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Statement

Trump Threat to Withhold Payments and Sabotage Our Health Care Is ‘Heartless,’ MomsRising Leader Says

April 13, 2017
Health Care

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

Statement from Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, CEO and Executive Director of MomsRising.org, a national online and on-the-ground organization of more than 1 million mothers and their families, on President Trump’s threat to withhold subsidies required by the Affordable Care Act
“President Trump’s threat to withhold the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) subsidies is nothing less than a threat to sabotage the health coverage that millions of families rely on for life-saving care.
 
“Withholding these payments would destabilize the insurance markets and cause the premiums that families pay to skyrocket. His threat is heartless and shows complete disregard for our children and families. 
 
“We deserve better than for our families' health and our lives to be a bargaining chip in the President’s effort to save face after grassroots opposition forced House leaders to pull the dreadful ACA repeal bill he and his allies tried to pass. That legislation would have devastated tens of millions of families and damaged our economy deeply. There would have been compounding harm in Black, Latinx, Asian, Native American, LBGTQ+, rural and other medically underserved communities.
 
“There is good reason the ACA repeal legislation the President tried to pass did not have support from the public or the Congress. Instead of using threats and bullying, his administration should now work to protect and strengthen the ACA and protect Medicaid. That’s what the more than one million members of MomsRising want and what our economy and the country need.”
 

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.