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ashoup
In Administration, News

Fact Check: President Trump Doubles Down On His War on Health Care In the State of the Union

During his State of the Union address, President Trump doubled down on the war on health care his administration and his Republican allies in Congress waged last year, saying he “repealed the core of disastrous Obamacare.” These relentless attacks and sabotage of our health care have real consequences for people across the country. Enough is enough. It it time to end partisan attempts to repeal and undermine health care.

ONE YEAR INTO THE TRUMP/GOP WAR ON HEALTH CARE: MORE UNINSURED & HIGHER COSTS

  • 3.2 million people have lost their health coverage.
  • Trump sabotage led to higher premiums this year because of uncertainty in the market.
  • Women may face higher costs after the Trump Administration took direct aim at birth control by rolling back a rule that guaranteed women access to copay-free contraception.
  • People with pre-existing conditions face higher costs because the Trump Administration’s rules rolling back key consumer protections that will result in garbage insurance.
  • Congress passed, and President Trump signed, a tax bill that repealed a key provision of the Affordable Care Act that will result in millions more losing health coverage and raising premiums by double digits.
ashoup
In Administration, News

Fact Check: Trump’s Massive Failure to Address the Opioid Crisis

Officer Ryan Holets is a true role model, one of the many dedicated Americans who work hard every day to fight our nation’s raging opioid crisis. Sadly, President Trump is not among them. For those Americans who had hoped that Trump might address this raging epidemic with the urgency it deserves, tonight’s hollow words echo last year’s broken promises. In reality, Trump has done nothing to facilitate treatment for Americans struggling with addiction, and his attacks on critical federal health care and opioid response programs threaten to make the situation worse:

  • The window-dressing public health emergency declaration the President touted in tonight’s speech freed up a fund worth only $57,000, falling pathetically short of the billions that experts say are desperately needed to combat the crisis.
  • The House repeal bill that President Trump supported would make the opioid crisis worse by eliminating parity requirements for mental health and addiction coverage, and through drastic Medicaid cuts that put states on the hook for the huge cost of dealing with the epidemic.
  • The Trump Administration has relentlessly attacked and sabotaged Medicaid, which helps people with opioid addiction receive care, paying for one-fifth of all substance abuse treatment nationwide.
  • This month, the Trump Administration proposed a 95% cut to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which is charged with coordinating the federal response to the nation’s raging opioid crisis – for the second year in a row.

When you add it all up, the Trump Administration is not only offering a pathetic response to the nation’s most urgent public health crisis, it is actively sabotaging communities that are fighting to turn the tide on this deadly epidemic.

ashoup
In Administration, News

A Year Later: President Trump’s Broken Health Care Promises

Enough Is Enough Graphic

Last year, in his first address to a joint session of Congress, President Donald Trump made several promises to the American people about what type of health care plan he would support. Tonight, as he makes his first official State of the Union address, we know he and his Republican allies in Congress broke those promises.

PRESIDENT TRUMP BROKE HIS PROMISE ON LOWERING HEALTH COSTS

WHAT TRUMP SAID: “The way to make health insurance available to everyone is to lower the cost of health insurance, and that is what we are going do.”

WHAT TRUMP DID: The health repeal plan House Republicans passed last year, and President Trump supported, ripped coverage away from 24 million people and raised premiums 20 percent. It imposed an age tax on older Americans by allowing insurers to charge people over 50 five times more.

PRESIDENT TRUMP BROKE HIS PROMISE ON PROTECTING PEOPLE WITH PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS

WHAT TRUMP SAID: “We should ensure that Americans with preexisting conditions have access to coverage, and that we have a stable transition for Americans currently enrolled in the healthcare exchanges.”

WHAT TRUMP DID: The health repeal plan that House Republicans passed, and President Trump supported, raised costs on people with pre-existing conditions by allowing states to let insurers charge them more. This surcharge could be in the six figures: up to $4,270 for asthma, $17,060 for pregnancy, $26,180 for rheumatoid arthritis and $140,510 for metastatic cancer. The Trump Administration has also proposed rules that, if finalized, will allow health insurers to skirt protections for pre-existing conditions.

PRESIDENT TRUMP BROKE HIS PROMISE ON MEDICAID

WHAT TRUMP SAID: “We should give our great state governors the resources and flexibility they need with Medicaid to make sure no one is left out.”

