Yesterday the Republican leadership in the House made good on their campaign promise to roll back the progress made by the Affordable Care Act. This is be frustrating for those of us who worked so hard for health care reform last year, but keep in mind three things.
First, this was a political show that is likely to have no long term negative consequence. Repeal legislation will not pass the Senate or be signed by President Obama.
Second, the repeal effort gave us an opportunity to talk more and, after Arizona, more calmly, about the new protections and rights that the ACA created. The more people hear about the bill, the more they like it. Polls are clearly trending in our favor. People know that was a vote against affordable health insurance for Americans with pre-existing conditions – including children. It was a vote against making sure that greedy insurance companies can’t drop the insurance of people who get sick. It was a vote against helping seniors afford drugs and against tax rebates for small businesses that want to provide health insurance for their employees. It was a vote to allow medical costs to skyrocket and insurance premiums to increase unchecked. It was a vote to increase the federal deficit by $230 billion over the next ten years.
Third, despite saying they need one, the Republicans offered no alternative. This may have been the first time in American politics in which a political party called its own bluff.
Frankly, if the Republicans want to try to repeal the ACA in the Senate every six months for the next two years, we will not complain.
While political shenanigans were going on in Washington, Pennsylvania activists, organized by HCAN (which is now led by Penn ACTION) and the Pennsylvania Health Access Network (PHAN) teamed up to carry out six actions around the state in key Congressional districts. We are calling on the Congressman not only to vote against repeal but to also work against the coming attempts to defund and derail implementation of the ACA.
Let me tell you about all that we did together yesterday.
We must begin with Pennsylvania’s health care heroine, Stacie Ritter. Stacie, a resident of Lancaster, is the mother of twins, Hannah and Madeline, who survived Leukemia. But Stacie’s family went bankrupt due to health care costs and CIGNA denied the wins the care they needed as follow up.
Stacie and the twin daughters (pictured below) testified to Congress about what the Affordable Care Act means to her family. You can see and read here testimony on the C-SPAN website. (Stacie starts at just over the 1:00 hour mark.)
Their story was picked up by over 60 television stations media outlets across the country and about thirty radio stations here in Pennsylvania. Speaker Pelosi talked about her story on the floor of the House.
You can hear interview with the Public News Service here. Stacie captured the danger stunts like the repeal vote and the coming attempts to defund and derail the Affordable Care Act present to her family. Ritter said, “Each time they pick away at it, they take away something that’s protecting my children and their future; protecting them from discrimination, protecting them from not being able to afford insurance to begin with.”
Stacie was talking about her family but she was speaking for all Americans. Without a strong, robust Affordable Care Act in place, we are all vulnerable to insurance company greed and abuse and skyrocketing health care costs.
In Pennsylvania, Penn ACTION and PHAN were busy at a number of locations around the state:
Aliquippa – Rep. Altmire
PHAN organized an event in Aliquippa at which twenty constituents crowded into Rep. Altmire’s office to thank him for his confirmed NO vote on repeal. You can see three YouTube videos of the visit here, here and here.
Scranton – Rep. Barletta
Roxie Pauline of Penn ACTION and Citizen in Action brought a group of constituents of Rep. Barletta to the Lackawanna County Courthouse to ask him to vote against repeal. Photo below. Coverage from the Times-Tribune is here. That same day Rep. Bareltta voted for repeal.
Johnstown – Rep. Critz
PHAN brought constituents, including members of SEIU Healthcare PA, to Rep. Critz’s office, where they were assured that Rep. Critz would vote NO on repeal. You can see WJAC-TV’s coverage here.
Lebanon – Rep. Holden
PHAN organized about twenty constituents rallied at Cong. Holden’s office in Lebanon to thank him for his promised NO vote. Coverage in the Lebanon Daily News can be found here.
Warrington – Rep. Fitzpatrick
In Bucks County, Penn ACTION organized a rally in support of the Affordable Care Act. Nearly forty constituents, including five speakers sent the message to Rep. Fitzpatrick that a deficit-building vote for repeal is a vote against working families, children, women and seniors. The Bucks County Courier Times covered the story here. Rep. Fitzpatrick voted for repeal, increasing the federal deficit, more handouts to greedy insurance companies and against Pennsylvania families. The Courier posted some video from the event here.
On the radio
Marc Stier, Executive Director of Penn ACTION and State Director of HCAN in Pennsylvania, took part in a featured interview with KSRO 1350 AM radio in Sonoma, California. Marc talked about the politics behind the repeal. He also appeared on the Rick Smith Show in Pennsylvania