Call/Text/Fax Your Senators NOW
In case you haven’t heard yet, the next push to fuck up healthcare is starting tomorrow:
And, btw, for those remembering how you can’t fly post-brain surgery, they’ve thought of that now, too:
It’s telling that they’re asking someone to risk their lives to come ruin lives, though, isn’t it?
Inspired by Arthritis Ashley, Fashionably ill — www.jessicagimeno.com, and others fighting alongside me, this is the (very long) fax I just sent to my Senators about the proposed health vote tomorrow via Resistbot (Some data/wording additionally comes from Caring for Us Indivisible’s post at https://www.facebook.com/caringforus/posts/2016121665288659). Please feel free to utilize language that applies to you below in order to help you connect, but also please make sure to personalize this for your condition(s), state(s), etc.
I oppose ANY BILL THAT RESULTS IN LOSS OF HEALTHCARE FOR ANYONE. Human lives matter far more than a political game rooted in racism, classism, misogyny, ableism, and other forms of bigotry.
As a chronic illness/disability patient, I fear for my life if protections granted by the ACA are removed. My medications cost over $6,000 a month without insurance and there’s no way my husband and I — a state worker and a small business owner, respectively — can afford that. Even when I was working for our state, there would have been no way. This does not even touch on the multiple medical appointments I must attend to try to control my chronic pain and improve my quality of life. Just because I was born and then fell ill quickly in life doesn’t mean my life matters less than anyone else’s. I am not on SSDI, but would be forced to apply if this bill passes. I am not the only one who will have to do so — and I know I will be tied up in multiple appeals processes as so many wind up being. I could literally die waiting for care I need to survive.
I cannot be the only person who sees this as a problem — or as a move against those of us with multiple intersecting identities experiencing various marginalizations.
As a sexuality educator and a person holding a MS in health care administration, I can say that efforts to repeal will cause many more issues than they solve, complicating everyone’s lives from patient to administrator to provider and beyond. This will negatively affect how our country handles various health issues, especially chronic conditions affecting those of us with vaginas. We cannot allow women to go back to being afraid to access reproductive health services — nor can we afford a life without Planned Parenthood providing necessary cancer and infection screenings, especially with AB206 on the table here in the state threatening OB/GYN access.
THERE IS QUITE LITERALLY NO WAY TO IMPROVE TRUMPCARE IN ANY FORM. FULL REPEAL, WHICH WOULD CAUSE 32 MILLION PEOPLE TO LOSE THEIR HEALTHCARE, IS STILL AN OPTION. THAT MEANS 10% OF ALL AMERICANS WOULD HAVE NO INSURANCE OPTIONS NEXT YEAR, AND 75% WOULD HAVE NO INSURANCE OPTIONS BY 2026.
The CBO score released on Thursday for the latest version of Trumpcare does not include the Cruz amendment, using the wildly misleading HHS score instead. That means the number of uninsured will be even higher. The Trump administration is seeking to woo hesitant senators with $200 billion, which is nowhere near enough–a mere 17% of the cut Medicaid funding that may not even go to Medicaid. It’s the sum that experts think is necessary for substance abuse treatment, and we’re not even into Medicaid yet. Trump doesn’t want Republicans to leave DC at all until they pass a “healthcare” bill (In quotes, of course, because Trumpcare is nothing of the kind–it’s a monumental wealth redistribution bill from low-income and middle-class people to the wealthy that decimates our healthcare). Millions of lives and a sixth of our economy be damned.
Between inaccurate information and trying to hide things from the American public, this entire process spells disaster for our country. Republicans will be voting without knowing what they’re voting on, haven’t see the final bills and won’t until immediately before the vote, but no matter what anywhere from 22 million to 32 million people will lose their healthcare within a decade. In the words of the number two Republican in the Senate, John Cornyn, it’s simply too much of a luxury for Republicans to know what healthcare measure they’ll be voting on before they literally cast their votes.
That doesn’t even touch on the fact that current iteration of the HHS USED ACA FUNDS IN A SYSTEMIC AND THOROUGH CAMPAIGN AGAINST IT and has not been reprimanded.
Andy Slavitt, the former CMS director, has been a breath of fresh air throughout this process, helping people to understand the devastating effects of repeal/repeal and replace on individuals, states, and the US’ health systems at large.
As a young person well versed in the intersections of politics and health — who has spent months researching what different iterations of these repeal bills will do — I urge you to help shut down this process once and for all.
Please help to save my life by voting against this and urging others to do so — not just because I’m one of your constituents or a fellow Wisconsinite, but because it’s the decent and humane thing to do.

Kirsten is a genderqueer writer, sexuality educator, and chronic illness/disability activist in Wisconsin. She runs Chronic Sex which highlights how illnesses and disabilities affect ‘Quality of Life’ issues such as self-love, self-care, relationships, sexuality, and sex.
Interested in helping with Kirsten’s work? Visit our ‘support us’ page or shoot her some tasty coffee money.