WHAT TRUMP DID: The health repeal bill House Republicans passed, and President Trump supported, ended Medicaid as we know it, slashing it to the tune of $839 billion, or 25 percent, and converting it into a “per capita cap”, thus ending guaranteed coverage for everyone who qualifies, chiefly seniors, children and people with disabilities. It also ended Medicaid expansion. As a result, 14 million people were estimated to lose their coverage under the plan.

PRESIDENT TRUMP BROKE HIS PROMISE ON WOMEN’S HEALTH

WHAT TRUMP SAID: “My administration wants to work with members of both parties to … invest in women’s health…”

WHAT TRUMP DID: The Trump Administration and its Republican allies in Congress waged a war on women’s health last year, including efforts to defund Planned Parenthood; taking direct aim at birth control by rolling back the copay-free coverage requirement in the Affordable Care Act; proposing drastic cuts to Medicaid; putting anti-choice judges on the federal bench; and raising costs on women by making them pay more for maternity care.

PRESIDENT TRUMP BROKE HIS PROMISE ON OPIOIDS

WHAT TRUMP SAID: “We will expand treatment for those who have become so badly addicted.”

WHAT TRUMP DID: The House repeal plan Republicans passed, and President Trump supported, would make the opioid crisis worse. The repeal bill eliminated the parity requirement that mental health and addiction services be covered under the Medicaid expansion, and the plan put states on the hook for the full cost of dealing with the crisis by proposing drastic Medicaid cuts.

PRESIDENT TRUMP BROKE HIS PROMISE ON PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

WHAT TRUMP SAID: “[We should] work to bring down the artificially high price of drugs, and bring them down immediately.”

WHAT TRUMP DID: Bringing down prescription drug prices has not been a priority for the Trump Administration this past year. Just yesterday, President Trump installed a former Big Pharma executive, Alex Azar, as the new secretary of Health and Human Services.

ashoup
In Administration, News

State of American Health Care Threatened by Trump & GOP’s War on Health Care

To: Interested Parties

From: Leslie Dach, Campaign Chair, Protect Our Care

Date: January 29, 2018

Re: State of American Health Care Threatened by Trump & GOP’s War on Health Care

On Tuesday, President Trump will deliver his first official State of the Union address. We anticipate he will gloat about his efforts to undo the Affordable Care Act (ACA), take insurance away from millions of people in order to fund tax cuts for big corporations and the wealthiest , cut hundreds of billions of dollars from care for the elderly, children, and people with disabilities, and promise a continuation of his partisan approach to health care in 2018. But his agenda is overwhelmingly unpopular. The American people are saying “enough is enough.” We demand that the Trump Administration and Congress stop their war on our care.

The 2017 Republican War on Health Care

Last year, the Trump Administration and its Republican allies in Congress waged a war on our health care. Their attacks included five attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, proposing to end Medicaid as we know it, and sabotaging our health care system. Under their agenda, millions would lose coverage, costs would increase, especially for those with pre-existing conditions, and insurers would be able to skirt the tough rules that currently protect consumers thanks to the health care law. At the end of the first year of the Trump Administration, 3.2 million people have lost their health coverage, and premium rates spiked because of uncertainty President Trump injected into the individual insurance marketplaces. Here is what the first year of Trump’s partisan war on health care looked like:

January 2017

  • On his first day in office, President Trump signs an Executive Order directing the administration to identify every way it can unravel the Affordable Care Act.

February 2017

  • The Trump Administration proposes a rule to weaken Marketplace coverage and raise premiums for millions of middle-class families.

March 2017

  • The Trump Administration sends a letter to governors encouraging them to submit proposals which include provisions such as work requirements that make it harder for Medicaid beneficiaries to get affordable care and increase the number of people who are uninsured.

April 2017

  • The Trump Administration cuts the number of days people could sign up for coverage during open enrollment by half, from 90 days to 45 days.

May 2017

  • House Republicans vote for and pass a health care repeal bill that would cause 23 million people to lose coverage and gut protections for people with pre-existing conditions. It would have imposed an age tax and allowed insurers to charge people over 50 five times more for coverage and ended Medicaid as we know it, putting the care of seniors, children and people with disabilities in jeopardy.

