For Immediate Release: Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Contact: Kemi Giwa, 510-493-1766, kemi.giwa@berlinrosen.com
Senate Votes to Abandon Millions of Americans with Pre-existing Conditions
Washington, DC – In response to the Senate’s vote on a resolution to reverse President Trump’s move to strip protections from people with pre-existing conditions, Health Care for America Now Executive Director Margarida Jorge released the following statement:
“Despite Republican Senators’ repeated promises to protect people with pre-existing conditions from higher costs and discrimination, today the Senate failed to protect those protections under the Affordable Care Act by voting instead to support Donald Trump’s continued attempts to undermine the law. All but one Republican Senator supported keeping in place a Trump Administration policy that allows insurers to sell junk plans which can charge people with pre-existing conditions more, water down coverage and deny services to 130 million people with pre-existing conditions. President Trump and Republicans in Congress have failed to live up to their promises, abandoning constituents when they needed their elected officials to stand with them.
“The Trump Administration has spent the last three years working to dismantle the Affordable Care Act piece by piece, and time and time again, Donald Trump’s GOP allies in Congress stand aside as their constituents suffer the consequences. President Trump has made it clear which side he’s really on when it comes to health care, and today’s vote drew that line in the Senate as well.
“Republicans and President Trump will continue to pretend like they care about Americans while working overtime to return to a system where insurance and drug companies are calling the shots. Our members of Congress should be working to expand health care coverage, not turning back the clock on vital protections and stripping people of the care they need.”
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Health Care for America Now (HCAN) is the national grassroots coalition that ran a $60 million five-and-a-half year campaign from 2008-2013 to pass, protect, and promote the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and protect Medicare and Medicaid. HCAN has come back together to fight the Republicans’ all-out effort to take away America’s health care and put people at the mercy of the health insurance companies again.