Parenthood to deliver letters to Attorney General Mark Brnovich, calling on him to remove himself from the lawsuit and instead protect the 2.8 million Arizonans with pre-existing conditions.
As the hearings and the Trump-GOP lawsuit continue, health care advocates from coast to coast will continue to stand up to the GOP’s war on health care, with hopes that Republicans will finally start listening.