June 2017

  • Senate Republicans embark on a monthslong failed attempt to pass BCRA, Skinny Repeal and Graham-Cassidy, all repeal bills that would have caused millions of Americans to lose their health coverage and raised premiums by double digits for millions more. They would have ended Medicaid as we know it, putting the care of children, seniors and people with disabilities at risk.

July 2017

  • The Trump Administration uses funding intended to support health insurance enrollment to launch a multimedia propaganda campaign against the Affordable Care Act.

August 2017

  • The Administration cuts the outreach advertising budget for Open Enrollment by 90 percent, from $100 million to just $10 million – which resulted in as many as 1.1 million fewer people getting covered.

September 2017

  • The Administration orders the Department of Health and Human Services’ regional directors to stop participating in Open Enrollment events. Mississippi Health Advocacy Program Executive Director Roy Mitchell says, “I didn’t call it sabotage…But that’s what it is.”

October 2017

  • The Trump Administration takes direct aim at birth control by rolling back a rule that guaranteed women access to contraception. (A court has since questioned the legality of the action.)
  • President Trump signs an Executive Order to roll back key consumer protections that will result in garbage insurance, raise premiums, reduce coverage and again expose millions of Americans to discrimination based on pre-existing conditions.
  • The Trump Administration dramatically cuts in-person assistance to help people sign up for 2018 health coverage.
  • After threatening for months to stop funding cost-sharing reduction payments (CSRs) that help lower deductibles and out-of-pocket costs, the Trump Administration stops the payments altogether. The CBO finds that failing to make these payments will increase premiums by 20% and add nearly $200 billion to the debt.

November 2017

  • Republicans refuse to move forward on the bipartisan Alexander-Murray bill to address the CSR crisis even though it had a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.

December 2017

  • The Trump Administration proposes a rule to expand association health plans, which would gut consumer protections, raise costs for people with pre-existing conditions and further destabilize the insurance markets.
  • Congressional Republicans pass their tax scam, which doubles as a sneaky repeal of the Affordable Care Act  by kicking 13 million people off of their insurance and raising premiums by double digits for millions more.

January 2018

  • The Trump Administration announces that it will support states that impose onerous work requirements on Americans covered by Medicaid, and approves Kentucky’s worst-in-the-nation waiver the next day.
  • The Trump Administration announces a move to allow providers to discriminate by allowing them to deny patient care for almost any reason.
  • The Trump Administration makes plans to announce even more exemptions from the requirement people have health coverage before this provision is repealed altogether.

Despite Attacks, the Affordable Care Act Continues to Help Americans

While the Trump Administration and its Republican allies in Congress had some success last year in their partisan war on health care, the Affordable Care Act is still here, and it is working. The reason the law survived is simple: the American people made their voices heard last year at town halls, rallies and the voting booth, thwarting the partisan repeal effort in Congress.

Despite Trump-led attacks, and because the American people spoke up, insurers still cannot deny or drop coverage because of a pre-existing condition; tax credits are still available to help people pay for coverage; young adults can still stay on their parents’ plan until age 26; the Medicare prescription drug donut hole is still closed; and Medicaid is still a lifeline for millions of seniors, children and people with disabilities. The recent open enrollment period saw nearly 9 million people sign up for coverage in the federal marketplaces, despite the Trump Administration’s decisions to cut the open enrollment period in half and refuse to promote it.  While any law can be improved, and the ACA is no exception, it continues to provide affordable health care and vital protections to millions of Americans.

Enough is Enough: Stop the Partisan War on Health Care

The Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress need to listen to the American people who are saying ‘enough is enough.’ It’s time to stop the partisan health care repeal effort and work on bipartisan solutions. If Republican politicians do not listen, they do so at their own peril. Recent polling by Protect Our Care showed that health care is far and away the number one issue on voters’ minds, and is one of the main reasons why voters disapprove of the job Republicans in Washington are doing.

Last week, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said, “I don’t think we should be spending time trying to do repeal and replace of Obamacare.” Her colleagues in Congress, and President Trump himself, would do well to listen to her.

ashoup
In News

The GOP War on Health Care Continues In Virginia

Richmond, VA – Following the news that a Virginia Senate committee rejected legislation to expand Medicaid on a party-line vote, Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse released the following statement:

“Just two months ago Virginians went to the polls and gave sweeping victories to pro-Medicaid expansion candidates up-and-down the ballot, with 39% of Virginia voters listing health care as the number one issue in their vote. Sadly, today eight Republican state senators in Richmond just ignored the will of their people, siding with party orthodoxy instead of Virginia values and voting against a plan to expand health care to hundreds of thousands of Virginians. The fight for Medicaid expansion in Virginia is far from over, but Virginia Republicans’ war on health care must end.”

