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protectourcare
In News

Protect Our Care Announces Plans for Nationwide Events to Highlight Agenda for Lower Costs and Better Care

To Mark 9th Anniversary of the ACA’s passage, Protect Our Care Will Hold Events in Key Battleground States this Week to Promote a Democratic Agenda for Lower Costs, Better Care and an End to GOP Sabotage

Washington, DC – Protect Our Care has announced plans for activities nationwide this week, during the Congressional recess, to promote an agenda for lower costs, better care and end to Republican health care sabotage in advance of the 9th anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was signed into law nine years ago this Saturday, March 23.

Activities will include press events in Alaska, Ohio, Colorado, Arizona, Iowa, Georgia, Maine and North Carolina as well as social media efforts nationwide.  At the events, health care professionals, elected officials, health care advocates, and people who have benefited from the ACA will talk about the benefits of the law and discuss the need to move forward with a health care agenda for lower costs and better care for all Americans. Participants will also urge Congress to take action to lower the cost of prescription drugs, rein in insurance companies, crack down on short-term junk plans and other steps necessary to improve our health care system. The events will also serve as an opportunity to call out Republicans in each state for their continued acts of health care sabotage and support for repeal.

“There is no doubt that the Democratic agenda on health care has changed the lives of millions of Americans for the better,” said Protect Our Care executive director Brad Woodhouse. “Across the country, Americans from all walks of life have been able to receive quality, affordable health care and coverage for pre-existing conditions thanks to Democrats’ actions to shape and strengthen the nation’s health care laws. On this important anniversary, it’s critical that we move forward with a bold agenda for lower costs and better care while continuing to call out Republican’s repeated attempts to undermine and sabotage our health care system at every turn.”

Events happening this week:

Iowa press event

When:    Tuesday, March 19 at 10:30am CDT

Where:   Iowa State Capitol (Room 116), 1007 E Grand Ave, Des Moines, IA 50319

Details:  Facebook event link

Alaska press event

When:   Tuesday, March 19 at 11:00am AKDT

Where:  1057 W Fireweed Ln, Anchorage, AK 99503

Details:  Facebook event link

Georgia press event

When:    Tuesday, March 19 at 3:00pm EST

Where:   Central Presbyterian Church, 201 Washington St. SW, Atlanta, Georgia 30303

Details:  Facebook event link

Arizona press event

When:    Wednesday, March 20 at 11:00am MST

Where:   Arizona State Capitol, 700 W Washington, Phoenix, Arizona 85007

Details:  Facebook event link

Ohio – Dayton press event

When:    Wednesday, March 20  

Where:   Dayton City Commission Office, 101 W Third St, Dayton, OH 45401

Maine press event

When:    Thursday, March 21 at 11:00am EST

Where:   State House Welcome Center, 210 State St, Augusta, ME 04333

Details:  Facebook event link

North Carolina press event

When:   Thursday, March 21 at 11:00am EST

Where:  North Carolina General Assembly, 16 W Jones St, Raleigh, NC 27601

Details: Facebook event link

Colorado rally outside Senator Cory Gardner’s office

When:   Friday, March 22 at 12:00pm MDT

Where:  Corner of 19th Street and Stout Street, Denver, CO 80202

Details: Facebook event link

Ohio – Cleveland press event

When:    Friday, March 22

Where:   Neighborhood Family Practice Pharmacy, 3569 Ridge Rd, Cleveland, OH 44102

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protectourcare
In News

Ohio Is The Next Stop On President Trump’s Medicaid Madness Tour

Washington, DC — Today, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved Ohio’s request to implement work requirements on its Medicaid program. In their waiver request, Ohio officials predicted that roughly 18,000 people will lose their Medicaid eligibility. Brad Woodhouse, executive director of Protect Our Care, issued a statement in response:

“Ohio is the next stop on the Trump administration’s Medicaid sabotage tour. The work requirements approved by the administration will have disastrous effects on Ohioans. By Ohio’s own admission, nearly half of the people with coverage through Medicaid who will be subjected to work requirements will lose their health care; this is similar to the consequences we’ve seen in Arkansas where 18,000 people have already had their coverage stripped away from them. It’s high time for the administration to stop playing accomplice to states who are intent on denying people health care and start working on policies that will lower costs and improve care for all Americans.

protectourcare
In News

Protect Our Care and Sen. Sherrod Brown Oppose Trump Judicial Nominees Working to Strip Health Care from Americans

Washington, DC–Today, Protect Our Care partnered with Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio on a press call to highlight why Chad Readler and Eric Murphy ’s nominations to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals would be disastrous for not only Ohioans, but all Americans’ health care. Readler attacked the Affordable Care Act by signing a legal brief refusing to defend the law at the Department of Justice in support of the Texas lawsuit, which would strip millions of their coverage and deny pre-existing condition protections enshrined in the ACA.

