ACTION ALERT: US House will vote on GOP Healthcare bill TODAY!

The US House will vote TODAY on the American Healthcare Act (AHCA), the GOP bill, backed by President Trump, that would repeal and replace Obamacare and is estimated would result in higher premiums and 24 million Americans losing coverage. The bill was shelved last month after failing to secure enough right-wing votes, but it’s gotten a makeover — and is worse than before, especially for women.

Like its predecessor, the new AHCA still:

• Makes coverage less affordable for low- and moderate-income women and families by reducing subsidies and allowing seniors to be charged more
• Makes deep, permanent cuts to Medicaid and the phases out of Medicaid expansion, which would threaten coverage for the millions of low-income women and families, pregnant women, women with disabilities, and elderly women that depend on the program for coverage
• Expands restrictions on abortion coverage for both public and private insurance plans could potentially dismantle insurance coverage for abortion
• Cuts funding to states and gives big tax cuts to the wealthy and to insurance companies

But, to appeal to right-wing members, the new AHCA grants states new, potentially harmful options, such as:

• Eliminating coverage for essential health benefits (EHB) like prevention, hospitalization and maternity care. Without the EHB standards, women would be forced to pay out-of-pocket for maternity care, potentially costing them thousands of dollars to deliver a child
• Allowing insurers to charge people with pre-existing conditions like diabetes, asthma, cancer, and even pregnancy more for their healthcare as long as they set up so-called “high risk” pools where insurance is offered at greatly increased rates

Changes made to the bill to appeal to conservatives have many moderate Republicans nervous. Some, like Ohio’s Dave Joyce and Mike Turner, who opposed the bill in March could be potential “NO” votes for today’s vote. No matter who represents you, they need to hear from their constituents.

TAKE ACTION

Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224–3121 to be connected with your member of Congress, and tell them to vote NO on the American Healthcare Act. If they thought it was bad last month, the new version is even worse.

Tell your Representative to vote NO on the bill that would cause millions to lose coverage or pay dramatically more for health coverage — and would treat being a woman as a pre-existing condition.

And, use our AHCA Fact Sheet as a guide for more information about how women would be disproportionately impacted by the bill.

Sign up for WPPN emails to stay up-to-date on legislative updates impacting women and calls to action: http://womenspublicpolicynetwork.org/