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This Week in the War on Health Care

By May 3, 2018No Comments

While Congress was away on recess this week, Republicans continued their unprecedented assault on the American health care system – capped off by the one year anniversary of their vote to take health care away from 23 million Americans. Here’s what happened in the war on health care – and why the past seven days have shown, yet again, that the Affordable Care Act is here to stay:

ONE YEAR AGO: HOUSE REPUBLICANS VOTED TO KICK  23 MILLION AMERICANS OFF OF THEIR INSURANCE

One year ago tomorrow, House Republicans voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The so-called “American Health Care Act” would have kicked 23 million Americans off of their insurance, raised premiums double-digits, gutted Medicaid, and brought back discrimination for those with pre-existing conditions. Following this vote, House Republicans went to the White House to celebrate.

It would have devastated our health care, and ultimately became the most unpopular legislation in three decades before dying in the Senate. And yet…

REPUBLICANS PLOTTING YET ANOTHER ATTEMPT AT REPEAL

This morning, The Hill reported:

Conservative groups are hoping to release a new ObamaCare replacement plan later this month as they try to keep alive the repeal effort. The effort has been led by the Heritage Foundation, the Galen Institute and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), who have been meeting at Heritage’s offices, along with other groups, roughly once a week for months….‘The White House fully supports the efforts of a broad coalition working to address the Obamacare disaster and increase affordable healthcare options for middle-class Americans,’ deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said in a statement.

Just as Sen. Bill Cassidy did today through a spokesman, every Republican senator who has not called on the GOP to move on from their repeal and sabotage campaign should do so.  Enough is enough – it’s past time for the GOP to end their war on our health care.

SECRETARY TOM PRICE ADMITS GOP SABOTAGE CAUSING PREMIUM INCREASES

On Tuesday, former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price confirmed that President Trump and Congressional Republicans chose a trillion-dollar tax break for corporations and the wealthiest at the expense of hardworking Americans’ health care, repealing the individual mandate to finance a trillion-dollar tax break for the wealthiest and corporations.

Months ago when the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that the TrumpTax would raise premiums by ten percent while kicking millions of Americans off of their coverage, Republican senators responded by accusing CBO of bias and dismissing their findings. Now, one of the Trump Administration’s lead saboteurs has admitted the truth: Republicans are responsible for upcoming rate hikes.

NEW SURVEY FINDS: 4 MILLION AMERICANS HAVE LOST COVERAGE SINCE 2016

On Tuesday, the Commonwealth Fund released a new survey which found nearly 4 million people have lost coverage since 2016. The uninsured rate among working age people is now 15.5 percent, a significant increase from 12.7 percent in 2016. Why did this occur? As Axios noted, “Commonwealth attributes the increase largely to the way Congress and the Trump administration has handled the ACA.” And while this development was completely avoidable, Americans are not standing by…

RECLAIM IDAHO SUBMITS 60,000 SIGNATURES TO GET MEDICAID EXPANSION ON THE BALLOT

On Monday, organizers from Reclaim Idaho, in a state which Donald Trump carried by more than thirty points, submitted the more than 60,000 signatures necessary to get a Medicaid expansion vote on the ballot come November.

While Gov. Butch Otter was working to sabotage the ACA, the people of Idaho were working to secure a vote on covering 62,000 more of their neighbors by expanding Medicaid. This week they succeeded, and Republican-governed states would do well to take heed: when you actively work to make your constituents’ health coverage worse, citizens take matters into their own hands.

Congratulations to the people of Idaho! We couldn’t imagine a better way to cap off this year’s Medicaid Awareness Month.