Good Afternoon SEIU Healthcare,
I’m writing because I’m deeply saddened… and incredibly angry.
Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted narrowly (217-213) to pass ?an unpopular and dangerous healthcare bill that threatens our families, our patients, and our jobs. The so-called American Health Care Act is packed with measures that will make getting care harder, more expensive and in some cases impossible. The AHCA hits seniors, people with disabilities, kids, and people who aren’t rich.
Here’s what the AHCA does. The bill…
- strips pre-existing conditions protections for everyone, wherever your insurance comes from;
- reinstates lifetime caps and annual limits;
- guts Medicaid by nearly a trillion dollars, the money our nursing homes and home care programs rely on;
- ends Medicaid expansion, endangering over 700,000 Pennsylvanians
- punishes people between 50 and 64 years old by charging them five times what younger consumers pay for their premiums
- will result in job loss for healthcare workers
What does Congress plan to do with all the funds that aren’t being used to keep people well?
They want to give it in tax breaks to insurance CEOs, pharmaceutical companies, and America’s richest billionaires
This legislation is so bad that Congress actually exempted itself from its provisions! That’s right. Under the AHCA, you and I will lose protections for our pre-existing conditions – but our members of Congress will not!
Because of all of hard work and organizing four Republicans in PA stood with us. Reps. Costello, Fitzpatrick, Meehan, and Dent all did the right thing and opposed this bill. Those votes only happened because of our rallies, phone calls, letters to the editors, postcard drop-offs and the stories we shared. This experience and energy is what we will take with us into the next round of the fight as we continue to speak out for affordable, quality care for ALL of us, not just Congress.
And the fight is far from over. The bill must go to the Senate, then to conference, and then back to the house. The voices of nurses and healthcare workers will be critical in determining what happens next.
Please help to launch the next phase of our work by taking a minute right now to call your Congressman to let him know how you feel about the vote he cast today.
If you’re not sure who your Rep is, use this link, enter your zip code, and find out
http://www.house.gov/htbin/findrep
ROLL CALL:
VOTED NO on stripping us of care, costing us jobs, and rewarding insurance companies – Please call to THANK YOU!
PA 01 Bob Brady (202) 225-4731
PA 02 Dwight Evans (202) 225-4001
PA 06 Ryan Costello (202) 225-4315
PA 07 Pat Meehan (202) 225-2011
PA 08 Brian Fitzpatrick (202) 225-4276
PA 13 Brendan Boyle (202) 225-6111
PA 14 Mike Doyle (202) 225-2135
PA 15 Charlie Dent (202) 225-6411
PA 17 Matt Cartwright (202) 225-5546
VOTED YES to strip of us of care, cost us jobs, and give tax breaks to insurance companies – Please call to express disappointment and outrage!
PA 03 Mike Kelly (202) 225-5406
PA 04 Scott Perry (202) 225-5836
PA 05 Glenn Thompson (202) 225-5121
PA 09 Bill Shuster (202) 225-2431
PA 10 Tom Marino (202) 225-3731
PA 11 Lou Barletta (202) 225-6511
PA 12 Keith Rothfus (202) 225-2065
PA 16 Lloyd Smucker (202) 225-2411
PA 18 Tim Murphy (202) 225-2301
Let’s keep up the pressure. Failure is not an option. We may have lost this battle, but we can win the war.
Yours in Solidarity,
Matt Yarnell
President
SEIU Healthcare PA