Sean England
In News

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Changes Tune on Affordable Care Act in Election Year

Former Republican Presidential Candidate Sees Writing on the Wall for 2018

Washington, DC — In a sign of how dramatically the politics around health care have shifted, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, once an outspoken foe of the Affordable Care Act, has embraced a plan to strengthen the law in his state. The about-face comes soon after a national Protect Our Care poll showed that health care is a top priority for most voters going into the 2018 election cycle.

“Even ultra-conservative Scott Walker is finally facing facts: 2018 voters overwhelmingly prefer politicians who will work keep and improve the Affordable Care Act over candidates who support President Trump and Congressional Republicans’ unpopular sabotage-and-repeal agenda. Governor Walker should advise his Republican friends in Congress to face up to the writing on the wall and start supporting states’ efforts to improve the Affordable Care Act, instead of digging themselves a deeper hole by continuing to push partisan repeal bills and condone the Trump administration’s ongoing sabotage,” said Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse.

Walker, in Turnabout, Moves to Stabilize Insurance Market

AP // Scott Bauer

MADISON, Wis. — In a tack to the left in an election year, Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker announced Sunday that he wants a state law that would bar insurers from denying a person health coverage due to a pre-existing condition.

He also wants Wisconsin to join Minnesota, Oregon, Hawaii and Alaska in obtaining a federal waiver to offer reinsurance, a move designed to lower premiums for people in the private insurance marketplace.

Walker said the steps are necessary because “Washington failed to act” on passing a replacement for the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare” — in effect criticizing fellow Republicans who control Congress and the White House.

Democrats accused Walker of hypocrisy. He has been a consistent and vocal critic of the health care law, refused to participate in the federal marketplace and repeatedly advocated for the law’s repeal and replacement. He also previously suggested he might have Wisconsin opt out of the law’s pre-existing condition rules.

“Give me a break on this pivot,” Democratic Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz said. “The problem we’re trying to fix was self-inflicted by Governor Walker.”

By seeking a reinsurance waiver, Walker is taking a step to make the private marketplace in Wisconsin more stable and affordable for more than 200,000 people in it. He plans to use his State of the State speech on Wednesday to ask the Republican-controlled Legislature to approve the proposals this year, and said leaders are on board.

His ideas, including seeking a lifetime federal waiver for the state’s popular discount prescription drug program known as SeniorCare, have had bipartisan support in the past. Democratic state Sen. Jon Erpenbach said he expected Democrats to largely support the measures.

“Obviously the governor’s done some polling and he’s finding out he’s on the wrong side of history on health insurance and health care,” Erpenbach said.

Walker has been embracing ideas originally championed in whole or in part by Democrats as he seeks a third term in November. Earlier this month he called for closing the state’s troubled juvenile prison, which Democrats have pushed for years. And last year, he gave public schools essentially the level of funding requested by state schools Superintendent Tony Evers, a Democrat running against him for governor.

Walker told reporters he’s simply “listening to people across the state. It doesn’t matter if they’re Democrat or Republican. I don’t think those are Democrat issues, those are Wisconsin issues. People care about them.”

He said his latest health plan addresses the concerns of people who buy insurance through their employers by guaranteeing that pre-existing conditions will be covered. Even though that’s currently federal law, Walker said it is important that the state guarantee it and provide peace of mind.

Last year, the state Assembly passed a bill that would have done just that. Walker called on the Senate to pass it in the coming weeks.

The state’s discount prescription drug program for those over age 65 has received a federal waiver since 2002. It serves 60,000 seniors a month. The waiver has been extended four times, most recently in 2015. Walker said a permanent waiver would give peace of mind to seniors who rely on the discounted medicine.

Erpenbach doubted such a waiver could be granted without a change in federal law.

Walker’s push to make SeniorCare permanent comes seven years after he proposed cutting membership by forcing enrollees to first sign up for Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage, with the state program only covering what the federal one did not.

