Fighting Back: “Democrats will never stop fighting to ensure health care is a right for all.”

May 5, 2018 JanF Editors' Choice, Fighting Back 4

 
 

The Weekly Democratic Party Address was delivered by Congresswoman Katherine Clark of Massachusetts.

(Rep. Clark highlighted the one year anniversary of the House Republicans casting their votes for the monstrosity of Trumpcare which would have had devastating impacts on the American people.)

“Right after voting to take health care away from millions of Americans, Republicans boarded party buses in front of the Capitol and drove to the White House for a champagne toast.

“While they were celebrating, families across the country began to panic about how they would care for themselves and their loved ones.” […]

“The Trumpcare repeal bill would have caused soaring costs; pushed 23 million Americans off health coverage; shredded protections for those with pre-existing conditions; and imposed a crushing age tax on older Americans. This vote caused anxiety and fear. […]

“We know the security of the American family starts with the ability to access affordable, quality health care. No one should have to choose between the health of their family and their ability to put food on the table or make a mortgage payment.

“Democrats will never stop fighting to ensure health care is a right for all, not a privilege for a few.”

(CSPAN link to Weekly Democratic Address: here)

Transcript: Congresswoman Katherine Clark Delivers Weekly Democratic Address

“May 4th is the one-year anniversary of the House Republicans’ vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act. It is a day I won’t forget.

“Right after voting to take health care away from millions of Americans, Republicans boarded party buses in front of the Capitol and drove to the White House for a champagne toast.

“While they were celebrating, families across the country began to panic about how they would care for themselves and their loved ones. After the vote, my office phone started ringing with calls from constituents like Jen.

“At 19, Jen was diagnosed with Lupus. Her life became filled with frequent medical visits and prescription refills.

“Jen knew health insurance was critical for managing her chronic disease, but never more so than when she became pregnant with her first child.

“Jen was deemed as having a high-risk pregnancy, and had to undergo frequent tests and visits with specialists. When her daughter arrived, her baby spent 24 hours in intensive care. Jen and her husband were able to manage these scares without concern for cost or coverage.

“But now that Republicans had repealed the Affordable Care Act, Jen feared she would be denied coverage because of her pre-existing condition.

“I also heard from a mom whose son had been struggling with substance use disorder. Like so many victims of the opioid crisis, when he finally found treatment, he could only pay for it because of the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid coverage.

“The Republican health care repeal left desperate families struggling to save their children from the opioid epidemic without a way to pay for treatment.

“Another family contacted me sick with worry for their daughter who was recently diagnosed with Leukemia.

“The Republican repeal vote kept them lying awake at night wondering how they would afford treatment, doctors’ visits and overnight hospital stays.

“As a mom of three sons, these stories are difficult to hear, but they are far more painful to live through.

“The Trumpcare repeal bill would have caused soaring costs; pushed 23 million Americans off health coverage; shredded protections for those with pre-existing conditions; and imposed a crushing age tax on older Americans. This vote caused anxiety and fear.

“And how did Republicans respond? They threw themselves a backslapping party and said to the American people, ‘You’re on your own.’

“But the truth is most of us will face a health crisis that we can’t handle on our own. For my family, that crisis came when my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and my father experienced a debilitating stroke. Without reliable health insurance, the cost of their care would have been out of reach.

“And if the Republicans had their way, health care would have been unobtainable for millions of families like ours.

“The American people ultimately defeated the raw deal Republicans gave them on health care, but Republicans are now coming after Medicare and Medicaid.

“Democrats are offering A Better Deal: let’s protect and improve the Affordable Care Act, and take bold action to drive down prescription drug prices.

“We know the security of the American family starts with the ability to access affordable, quality health care. No one should have to choose between the health of their family and their ability to put food on the table or make a mortgage payment.

“Democrats will never stop fighting to ensure health care is a right for all, not a privilege for a few.”

Any bolding has been added.

~

Congress is in recess and there was no weekly news conference by Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday.

There were, however some news releases marking the one year anniversary of the attempted repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

Dear Colleague: Anniversary of House Passage of Trumpcare

May 4, 2018

Dear Democratic Colleague,

One year ago today, on May 4, 2017, House Republicans cast their votes for the monstrosity of Trumpcare. Despite the pleas of families across America, Republicans voted for a bill that would have:

– Skyrocketed families’ premiums, deductibles and out-of-pocket costs;
– Pushed more than 23 million hard-working Americans off their coverage;
– Destroyed key protections for people with pre-existing conditions;
– Imposed a crushing age tax on Americans age 50-64, increasing out-of-pocket costs for older Americans as much as $12,000;
– Stolen billions from Medicaid and Medicare.

House Republicans voted to destroy the promise of affordable health care in America. Fortunately, with the continuing mobilization of the American people sharing their stories to protect the Affordable Care Act, the Senate did not pass the Trumpcare bill.

However, Republicans did enact the GOP tax scam, which will drive up health premiums for families across America. After adding $2 trillion to the debt with their tax bill, the Trump Budget calls for devastating cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security disability, education, food stamps and more.

The Republican assault on health care is a raw deal for the American people. Democrats are offering A Better Deal: bold action to drive down the cost of prescription drugs, protect and improve the ACA to expand families’ access to affordable health care, and strengthen Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security for all Americans.

