Hey, Trump & Republican U.S. Senators: Stop Playing Political Football with our Lives!
Fast asleep and then eyes blink open. Stress. A little less air in the room. A lot more worry than moments before. The room feels smaller, tighter, walls heavier. Panic.
That’s what hearing that healthcare is yet again under threat feels like for millions of moms like me in our nation. This is not a drill. Over the course of the past several weeks we’ve heard proposals from the Republicans in the US Senate that have included everything from making pregnancy — and also what seems like pretty much every other common health condition — exempt from being covered due listing it as a pre-existing conditions, to severely cutting Medicaid which covers nearly one in three kids in our nation and also covers 70% of nursing home stays, to cutting up to 32 million people off healthcare.
The number 32 million was actually seriously tossed around.
Outrageous.
Make no mistake, when the Republicans in the US Senate start blithely recommending cutting tens of millions of people off of healthcare coverage as they follow Trump’s directives, they are playing political football with our children’s lives.
Yes, lives are on the line. Our lives. Our children’s lives. Your life, dear reader should something as disastrous as has been proposed pass and you have a health crisis.
Yet now the Republicans are tossing around a “skinny bill” which is a disaster in and of itself, leading to an estimated 16 million people losing coverage and a 20 percent increase in premiums for everyone else, and which if passed, is predicted to lead to an unvetted mystery bill in conference, written by the far-right Republicans, for a speedy vote with who knows what in it — even most members of Congress don’t know.
It could be anything. Let’s dive into the potential impact of only one of the recently proposed examples from above: Eighty-two percent of women in our nation become pregnant at some point in their lives-and we’ve all had a mother. Making pregnancy and maternity care a pre-existing condition is like saying breathing is a pre-existing condition. That’s bad for our economy, it’s bad for families, and it’s completely out of touch.
It’s preposterous.
There have been so many preposterous parts of the recent US Senate Republican proposals that I’ve lost count — and apparently so have they as they’ve now largely stopped publically announcing even what they’re going to be voting on until the last minute because they don’t want public scrutiny. Past proposals don’t bode well for families and this is no way to run a democracy. Health care bills need appropriate vetting before being voted on and everyone should have access to health care when they need it.
It’s time to get real for a moment: Everyone gets sick, or needs to go to the ER, or has a family member in crisis at one point or another. So everyone should have a chance to get better. Right? Right. Healthcare is a right, not a privilege.
Yet everyday lately it feels like Republicans in the U.S. Senate try to come up with new, cruel and ill-conceived ways to strip millions of Americans of their health insurance, facilitating a national health care crisis.
Now they are using a vote on the “skinny bill” to advance towards a mystery bill — and as this mystery bill evolves, one thing is clear: Most Republicans in the U.S. Senate have not read the bill, experts have not reviewed the bill, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has not scored the bill, Democrats haven’t been given a chance to see the bill, and more importantly, the American people know nothing about the bill. This secretive, partisan process has been shocking in its disregard for our families and our economy — and exposed the primary reason why Republicans are so persistent in their attempts to take a wrecking ball to our health care system: Politics.
There’s good news here: Because this healthcare crisis situation is about politics and not about policy, it doesn’t have to happen. U.S. Senate Republicans still have time to stand up and do what’s right: Protect and enhance the healthcare system, not take a wrecking ball to it.
Repealing the Affordable Care Act and replacing it with who knows what was never about health care and if that wasn’t already clear, this week’s circus act in the U.S. Senate proves it. Turn on your news and listen. We’re not hearing substantive policy debates, instead we’re hearing tired political slogans.
If this was really about health care and not just political posturing with our lives: Why are Republicans hiding from their constituents, and cowering away from attending or holding town hall meetings during recess?
If this was really about health care and not just U.S Senate Republicans following Trump without question: Why aren’t we hearing about ways to attract more insurers to the exchanges and cover more people with better, cheaper insurance?
If this is really about health care and not just about giving tax breaks to the wealthy: Why is the GOP so interested in defunding Planned Parenthood, rolling back Medicaid, while also cutting taxes for large pharmaceutical companies and wealthy individuals?
Because, it’s not about health care. It’s about politics and tax cuts for the very wealthy — and it’s about letting Trump be able to say he got a win at all costs.
The real deal is this: Congressional Republicans and Trump are playing politics with the health and wellbeing of America’s families and that’s unacceptable.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urged his party to have the “courage to begin the debate” when calling for a motion to proceed on efforts to repeal and replace. The “courage” to vote for a bill that didn’t even exist at the time. That’s not being courageous. That’s being irresponsible and callous to the lives of your constituents. The sad truth is, Sen. McConnell and his party have shown anything but courage throughout their shameful persistence to send our health care system into a literal death spiral.
Instead, the Republican Party and Trump have thrown out all of our political norms and good governance practices, leaving us with a process shrouded in secrecy. Each new plan that the Republicans have announced has failed to allow the necessary time for analyzing how it would affect coverage and affordability, how state budgets would be depleted, or how their legislation would destabilize insurance markets and threaten our economy.
The latest Republican plan, the so-called “skinny repeal,” would strip health insurance coverage from more than 16 million people, cause insurers to exit exchanges as less young and healthy people would purchase health insurance, and drive up premiums for all Americans by an estimated 20 percent. Making matters worse, the bill is designed as a Trojan Horse — one that could pass the Senate and bring the legislation into conference, where the hard-right flank of the House Republicans could amend the bill to fully repeal other critical protections provided by the Affordable Care Act — including Medicaid expansion.
Their plan threatens the most vulnerable amongst us: low-income families, people with disabilities, rural communities and the elderly. These negative impacts will only be compounded for people of color and members of the LGBTQ community.
Any vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act or gut Medicaid funding is a vote to harm our nation’s families and economy. That is why 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 our care.
Moms persevere through months of sleepless nights with waking babies. We stay up late helping our kids with homework for decades. And we do it all while being the primary breadwinner in nearly half of American households. We are indefatigable. We know we shouldn’t have to be kept up at night because our family’s healthcare is repeatedly under threat. We expect more from our nation’s leader. Every U.S. Senator can be assured that the moms of America are watching and nothing stops us when it comes to the health of our children and families.
Simply put, the moms of America will remember. This partisan, secretive process and its disregard for families and our economy has gone on for too long. It must stop. Now before it’s too late.