That was rejected after a bipartisan outcry.

Walker’s other new federal waiver request to offer reinsurance addresses the roughly 200,000 people in Wisconsin who purchase health insurance on the private marketplace under the “Obamacare” law. Reinsurance, which has bipartisan support, basically sets up a pool of money for the government to cover the cost of insurers’ most expensive cases.

Walker estimated his plan would cost $200 million, with the federal government paying 75 percent. He said the state’s share would come from savings from the Medicaid program.

Walker said he expected the program to result in lower rate increases in 2019 and stabilize a market that recently lost several larger insurers including UnitedHealth and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield. The state insurance office estimated that premium rates will increase an average of 36 percent this year.

Because of the loss of insurers, this year more than 75,000 people in Wisconsin had to change insurance companies and many of them were limited to one or two choices.

 

 

ashoup
In Administration, News

Gallup Poll: Uninsured Rate Rose in Trump’s First Year

After a new Gallup poll showed that America’s uninsured rate jumped during Trump’s first year in office for the first time in a decade, Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse released the following statement:

“This is what sabotage looks like. Today, Gallup confirmed that over 3 million Americans lost their insurance in 2017, becoming the first casualties of President Trump and Congressional Republicans’ war on health care. Today’s numbers also confirm that it’s exactly those Americans who the Trump administration targeted who are losing coverage: working families earning less than $36,000 a year, young adults, African-Americans, and Hispanics. On behalf of the 3 million who have already lost their coverage, and will now pay the price with their health — and the millions more whose insurance is under attack, we join the American people in saying: enough is enough. President Trump and his allies in Congress must stop their partisan war on health care before they take coverage from millions more and and drive up prices and weaken protections for everyone else.”

Sean England
In Administration, News

Enough is Enough: Here Are Some of the Ways The Trump Administration And Republicans In Congress Have Waged War on Health Care in 2017

Since taking office earlier this year, President Trump, his administration and allies in Congress have waged an unrelenting war against our health care. Their twin weapons have been repeal and sabotage. The innocent victims are the American people. Their agenda takes  health care away from millions, raises costs for millions more, guts protections for people with preexisting conditions, and purposely destroys the insurance markets.  And they have done it without listening to the American people, health care experts, or engaging in a hint of bipartisanship.

President Trump famously said “the best thing we can do…is let Obamacare explode” and “let it be a disaster because we can blame that on the Democrats.” But as his actions this show clearly, he and his allies in Congress are not letting Obamacare fail, they are making Obamacare fail.

In Congress,  they tried five separate times to completely  repeal health care — starting with the so-called American Health Care Act (AHCA) in the House, then the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), a partial repeal bill, Graham-Cassidy, and “skinny” repeal bills in the Senate.  At the White House and HHS, they sabotaged open enrollment, took direct aim at birth control, instructed their cabinet secretaries to disobey the law, and  stopped funding the payments that kept out of pocket costs low for millions of our fellow citizens. They just snuck in a repeal of a key provision of the Affordable Care Act that will raise premiums by double digits and increase the number of uninsured by millions, so they can  give massive tax breaks to billionaires and large corporations.

Here is some of what they did  in 2017:

  • On his first day in office, President Trump signed an Executive Order directing the administration to find any ways they could to unravel the Affordable Care Act.
  • The Trump administration cut the number of days people could sign up for coverage during open enrollment by half, from 90 days to 45 days.
  • House Republicans voted for and passed a health care repeal bill that causes 23 million people to lose coverage and guts protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
  • The Trump administration cut the outreach advertising budget for open enrollment by 90 percent, from $100 million to just $10 million – likely to result in 1.1 million fewer people getting covered. Advertising is a critical way for people to know when and how they can get covered.  
  • Republicans refused to move forward on the bipartisan Alexander Murray bill even though it had a filibuster proof majority in the Senate.
  • Senate Republicans tried but failed to pass BCRA, Skinny Repeal and Graham-Cassidy, all of which would cause millions to lose their health coverage and raise premiums by double digits for millions more..
  • The administration ordered the Department of Health and Human Services’ regional directors to stop participating in open enrollment events. Mississippi Health Advocacy Program Executive Director Roy Mitchell said, “I didn’t call it sabotage…But that’s what it is.”
  • The administration dramatically cut in-person assistance that helped people sign up for 2018 coverage.
  • The Trump administration took direct aim at birth control by rolling back a rule that guaranteed women access to contraception. (A court has since delayed their effort.)
  • After threatening for months to stop funding cost-sharing reductions (CSRs) that help lower deductibles and out-of-pocket costs,  the Trump administration stopped CSR payments altogether in October. The CBO found failing to make these payments would increase premiums by 20 percent and add nearly $200 billion to the debt.
  • President Trump signed an Executive Order that would roll back key protections and result in garbage insurance, raise premiums, reduce coverage and expose millions of Americans again to discrimination based on pre-existing conditions.
  • House and Senate Republicans repealed the individual mandate in their tax bill in order to pay for massive tax breaks to the ultra wealthy and big corporations.  CBO predicts millions will lose coverage and premiums will go up double digits.