“No American should be denied health care because of a pre-existing condition, or because they’re a woman, or because they cannot afford it,” Senator Brown said. “I cannot support nominees who have actively worked to strip Ohioans of their health care rights. Special interests already have armies of lobbyists and lawyers on their side, they don’t need judges in their pockets.”

“Chad Readler wants to go back to the days where insurance companies could deny, drop or charge more for coverage and end protections for millions of people with pre-existing conditions,” said Brad Woodhouse, executive director of Protect Our Care. “Simply put, a vote for Chad Readler is a vote for full repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Readler tried to sabotage the ACA from within the administration, and if we put him on the court, he will be able to sabotage your care from the bench.The Senate must protect the American people’s health care by denying Chad Readler a lifetime appointment.”

Full press call audio here

Background on Chad Readler:

Readler filed the Trump administration’s brief in Texas V. United States, and his nomination for a judicial seat was announced the same day he filed the brief calling for the ACA’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions to be overturned.

If the Texas ruling is not overturned:

  • 4.8 million Ohioans with pre-existing conditions could lose their coverage
  • Ohioans over age 50 could face a $3,329 age tax
  • 151,026 Ohioans would lose tax credits and have to pay more for coverage in the marketplace
  • 214,338 Ohio seniors would have to pay more for their prescription drugs
  • 717,100 Ohioans could lose their health care due to possible repeal of Medicaid expansion
protectourcare
In News

Final Rates Confirm Ohioans’ Insurance Is Getting Even More Expensive

Trump Administration and Washington Republicans’ Health Care Sabotage Raises Rates

Washington, D.C. – Yesterday, Ohio announced final rates for 2019 individual-market health insurance plans, which indicate that premiums will increase by an average of 6.3 percent statewide, in contrast to the average nationwide 4.3 percent decrease that Brookings Institution analysts predicted would occur absent GOP sabotage, on top of last year’s double-digit rate hike due to Washington Republicans’ repeal-and-sabotage agenda. Brad Woodhouse, executive director of Protect Our Care, released the following statement in response:

“For the past year and a half, President Trump and his Republican allies in Congress have engaged in a deliberate, aggressive campaign to undermine health care, and families in Ohio are once again forced to pay the price. Until we stop Republicans’ war on health care, insurance companies will continue to make huge profits and enjoy record tax breaks from Republicans while they charge working families more and more. Washington Republicans should start working on bipartisan solutions to make coverage more affordable, instead of helping their friends in the insurance industry make another buck on the backs of hardworking Ohioans.”

From the Experts:

Loren Anthes, Cleveland-based Center for Community Solutions: Unpredictability In Marketplace Causing Rates To Increase. Cut funding for outreach and navigator groups, repeal of individual mandate, shorter open enrollment period, and expanded association health plans create unpredictability — “That kind of unpredictability also creates the conditions where you have to raise prices…Insurance companies are businesses.” [Cleveland Plain Dealer, 6/22/18]

Brookings Analysis Estimates That Individual Market Premiums Would Decrease If Not For GOP Sabotage. Among its key findings:

  • Estimates That Average Premium Would Fall By 4.3 Percent In 2019 In Stable Policy Environment. “I estimate that the nationwide average per member per month premium in the individual market would fall by 4.3 percent in 2019 in a stable policy environment.” [Brookings Institution, 8/1/18]
  • Insurance Companies’ Revenues Will Far Exceed Their Costs In 2018. “I project that insurers’ revenues in the ACA-compliant individual market will far exceed their costs in 2018, generating a positive underwriting margin of 10.5 percent of premium revenue. This is up from a modest positive margin of 1.2 percent of premium revenue in 2017 and contrasts sharply with the substantial losses insurers incurred in the ACA-compliant market in 2014, 2015, and 2016. The estimated 2018 margin also far exceeds insurers’ margins in the pre-ACA individual market. ” [Brookings Institution, 8/1/18]
  • Absent Republican Sabotage, Average Premiums For ACA-Compliant Plans Would Likely Fall In 2019. “In this analysis, I define a stable policy environment as one in which the federal policies toward the individual market in effect for 2018 remain in effect for 3 2019. Notably, this scenario assumes that the individual mandate remains in effect for 2019, but also assumes that policies implemented prior to 2018, like the end of CSR payments, remain in effect as well. Under those circumstances, insurers’ costs would rise only moderately in 2019, primarily reflecting normal growth in medical costs.” [Brookings Institution, 8/1/18]
ashoup
In Administration, Capitol Hill, News

Republicans At All Levels Face Fury from Their Constituents as the Coalition that Defeated Health Care Repeal Takes the Fight Local

As we head into the one-year anniversary of the Senate’s defeat of ACA repeal, Republicans are running scared of their own record, especially as Big Health Care CEO compensation soars on their watch.

