Healthcare is a Civil Right:
Call Your Senators Today!
“The Senate Bill is not a healthcare bill, it’s a massive transfer of wealth from middle class and poor families to the richest people in America.”
Former President Barack Obama
The Senate is gearing up for a vote on their own version of the American Healthcare Act (AHCA) that passed the House last month, and advocates across the country are calling their Senators to make sure that Medicaid, protections for people with pre-existing conditions, seniors, kids, and people with disabilities are protected! We must protect the underserved and most vulnerable in our communities.
ACTS and its partners at the National Action Network therefore urge everyone to call their senators before July 4th to tell them "healthcare is a civil right."
CALL: 866-426-2631
The Senate Bill Behind Closed Doors
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Health Care Bill drafted by Senator Mitch McConnell and his team behind closed doors would deny health insurance from 22 million Americans. Medicaid would also be starved from billions of dollars of necessary funding by the proposed bill. To add insult to injury, the Senate Health Care Bill cuts taxes for the very wealthiest Americans by a total of $592 billion, financed by the suffering of the old and the poor. These poisons are deadly in the open, but even worse when brewed behind closed doors.
“We don’t know how much [the bill] will cost, we don’t know if this bill will make health care more affordable for Americans,” said Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah.
That’s because, unlike the Affordable Care Act in 2009, Mitch McConnell’s health care bill was drafted in secret by 13 Senate Republicans—all of who are men. As they plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act, they also plan to strip coverage for mental health by 2019 and drastically reduce funding for maternity care and emergency services across the country. Health care is one-sixth of the American economy, and yet there has not been a single hearing on the Senate Health Care Bill, and none are scheduled. Mitch McConnell and his 13-man crew hope to push the bill through without us noticing, and before impartial review boards like the American Hospital Association scrutinize its contents.
The message is clear: this senate bill is a tax-cut for the rich financed by bullying the poor behind their backs.
What Can We Do?
Quite Alot, Actually.
ACTS and its partners at the National Action Network urge everyone to call their senators and tell them “Health Care is a civil right." We must protect the underserved and most vulnerable in our communities: our loved ones with pre-existing conditions, seniors, children, people with disabilities, and low-income families. ACTS also encourages people to call relatives and friends in states with Republican Senators to ask them to join our cause and call the United States Senate.
CALL: 866-426-2631
Or You Could...
1.Submit an amendment to help the Senate Democrats with the filibuster-by-amendment strategy to stop Trumpcare. Go to www.ouramendment.org and input your name, city, zip code, and email address and the website will generate a personalized amendment with your information. You can also submit a personal healthcare story to be read into the Congressional record if you'd like. The website will automatically email a copy of your amendment to Senator Schumer and will send you a copy that you can print and deliver to both Senators' offices. After you submit your own amendment, please share with at least five other people around the country and ask them to do it too. Thousands of amendments have been submitted so far. If the Democrats can offer 40,000 amendments during vote-a-rama, they can delay the healthcare bill until after the 2018 mid-term elections.
2. Write a letter to the editor about the Senate healthcare bill. Personal stories are especially important because they humanize the otherwise abstract policy discussion and illustrate some of the potential effects of this horrendous bill at the local level. Here is an analysis of the GOP bills from the Huffington Post you may be helpful in your writing; it describes the differences in between the ACA and the GOP House and Senate bills in clear terms. We need letters in every paper in the region so consider sending your letter to an outlet other than the Post Standard/Syracuse.com; don't forget about the Citizen and the smaller community publications.
Stop the GOP Senate Bill:
A Terrible Choice For All Americans
