With breaking news that there aren’t enough votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act in the U.S. Senate at this time, the moms, dads, parents and caregivers of America celebrate. Now, instead of working to build support for yet another measure that would take health insurance away from tens of millions of people, U.S. Senate Republican leaders should start over and work in a bipartisan way to strengthen the Affordable Care Act, stabilize the insurance marketplaces and improve our health care system so that it works for everyone.
 
Passage of the deceptively named and highly destructive Better Care Reconciliation Act would have been catastrophic for moms, children and families. For the U.S. Senate to then pivot to repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) without a replacement was akin to a toddler throwing a tantrum. The Congressional Budget Office has already determined that repealing the ACA without a replacement would leave 32 million people uninsured and double premiums within a decade.
 
The moms of America have been clear on this issue: We want Congress to stop letting politics drive their actions and instead work in a bipartisan way to secure and strengthen the Affordable Care Act. We want the Trump administration to stop sabotaging the insurance marketplaces. And we want every family to be able to get the health care they need.
 
The measures Senate Leader McConnell has been advancing for months would do the opposite. They would strip health insurance from tens of millions, make coverage unaffordable for those who need it the most, end Medicaid as we know it, gut consumer protections, and undermine our country’s economic growth and prosperity. This would create a crisis for our nation and particularly for families in vulnerable communities, including low-income families, people with disabilities, the elderly, and those who live in rural and medically underserved communities, with a compounding impact in Black, Latinx, Asian, Native American, and LGBTQ+ communities.
 
Tens of thousands of MomsRising members across the country have been making calls, attending meetings, sending letters, sharing their stories, and taking other actions to urge Congress to protect the Affordable Care Act and support Medicaid. We will continue speaking out against every plan that attacks our families’ health and well-being, including this Thursday, July 20, starting out in the lobby of the Hart Senate Office Building at 10:30 a.m. when MomsRising members will deliver health care stories and tell senators to strengthen, not undermine, our health care.