We all know the big news this week was the U.S. House of Representatives passing TrumpCare, the bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act. But now the legislation goes to the Senate, where it has a long way to go before passing into law.

What The Bill Means

  • Republicans changed their bill several times before the final vote – here are the details on the version that finally passed off the House floor:
  • A total of 24 million people across the country would lose their health insurance.
  • Premiums would increase, especially for older Americans. With age discrimination legalized, many people aged 40-65 could be paying seven times or more as much for insurance as they do today.
  • Medicaid would be slashed by $880 billion, leading to cuts to health care for low-income families, special education for disabled children, and services for the long term disabled.
  • Planned Parenthood would be defunded federally.

 

Pre-Existing Conditions

One of the most shocking and latest developments in the bill was the change to allow insurance companies to discriminate based on pre-existing conditions and even deny you health care coverage when you need it most.  Here’s a partial list of those conditions under TrumpCare:


AIDS/HIV, acid reflux, acne, ADD, addiction, Alzheimer’s/dementia, anemia, aneurysm, angioplasty, anorexia, anxiety, arrhythmia, arthritis, asthma, atrial fibrillation, autism, bariatric surgery, basal cell carcinoma, bipolar disorder, blood clot, breast cancer, bulimia, bypass surgery, celiac disease, cerebral aneurysm, cerebral embolism, cerebral palsy, cerebral thrombosis, cervical cancer, colon cancer, colon polyps, congestive heart failure, COPD, Crohn’s disease, cystic fibrosis, DMD, depression, diabetes, disabilities, Down syndrome, eating disorder, enlarged prostate, epilepsy, glaucoma, gout, heart disease, heart murmur, heartburn, hemophilia, hepatitis C, herpes, high cholesterol, hypertension, hysterectomy, kidney disease, kidney stones, kidney transplant, leukemia, lung cancer, lupus, lymphoma, mental health issues, migraines, MS, muscular dystrophy, narcolepsy, nasal polyps, obesity, OCD, organ transplant, osteoporosis, pacemaker, panic disorder, paralysis, paraplegia, Parkinson’s disease, pregnancy, restless leg syndrome, schizophrenia, seasonal affective disorder, seizures, sickle cell disease, skin cancer, sleep apnea, sleep disorders, stent, stroke, thyroid issues, tooth disease, tuberculosis, and ulcers.


Shockingly, even pregnancy or having been the victim of a rape or sexual assault could be cause for your health insurer to drop your coverage. No woman should ever have to think twice about reporting a rape to the police because she’s worried about losing her health care. But it should be no surprise that these guys:

Aren’t looking out for what’s best for women.

 

What Comes Next In The Senate

Now the bill goes to the Senate, where our own Washington champions Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray are fighting hard to kill the bill and protect our health care.

Republicans may have a harder time moving the bill through the Senate than the House – they have a narrower majority, and several Republican senators have already expressed serious concerns about the bill. If we keep up our effort and if people across America call their Senator, march, and organize, we can put an end to this.

We’re lucky to have two champions for health care like Cantwell and Murray representing us in the Senate. But we’ll need to help support people in other states working to lobby their delegation to oppose TrumpCare so we can stop this bill.

 

What You Can Do

The Resistance is our year-round effort to raise money directly for the field organizing efforts we need to win back Congress and pass a progressive and effective agenda on health care. If you sign up to make a small monthly contribution, we can make the sustained and year-round investments in organizing and party building it’ll take to win across the state. All of the money raised by monthly contributions through the Resistance will be invested directly into field organizing efforts.

Click here to join the Resistance and help us win these races!

 

The fight to stop TrumpCare – and retake Congress by beating Reichert, Herrera Beutler, Newhouse, and McMorris Rodgers – will be a long one, and it’s far from over. Your sustained support is critical to being able to organize and win in these districts across the state. Click here to join us!

 

Other News

Our chair, Tina Podlodowski, spoke at an event this week in Seattle on “Social Justice and Effective Activism”. She and Republican Bill Bryant were interviewed about how people can be effective agents of political change in their communities.

You can watch a video of the speech here.

 

Candidate filing week is coming up, May 15th through 19th, and if you or someone you know if interested in running for office then this is the time to step up!

One resource that can help is our partner website, TrainDemocrats.org! They provide effective, free, and online trainings for Democrats who are candidates, potential candidates, or want to do more to work on or understand campaigns. If you’re interested, we encourage you to sign up and learn more about how to be a strong and competitive Democratic candidate!

 

Thank you for reading!