Meanwhile, the coalition that defeated health care repeal is rising up to fight GOP sabotage at every level of government.

  • For a full month, Protect Our Care and its partners have continually sounded the alarm about Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, who is now opposed by 41 percent of Americans, the vast majority of whom do not want the Court to overturn protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
  • All week, the Protect Our Care coalition held events marking the anniversary of the Senate defeating repeal and highlighting continued threats to health care, and today Protect Our Care coalitions in Alaska, Arizona, Indiana, Maine, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and West Virginia are holding actions to ask their Republican attorneys general and governors to drop their lawsuit to overturn protections for people with pre-existing conditions in the Affordable Care Act.
  • Looking ahead to August, Protect Our Care coalitions across the country are gearing up to confront House Republicans during recess about the numerous votes they have taken to repeal protections for people with pre-existing conditions, jack up premiums, reduce coverage, and give kickbacks to insurance companies, drug companies, and the wealthy – while doing nothing to bring down the cost of prescription drugs.

With an energized grassroots representing the will of the public, according to poll after poll after poll after poll, it’s no wonder why Democrats are rising up to fight for health care. Just yesterday:

  1. Senate Democrats redoubled their commitment to fight tooth-and-nail to protect health care for all Americans, while marking the one-year anniversary of their defeat of Republicans’ effort to repeal the ACA.
  2. House Democrats introduced a resolution that would intervene to protect the 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions from the GOP-Trump Administration lawsuit working to overturn protections for them.
  3. A coalition of 12 Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit to fight back against the Trump Administration’s revival of junk plans that charge money for poor coverage.

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ashoup
In Administration, News

Advocates Mount Defense of Health Care for Millions

Last night, President Trump nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to be the next Supreme Court justice. To be clear, Trump had two litmus tests in selecting Brett Kavanaugh for the Court:

1) overturning Roe v. Wade, and

2) overturning Americans’ health care by gutting protections for those with pre-existing conditions.

Across the country, health care advocates geared up in opposition, urging their senators to reject Judge Kavanaugh, an activist judge who was hand-picked to rubber-stamp President Trump and Congressional Republicans’ war on health care.

Here are some highlights, with more activity on the ground happening today.

In Alaska, Protect Our Care was joined by health care advocates, Alaska Native leaders, and former Alaska Superior Court Judge John Reese to urge Sen. Lisa Murkowski to do what is best for Alaska and reject a justice who won’t protect Alaskans’ care.

In Maine, Protect Our Care was joined by the Maine Women’s Lobby and Planned Parenthood of Northern New England in calling on Sen. Susan Collins to protect pre-existing condition protections and women’s access to health care.

In Arizona, Jeff Jeans, a cancer survivor joined  state Rep. Athena Salman, and representatives from Planned Parenthood and ACLU Arizona urged Senator Flake to stand up for Arizonans’ care.

In Nevada, Protect Our Care and Laura Packard, a health care advocate living with cancer, Cyndy Hernandez of NARAL Pro-Choice Nevada, and Sam Shaw of SEIU Nevada Local 1107 urged Sen. Dean Heller to stand up and protect Nevadans’ health care.

In Ohio, Protect Our Care Ohio joined with Innovation Ohio, the Physicians Action Network, and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio highlighted the current and long-term threats to health care under a conservative Supreme Court.

In Tennessee, Protect Our Care was joined by a coalition of concerned citizens including Jen Yamin, the mother of a son with pre-existing conditions, Kristen Grimm, the mother of child with special needs, and Anna Carella, Co-Chair of Healthy and Free Tennessee, outside Sen. Bob Corker’s Nashville office.

In West Virginia, Protect Our Care advocates went on the record to make it clear that they want their senators to stand up health care.

ashoup
In Administration, News

Advocates Gear Up to Defend Health Care for Millions

Protect Our Care Coalition to Host Events Across the Country As Supreme Court Pick Looms

Enough Is Enough Poster

  • As President Trump prepares to make his Supreme Court announcement Monday, Americans from coast to coast are gearing up to make clear to their Senators that they must not vote against health care by voting for an extreme nominee who will use their position to attack our health care.
  • Protect Our Care is active in fourteen states, and our advocates have already scheduled events on Monday in Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee. We’ll be holding a rally at Monument Square in Bangor, Maine; a press conference in front of Sen. Bob Corker’s office in Nashville, Tennessee; and a press call with local leaders, health care advocates, and a former judge in Alaska.
  • President Trump and Congressional Republicans have spent the past 18 months waging a relentless war on our health care, with millions losing coverage, premiums increasing by double digits, and protections for people with pre-existing conditions eroding. But all of these pale in comparison to the damage that an extreme Supreme Court justice could do — read more to find out all that’s at stake for health care with this Supreme Court vacancy.

