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Brad Woodhouse Appointed Protect Our Care Campaign Director

Leslie Dach to Serve as Campaign Chair

Washington, DC — Protect Our Care announced today that longtime democratic strategist and former Democratic National Committee (DNC) Communications Director Brad Woodhouse has been appointed Campaign Director for the health care coalition that has worked to stop repeal of health care and protect people’s health care. Leslie Dach, who served as the coalition’s founding Campaign Director will become Campaign Chair, focusing on longer term planning and strategy.

“President Trump continues to deliberately sabotage people’s health care out of his own spitefulness, and we are going to make sure the public is constantly aware of every move this Administration makes until Congressional Republicans stand up and make them stop,” said Woodhouse. “Health care continues to be the number one issue for the American people and we will make sure they have the facts to hold their representatives accountable for playing politics with their health care. I’m honored to lead a coalition devoted to protecting the gains we’ve made in health care for the American people but am daunted at the huge shoes Leslie is leaving me to fill.”

“Protect Our Care will maintain eternal vigilance when it comes to stopping health care repeal, protecting Medicaid, and preventing sabotage,” said Dach. “Brad is the perfect person to make sure that day in and day out we are shining a bright light on any attempt Congress or the Administration are making to harm people’s health care.”

Woodhouse has held leadership roles in multiple prominent progressive and political organizations including as President of Americans United for Change (AUFC), which for over a decade was one of the nation’s leading progressive issue advocacy organizations that was originally created to stop then-President Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security and later was integral in building the infrastructure on the progressive side to pass the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Woodhouse, as AUFC President, was a founding steering committee member of Health Care for America Now (HCAN) which laid the ground work in 2007 and 2008 for a post-Bush Administration push to pass health reform and later played an integral role in passing the ACA during President Obama’s first term.

During the campaign to pass the ACA in 2009 and 2010, Woodhouse was a senior adviser and Communications Director at the DNC, where he worked directly with the White House, Organizing for Action (OFA) and Congressional Democrats to pass the law. After leaving the DNC in 2013 and returning to Americans United for Change, Woodhouse and AUFC took the reins of Protect Your Care, an organization which had been established after the ACA was passed to promote and defend the law as it was being implemented. Under Protect Your Care’s banner, Woodhouse ran a field and rapid response communications effort nationally and in nearly a dozen states to push back on the efforts by, among others, the Koch Brothers, to undermine implementation of the law and to discourage people from enrolling in it.

In addition to his role as chair of POC, Dach will be working with the Rockefeller Foundation as a senior advisor, and be engaged in a number of other health care and foundation projects.

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CBO Analysis: Trump’s Sabotage Will Force Even Higher Premium Hikes Than Previously Predicted…

Protect Our Care Campaign Director Leslie Dach released the following statement after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office confirmed that a decision by President Trump to cancel critical health care payments, known as Cost-Sharing-Reductions, would inject substantial uncertainty in the insurance markets, force premiums to increase by 20% next year and 25% by 2020 and increase costs to the taxpayer by nearly $200 billion over ten years.

“This is the latest confirmation that the Trump administration’s plans to sabotage our health care will hurt millions of middle class Americans — bringing substantial uncertainty to the health insurance markets and forcing even higher double digit premium hikes. President Trump seems to prefer playing political sabotage games over doing his job of lowering costs and improving our health care. Whether he tries to repeal health care by legislation or by sabotage it means higher costs and less coverage for American families — and he will be responsible for those results.

“It’s time for all Republicans in Congress to stand up to Trump’s sabotage agenda, work with Democrats and pass real market stabilization reforms to improve our health care system.”

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Secretary Tom Price’s Next Job Should Be At Burger King: Because He Sells A Lot Of Whoppers

The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress will say anything to pass their repeal bill, including questioning the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) estimates. In fact, former directors of the CBO wrote Republican Leaders this week asking them to “maintain and respect the Congress’s decades-long reliance on CBO’s estimates in developing and scoring bills.”

But the American people know the truth: the GOP plan will raise costs, take away coverage and weaken protections. That is why only 12 percent support it.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price is a leading ‘Health Repeal Truther.’

Here are Price’s top 5 biggest whoppers over the past few months — and one truth.

WHOPPER #1: “Nobody Will Be Worse Off Financially.”

Back in March, Secretary Price was on Meet the Press and he promised that “nobody will be worse off financially” under the Republican repeal bill. That is not true.

The facts:

WHOPPER #2 : Republican Repeal Plan Will Lower Deductibles

When asked back in May if he stood by President Trump’s comment that the Republican repeal bill will lead to lower deductibles, Secretary Price answered, “Absolutely.” That is not true.