Across America, advocates have been speaking up to remind families of House Republicans’ vote to repeal the ACA one year ago. I urge you to mark this anniversary, and to talk about how the cruelty of Trumpcare would have impacted your constituents.

We can be very proud of our efforts to expand access to affordable health care to all, and of our work to protect Americans’ health security from the callous and misguided attacks of House Republicans and President Trump.

Thank you for your leadership.

Best Regards,
Nancy Pelosi

~

Tom Price: GOP Tax Scam Drives Up Health Care Costs

Looks like Tom Price – Trump’s former U.S. Health & Human Services Secretary and one of Republicans’ favorite voices on health care – is finally admitting the truth about the GOP tax scam’s repeal of the individual mandate:

“There are many, and I’m one of them, who believes that that actually will harm the pool in the exchange market, because you’ll likely have individuals who are younger and healthier not participating in that market, and consequently, that drives up the cost for other folks within that market.”

We can’t believe we’re saying this… but he’s right.

As the CBO found, repealing the individual mandate in the GOP tax scam will lead to a 10 percent average premium hike, beginning in 2019, and 13 million more uninsured Americans.

The GOP tax scam is a raw deal that will increase families’ health costs in order to hand massive tax breaks to Wall Street, pharmaceutical companies, corporations shipping jobs overseas and the wealthiest 1 percent.

Republicans must stop the empty rhetoric now and work with Democrats on real, bipartisan tax reform that puts the middle class first and to drive down health care costs for all working Americans.

~

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4 Comments

  1. Nancy Pelosi: Statement on Anniversary of House Passage of Trumpcare

    San Francisco – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement on the one year anniversary of the House voting to pass its version of the Trumpcare bill:

    “One year ago today, House Republicans voted to raise Americans’ health costs, push 23 million people off their health coverage, dismantle protections for those with pre-existing conditions, and impose a crushing age tax on older Americans. Families across America had shared heartbreaking stories of the suffering Trumpcare would inflict on them and their loved ones, but House Republicans refused to listen. Now, those families are once again speaking out to hold Republicans accountable for attacking their health care.

    “Trumpcare was a billionaires’ tax cut disguised as a health care bill. Thankfully, the relentless courage and activism of the American people stopped Trumpcare in the Senate. But even after the collapse of Trumpcare, the Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans have been cynically working to sabotage Americans’ health care, driving higher premiums and fewer choices for hard-working Americans. Instead of working in a bipartisan fashion to update and improve the Affordable Care Act, Republicans used the GOP tax scam to drive up health premiums for families across America.

    “The relentless Republican assault on families’ health care is a raw deal for the American people. Democrats believe Americans deserve A Better Deal, including bold action to drive down the cost of prescription drugs that burdens seniors and families everywhere. Republicans should join Democrats to improve and update the Affordable Care Act, bring down Americans’ health care costs and expand the availability of affordable, quality coverage to more Americans.”

  2. Republicans are discovering that the demonization of Nancy Pelosi is falling on deaf ears.

    Republicans have been banking on a strategy of tying Democratic candidates to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to save their majority. But some GOP strategists are becoming increasingly worried their party is relying too much on attacking the would-be speaker rather than their own accomplishments.

    Some Republicans fear this Pelosi-heavy strategy is one with diminishing returns. These Republicans view recent special election results as evidence the GOP needs more than just an anti-Pelosi campaign to win over key independent voters who will decide the critical elections in November that will determine the majority.

    “There is increasing evidence that tying candidates to Pelosi as a campaign tactic may not have the impact needed to bring a race home for Republicans. Just ask Rick Saccone,” David Winston, a Republican pollster close to House GOP leaders, wrote a couple weeks ago in Roll Call. […]

    Two weeks ago, The Washington Post-ABC News poll found a similar result. It asked respondents to rate whether a candidate “who shares your opinion on Nancy Pelosi” is important in deciding their vote. Of the 35 percent who said it was important, only 17 percent considered the Pelosi factor “extremely important” and a healthy majority of 60 percent who said it was not important.

    The most important role for Pelosi, in GOP campaigns, will be to fire up the conservative base. Which is helpful in heavily Republican seats like Arizona’s 8th Congressional District — but not as much in the first 30 to 40 battleground House seats where suburban independents will decide the election. They need to hear more than how the candidates feel about what Pelosi has been up to that week.

  3. Pushing OMG-Pelosi works on both extremes of the political continuum. But not in the middle. Running on the right to healthcare is at least one of the keys to getting Congress back so we can work on making it better and more sure. Holding the Good Thought.

  4. Jan, thanks so much for this post. How Rethugs can actively work to kill health care for their fellow citizens boggles my mind. I loathe Rethug pols with a visceral loathing nothing can assuage, and despise the contemptibles who believe what they say.

    And as for demonizing Pelosi, who is being targeted by the extreme left—faugh! I see misogyny. Why is it okay to elect a doddering, not-very-bright nor well-educated 80-year-old like Ronnie Ray-Gun to political office but not a sharp, 78-year-old WOMAN who called in Congressional chips to get health care passed? To me this is yet another example of Bernie Bros-driven misogyny. Saint Bernard is no spring chicken, yet he is worshipped like a god by these eejits.

    (Snorting, pawing the ground, and breathing fire) Yes, I’m an aging dragon who sees misogyny everywhere she looks. Yep.

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