Protect Our Care’s national leaders and local advocates are available for on the record interviews. Please contact [email protected].

ashoup
In Stories, Administration, News

Protect Our Care Launches 130 Million Strong Month of Action

Washington, D.C. – The Protect Our Care coalition today launches “130 Million Strong Month of Action,” a campaign to warn Americans about escalating Republican attacks on Affordable Care Act-guaranteed protections for over 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions. As the Trump Department of Justice asks the courts to take away these protections, the campaign will leverage earned and paid media as well as grassroots advocacy to highlight the true cost of letting insurance companies bring back discrimination.

“There are over 130 million Americans out there with pre-existing conditions who deserve to know that Republicans are trying to let insurance companies take away their coverage,” said Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse. “The Trump Department of Justice just declared war on people who have a history of diabetes, asthma, or cancer. This month, our coalition of health care advocates will be conducting an aggressive information campaign to make sure people know what’s at stake.”

The campaign launches this morning with a new digital ad targeted to 13 states: Alaska, Arizona, Indiana, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Watch Digital Ad

Protect Our Care is also rolling out 51 fact sheets this morning highlighting the impact residents would face in each state if the Trump Administration wins its case and takes away pre-existing condition protections, and dozens of events are set to take place across the country between now and Independence Day.

ashoup
In News

Republicans in Indiana, Ohio & West Virginia Nominate Three Enemies of Health Care

Washington, D.C. – After candidates who have pledged to continue Republicans’ destructive repeal-and-sabotage agenda won Senate primaries in Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia, Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse released the following statement:

“Ohio Republican Senate nominee Jim Renacci has voted to repeal or tear apart the Affordable Care Act 58 times, including last year’s House repeal bill that would have kicked 23 million Americans off of their health care, spiked premiums, undermined health care and reproductive rights for women, and imposed an age tax on older Americans; Indiana Republican Senate nominee Mike Braun has called for a full repeal of the Affordable Care Act, with no plan to replace it; and West Virginia Republican Senate nominee Patrick Morrisey has twice sued the federal government to overturn the Affordable Care Act, most recently joining a February suit to invalidate the law. In the Senate, these nominees would push a destructive agenda that represents a grave threat to the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid, placing millions of Americans’ coverage and access to care at risk. But they can be stopped: poll after poll, including a new CBS survey, continue to show that health care is the top issue on Americans’ minds, and that people of all political stripes reject the Republican war on health care. Despite what Renacci, Braun, and Morrisey might say, the majority of the American people are saying louder: enough is enough – it’s time for Republicans to end their war on our health care.”

ashoup
In News

Advocates Nationwide Highlight Medicaid’s Role In Combating Opioid Crisis

Throughout the second week of Medicaid Awareness Month, advocates across the country highlighted the significant role Medicaid plays in combating the opioid crisis – most notable being that in 2014 Medicaid paid for one-fourth of addiction treatment nationwide – and spoke out against Republican proposals to weaken and cut Medicaid.

In Ohio, Chillicothe Mayor Luke Feeney, Cheryl Beverly, Operator of Cheryl’s House of Hope, and Michelle McAllister, Coordinator for the Heroine Partnership Project, held a press conference to discuss how changes to the state’s Medicaid program would leave over 150,000 Ohioans that suffer from substance abuse disorders and mental illness without care.

Protect Our Care released an opioid crisis fact sheet, showing how Medicaid provides access to treatment and gives states more resources in combating the epidemic.

In Tennessee, Chip Forrester, a father who lost his son to opioids, held a roundtable discussion about the crisis and how restricting access to Medicaid threatens lives and impedes states’ ability to respond to the epidemic.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a report analyzing how Better Integration of Medicaid and Federal Grant Funding Would Improve Outcomes for People with Substance Use Disorders.

ACA Medicaid Expansion Reduced Share of Opioid-Related Hospitalizations in Which Patient Was Uninsured

[CBPP]

In Ohio,  Jefferson County Commissioner Thomas Graham and health care leaders in Steubenville held a press conference to talk discuss how Medicaid benefits thousands of Ohioans suffering from substance abuse disorders.

And in Alaska and West Virginia, advocates held a virtual postcard sending party throughout the week to send notes thanking Sen. Lisa Murkowski for supporting Medicaid and encouraging her to continue doing so, culminating in a stand up event outside Sen. Murkowski’s Anchorage office emphasizing the role Medicaid plays in addressing the opioid crisis, and a press conference with faith leaders which focused on the opioid crisis and how West Virginia’s faith community can address substance abuse disorders in the state, respectively.

 

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