Sign on—If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re on the menu.
May 23, 2017
Awful doesn’t even come close to describing it.
The American Health Care Act (AHCA/Trumpcare) bill, which recently passed the U.S. House, is a disaster for women's health. It cuts 24 million people from health care and puts pregnancy—among other things—on the pre-existing condition list, which is terrible for the 82% of women who become moms.
To add insult to injury, Republican leaders in the U.S. Senate chose exactly ZERO women for the working group selected to draft their version of the health care bill.
If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re on the menu.
Tell the U.S. Senate: Reject the American Health Care Act (AHCA/Trumpcare) and do NOT repeal the Affordable Care Act!
Why is this bill so very bad for women? Well, in addition to stripping health care from tens of millions of people—several even more dangerous provisions threaten the health and wellbeing of women and families. These changes would gut protections for people with pre-existing conditions (like pregnancy, c-sections, or breast cancer) and remove the requirement for insurance providers to cover essential health benefits (like co-pay free birth control/annual exams and maternity coverage).
To make the bill even more infuriating, Trumpcare gives billions in tax cuts to the wealthy while gutting our nation’s cherished Medicaid program. Medicaid covers 13 million U.S. women of reproductive age and accounts for 75% of all publicly funded family planning services. This critical program also finances nearly half of all births in the U.S., making sure new moms and their babies get the care that they need!
These impacts would be particularly severe for women of color and women in rural areas. In fact, Medicaid has long played an even larger role in providing health coverage and paying for care in rural areas than in urban areas. Nearly 1.7 million rural Americans have newly gained coverage through the Medicaid expansion, many of them women. [6]
Tell these U.S. Senators: Work to improve women’s health in our country, not destroy it. Keep the ACA and reject Trumpcare! http://action.momsrising.org/sign/ahca_womens_health/?source=blog
We have to make sure women’s voices are heard across the country and through the halls of Congress! Claim your seat at the table by signing your name in the link above.
Trumpcare would also defund Planned Parenthood, cutting off health care—including birth control, cancer screenings, and other essential health services—for millions of low-income women, many of whom have no other health care provider. Blocking access to care at Planned Parenthood hurts communities that are struggling to get by the most, as well as communities of color who face systemic barriers to care.
To be clear, the enactment of the AHCA/Trumpcare would create an absolute crisis for women in our country, particularly for those who are in vulnerable communities, including: low-income families, people with disabilities, rural communities, and the elderly; with a compounding impact in Black, Latinx, Asian, Native American, and LGBTQ+ communities. The Senate must reject it and instead work to improve health care for women!
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