While the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress want to keep up this war on health care in 2018, the American people are saying “Enough is Enough.” Nearly 9 million people just signed up for coverage through healthcare.gov despite all the sabotage efforts. The Affordable Care Act is more favorable than it has ever been. And millions of people across the country made their voices heard at rallies, town halls and calling their member of Congress to fight these repeal efforts.

The American people are right: enough IS enough.

ashoup
In Capitol Hill, News

Protect Our Care Statement on Senate Passage of GOP Tax Scam, Sneaky Health Care Repeal

In response to the Senate passing the GOP tax scam containing sneaky repeal, which will kick 13 million Americans off of their insurance, raise premiums double digits for millions more and slash Medicare by $25 billion, Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse released the following statement:

“After rejecting health repeal over the summer, today, in the early hours of the morning, Senate Republicans voted to kick 13 million people off of their health insurance, raise premiums double digits for millions more and trigger a $25 billion cut in Medicare – all so the wealthiest and large corporations can get a tax break,” Woodhouse said.

“One of the primary reasons this tax bill passed with sneaky repeal was because Senator Susan Collins was assured Congress would pass two bills to stabilize the marketplace. Make no mistake: none of these bills will mitigate the damage done by this repeal vote the Senate just took.

“And to the shock of no one, before the bill even passed, Sens. Lindsey Graham, Bill Cassidy and others were plotting to bring back the GOP’s full health repeal legislation. Apparently kicking 13 million Americans off of their health insurance and raising premiums double digits wasn’t enough – the Republicans want to dump 32 million, raise premiums 20 percent and cut Medicaid by $4.1 trillion. Those who have previously opposed such measures, like Sens. Collins and Lisa Murkowski, must pledge to oppose any further repeal efforts – the health care system has already been harmed enough.”

ashoup
In Capitol Hill, News

Protect Our Care Statement on House Passage of GOP Tax Scam, Sneaky Health Care Repeal

In response to the House passing the GOP tax scam containing sneaky repeal, which will kick 13 million Americans off of their insurance, raise premiums double digits for millions more and slash Medicare by $25 billion, Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse released the following statement:

“Today, Republicans made clear their claims about expanding health care access, lowering the deficit and evening the playing field for the middle class were complete lies,” Woodhouse said. “This legislation will kick 13 million people off of their health insurance, raise premiums double digits for millions more and trigger a $25 billion cut in Medicare – all so the wealthiest and large corporations can get a tax break.

“This bill is atrocious in all aspects. It was written in a dark room without outside analysis or bipartisan input. When nonpartisan analyses found that GOP claims were severely misleading, Speaker Paul Ryan just said they were wrong. When asked to make the conference report public, Chairman Kevin Brady responded by releasing its text at 5:30 on a Friday afternoon. When experts warned about rushing the bill through, Republicans ignored them, to the point that GOP Members literally cannot name the tax brackets in the bill they voted in favor of. And all of this was done to pass a massively unpopular bill that guts health care for the middle-class and makes the one-percent even richer.

“The Republican war on health care has not gone unnoticed by the American people. Health care has dominated every Congressional recess, it’s the number one issue on the minds of voters, it powered Democrats in last month’s elections in Virginia, Maine and New Jersey and the GOP’s efforts to repeal and sabotage the law have contributed to historically-low approval ratings for President Trump and congressional Republicans. Republicans are going to get their tax scam – but at great cost to American health care and to the GOP’s own political standing.”

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