Trump/GOP Health Care Bill Threatens Millions of Lives – New York Republicans Pushed Vote to Passage
Plan gives $600 Billion in Tax Cuts to Rich & Power at the Expense of Working Families
In response to the House of Representatives voting to pass the American Health Care Act, which will dismantle the US health care system, causing millions to lose health coverage and threatening the quality of coverage of others, Karen Scharff, executive director of Citizen Action of New York, said:
“House Republicans just proved that their only concern is satisfying their wealthy donors no matter the cost to their constituents. Trump care will strip millions of people of health coverage, bankrupt families and make it harder for people to get the medical care they need. Members of Congress like Faso, Tenney, and Stefanik had a chance to stop it, but they chose tax cuts for the wealthy over health care for their constituents.
“When Donald Trump and Republican leadership tried to pass the American Health Care Act in March, it was soundly rejected. Working families aren’t happy with the idea of taking away health coverage from 24 million people, giving huge tax cuts to the super-rich, and big kickbacks to insurance executives. Despite hearing from hundreds of thousands of constituents urging them to drop this plan, Republicans passed a bill that hurts, even more, people than the original.”
Under the House bill, the federal government would no longer provide enhanced funding for new Medicaid enrollees after 2019, forcing most or all of the 31 states and Washington D.C. that have adopted the ACA’s Medicaid expansion to drop it, older consumers could be charged premiums five times higher than younger consumers, and people with pre-existing conditions would be dumped into the historically ineffective and expensive high-risk pool market.
Citizen Action members in Representatives Tenney, Faso and Stefanik’s districts said:
“When I moved to New York, I needed a more affordable health care option that would cover me with a pre-existing condition and I found it with the Affordable Care Act. But now my Congressman, John Faso, has voted to take that all away – it’s a death sentence for millions across the country,” said Julia Haines a resident of Shokan. “How dare he show his face again in this district after he’s cut our health care to give massive tax breaks to the rich.”
“When I hear all those chants of ‘Repeal Obamacare’ they sing like a threat to my life,” said Binghamton resident, Maria Salvo “With so much at stake, the threat feels so immediate. Congresswoman Tenney’s vote today to is like a present physical danger.”