Tell Your Legislators Not to Vote for an ACA Replacement that Guts Medicaid

In the past week, we’ve seen draft legislation from House Republicans outlining their plan for a replacement for the Affordable Care Act. That legislation would repeal mandatory essential health benefits, it would change subsidies to be age-based rather than income-based, and perhaps most damaging, it would phase out the ACA’s Medicaid expansion by 2020.

According to the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation, the Medicaid expansion has been responsible for providing health insurance to more than 14 million people who otherwise could not afford it. Please call your legislators and tell them: the House Republican replacement plan materially hurts their constituents, and they should oppose it.

(In this script, I cite the number of beneficiaries of the Medicaid expansion in Pennsylvania. To find that number for your state, look here.)

Hello [Senator|Representative] [name]. My name is [name] and I am one of your constituents in [place], [zip]. My phone number is [phone], but I don’t need a call back.

I am calling today to ask you to please oppose draft legislation from House Republicans that would replace the Affordable Care Act with policies that would eliminate the Medicaid expansion. Nationwide, expanded Medicaid coverage has extended health insurance to more than 14 million Americans, according to the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation. And in Pennsylvania alone, it has insured 600,000 people who otherwise would not have medical coverage.

A vote to end the ACA’s Medicaid expansion provisions is a vote to materially harm your constituents. I would urge you to take that into consideration, and then oppose the House ACA replacement plan.