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GOP Healthcare Bill on Life Support

   

Not even a meeting with Trump could save the GOP’s thus far ill-fated “repeal and replace” for Obamacare.

What’s going on?

As you may know, Republicans unveiled the American Health Care Act recently, to much fanfare and quite a bit of criticism. After years of attempting to simply repeal the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, it turns out that Republicans never really had a plan for replacing it, as evidenced by the fact that they can’t even come close to agreeing on a proposal now. Today, Republicans met with Trump to try to hash out a deal, and left empty-handed.

Why is it important?

Should the AHCA pass in its current form, the Congressional Budget Office projects that over a 10 year period, 24 million Americans will lose their insurance coverage. That translates into real human pain, suffering, and death. The stakes don’t really get higher than this.

What can I do?

The good news is that Republicans currently seem unable to come to terms with one another. My recommendation is to look up your Congressional delegates and contact them–even if they are Republicans. Especially if they are Republicans. Figure out where they tend to be on the ideological scale: to far-right and Trump-supporting Republicans, you should express your outrage that the current bill doesn’t go far enough to gut Obamacare. If you are dealing with a more moderate Republican, tell them you are worried about your own coverage and that you want to be assured that you won’t be harmed by their efforts. As long as they can’t come to an agreement, they can’t dismantle the ACA.

If your delegation consists of Democrats, encourage them to block and obstruct this bill as much as possible. Under no circumstances should Republicans be permitted to undo the ACA, unless they are going to replace it with something far superior (and let’s be real: they won’t).