The facts:

  • Congressional Budget Office: deductibles for people earning $26,500 would increase from $800 under the Affordable Care Act, to $13,000, a 1,525 percent increase.
  • Axios: “Because the ‘actuarial value’ of the coverage could go down [under the Senate bill] — meaning customers would have to pay more of the medical costs themselves — the deductible for a low-income person could shoot up to $13,000.”


WHOPPER #3: “There are No Cuts to the Medicaid Program.”

Back in May on CNN, Secretary Price said, “Remember that there are no cuts to the Medicaid program.” That is not true.

The facts:

WHOPPER #4: “We’re Gonna Be Able To Cover More Individuals on This Bill than are Currently Covered.”

In July, Secretary Price promised that the Republican repeal plan would mean “we’re gonna be able to cover more individuals on this bill than are currently covered.” That is not true.

The facts:

WHOPPER #5 : We Don’t Know How Great the GOP Repeal Plan is Because We Haven’t Seen All of It Yet.

In July, Sec. Price took issue with the Congressional Budget Office and other analyses showing that the Republican repeal bill would take away coverage and raise costs because, he argued, these analyses do not look at the “entire plan.” “The entire plan,” he argued, “includes not just this piece of legislation, which is a significant piece, but it’s not the entire plan. The other pieces of legislation that provide for increasing competition and increasing choices in the insurance market.” That is not true.

Price appears to be making the case for the “3 phases” of health repeal he made earlier this year. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) put it best talking to Hugh Hewitt about why the three step process won’t work:

Hugh, there is no three-phase process. There is no three-step plan. That is just political talk. It’s just politicians engaging in spin. This is why. Step One is a bill that can pass with 51 votes in the Senate. That’s what we’re working on right now. Step Two, as yet unwritten regulations by Tom Price, which is going to be subject to court challenge, and therefore, perhaps the whims of the most liberal judge in America. But Step Three, some mythical legislation in the future that is going to garner Democratic support and help us get over 60 votes in the Senate. If we had those Democratic votes, we wouldn’t need three steps.

However, there is one true thing Sec. Price said:

TRUTH: Once Repeal Passes, Insurers Can Just “Dust Off How They Did Business Before Obamacare.”

On ABC, Sec. Price said that after repeal passes, insurance companies could “dust off how they did business before Obamacare.”

KARL: There’s no doubt there’s significant problems with the current system. But if you look at the Republican plan to modify it and replace it, more than 10 medical groups are against it. Thirty-two cancer organizations oppose it. And on Thursday, in a rare joint statement by the biggest insurance companies in the country, called the Cruz Amendment unworkable in any form and warned it would lead to, quote, “widespread terminations of coverage” So, Dr. Price, why this wall of opposition?

PRICE: It’s really perplexing, especially from the insurance companies, because all they have to do is dust off how they did business before Obamacare.

We agree. As a reminder, here is how insurers “did business” before the Affordable Care Act:

  • They were allowed to deny coverage because of a pre-existing condition.
  • They were allowed to charge sick people more for the same coverage.
  • They were allowed to drop coverage once you got sick if you forgot to mention on your form previous medical conditions, such as acne.
  • They were allowed to put lifetime and annual limits on your care.
protectourcare
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5 CBO Facts On Latest Devastating Health Care Repeal

5 CBO Facts On Latest Devastating Health Care Repeal

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released an expert analysis of the latest health care repeal scheme from Republican leaders in the Senate.

Guess what? It said the same thing as the previous ones — health care repeal would devastate people’s health care. Every single time CBO has evaluated a health care repeal plan it has shown cuts to coverage and costs increase. CBO has made clear you’d pay more and you’d get less if health care repeal passes. It can’t be fixed.

Here are 5 facts you should know from the latest CBO report:

  1. 22 million people lose health insurance — more than the populations of 16 states, including Alaska, Maine, West Virginia and Nevada, combined.
  2. Premiums go up 20 percent in 2018.
  3. Deductibles for someone earning $26,500 a year would be $13,000 — that’s 1,525 percent higher than the $800 deductible under the ACA.
  4. $756 billion in Medicaid funding is cut — 26 percent cut by 2026 — slashing nursing home care for seniors and critical care for kids .
  5. ½ the country would have no insurers in the individual market by 2020.

Those are probably the reasons that people prefer the Affordable Care Act over the GOP’s repeal by a 2-to-1 margin (50% — 24%) according to the newly released Washington Post/ABC poll, while an analysis by an MIT professor found health care repeal is the least popular piece of legislation in 3 decades.

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