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medicaid expansion
Trump's Healthcare Policies Nearly Killed Me. We Are Not Going Back
We will not go back to the terror that 135 million Americans with preexisting conditions felt in 2017 under the first year of Trump's rule, knowing that we could lose access to care at any moment.
Nov 01, 2024
Today is Michigan. Yesterday was Wisconsin. Tomorrow is Ohio. I’ve been traveling on the road with Protect Our Care on a big blue bus for six weeks with an important message. The Affordable Care Act saved my life, and we're not going back.
Back in 2017, I walked into a doctor's office with a cough, and walked out with a cancer diagnosis. I thought I was a healthy 40-year-old small-business owner, but was stunned to learn I had stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma. Thankfully my insurance covered the treatments that have me in remission today.
White-knuckle days of chemotherapy and nights of after effects for a grueling six months, then many weeks of radiation followed. Surviving and recovering should have been my sole focus. But instead I had to drag myself through treatments, then to rallies and press conferences: begging former U.S. President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress not to strip away the insurance I needed to save my life.
Nearly a decade after Donald Trump promised us a healthcare plan, he only has "concepts of a plan". Neither doctors nor hospitals accept concepts in lieu of payment.
The day after my first chemotherapy session, while I was on the couch trying not to die, MAGA Republicans in the U.S. House egged on by Trump voted to repeal Obamacare. And then threw a party to celebrate.
We cannot go back.
So we're rolling forward on the Care Force One bus: traveling the country and sharing our healthcare stories, and coming to a city near you in these final days.
We will not go back to the terror that 135 million Americans with preexisting conditions felt in 2017 under the first year of Trump's rule, knowing that we could lose access to care at any moment without the protections of the ACA. Will we not go back to annual or lifetime limits on care. Being denied an insurance policy because of our past medical history. Kids under 26 relying on insurance through their parents' plans could lose it. Over 10 million of us (including me) had insurance directly through the health insurance marketplace. And over 15 million of us had insurance through Medicaid expansion in our states—also a part of the ACA.
Since the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, America has made further healthcare advances—including the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 solely thanks to President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Democrats in Congress. This law caps insulin copays for people on Medicare at $35 a month, provides subsidies for health insurance for middle class families, and finally allows Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices.
Checking the news every morning back during Trump's first term led to a sense of dread at whatever cruel back-of-the-envelope plan that Trump or Republicans would produce that day. These "plans" never expanded our healthcare or made it better, just threw vulnerable Americans to the wolves to pay for tax breaks to rich people. We cannot go back to that chaos and terror.
Nearly a decade after Donald Trump promised us a healthcare plan, he only has "concepts of a plan". Neither doctors nor hospitals accept concepts in lieu of payment.
His running mate JD Vance spilled the beans: The "concepts" include letting insurers cover only young and healthy people, and sending everyone else back to high-risk pools, which were notoriously underfunded and unable to protect people who need it most. And now Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) promises "No Obamacare."
It's like they don't understand the basic idea of insurance: everybody in one risk pool together, so that costs don't spiral out of control for the people who need it. If you stop covering people as soon as they get sick, of course insurance gets cheaper. This is like only offering blizzard damage insurance to Floridians, or hurricane damage insurance to Midwesterners–it's missing the entire point.
Republicans want to repeal and replace the Inflation Reduction Act now too.
We've seen the Heritage Foundation Project 2025 healthcare agenda, and it's not pretty. In the absence of plans of his own, will Trump and the entire Republican party just follow their playbook? That's what it was designed for, a detailed blueprint for the next Republican president starting on Day 1.
Whereas the Kamala Harris healthcare agenda would build on the gains of the Affordable Care Act and Inflation Reduction Act. Her administration would expand health coverage to more Americans, and lower drug prices for everyone.
We know what the candidates want to do and who their priorities are for. The choice is yours to make this fall: do we go forward, or do we go back?
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'Repeal and Repent': Citizens Rise Against State's Regressive Lawmakers
Nearly two hundred demonstrators with Moral Monday campaign demand end to 'harmful' and 'extreme' policies
May 28, 2014
After a day when hundreds rallied at the North Carolina legislative building against the 'extreme' policies pushed forth by the GOP-led body, 14 protesters were arrested early Wednesday morning after staging an overnight sit-in at the office of the state's House speaker Tom Tillis.
Organized under the banner of the "Moral Monday" campaign, over 170 took part in the demonstration Tuesday to call on lawmakers to "repent for the harm they have caused, to repeal the flood of extreme policies passed last year and to restore confidence in our elected officials," according to a statement by the North Carolina NAACP.
Eight fast food workers, four clergy members, one housing expert and one retired public school employee were arrested at 1:45 am after participating in a 12-hour protest during which the Republican leader left through a back exit to avoid meeting with the demonstrators. In the hallway outside the lawmaker's office, fellow protesters sang the the civil rights ballad, "We Shall Not Be Moved."
"I am participating in the nonviolent civil disobedience today to let my voice be heard," said demonstrator Crystal Price, a 27-year old mother of two and an employee of Wendy's in Greensboro.
"When state lawmakers pass laws eliminating the Earned Income Tax Credit or refuse to expand Medicaid--programs my children and I depend on--while giving tax breaks to the wealthiest few, it makes a statement that these representatives do not care about working mothers like me," she added. Price, who is suffering from cervical cancer, was initially one of the protesters staked out in Tillis's office but had to leave to take care of her children.
"Tonight, we put a face on the real harm these policies are inflicting across our state," said Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, movement leader and president of the state's NAACP.
Those arrested were charged with second-degree trespassing, a misdemeanor. By Wednesday morning, twelve of the fourteen were released. The other two continued to be held.
Roughly 950 total activists with the Forward Together Moral Movement were arrested at weekly demonstrations during the 2013 legislative season protesting what they say are the "extreme policies" passed by the GOP-led legislature. These included restrictive voting rules, denial of Medicaid expansion, cuts to unemployment benefits, and the repeal of the Earned Income Tax Credit, among others.
As lawmakers are once again convening at the state assembly, the weekly demonstrations are also set to return with renewed focus to "repeal and reverse" the regressive policies passed in 2013.
The NC NAACP released the below video of the action in and around Tillis's office:
We Shall Not Be Moved | Tillis 15May 27th, 2014 - After North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis refuses to meet with North Carolinians, a sit-in turns into a ...
During the demonstration, protesters posted images of the sit-in online:
\u201cTillis' exec asst William Morales #moralmonday\u201d— Josh Shaffer (@Josh Shaffer) 1401237090
\u201cOccupation taking place at the NC Capitol right now! #FightFor15 & #MoralMonday refuse to move! #solidarity #ows\u201d— Occupy Wall Street with a General Strike (@Occupy Wall Street with a General Strike) 1401241350
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