Washington, DC — Today, Congresswoman Lauren Underwood (IL-14), Congressman Greg Casar (TX-35), and Americans threatened by Republican health care cuts joined Unrig Our Economy and Social Security Works for a livestream to launch a new campaign, Stop Taking Our Health Care.
Stop Taking Our Health Care is a new month-long campaign, coinciding with Medicaid Awareness Month, to hold President Trump and Republicans in Congress accountable for raising Americans’ health care costs. The campaign will host events nationwide throughout the month of April, mobilizing Americans against Republican efforts to rip away working families’ health care.
Congressional Republicans’ historic cuts to Medicaid and elimination of expanded health care tax credits have sent premiums skyrocketing and put an estimated 15 million Americans at risk of losing their health coverage. Now, Republicans are pushing for even further cuts to Americans’ health care to pay for their unnecessary and costly war in Iran.
“Our health care is now facing its greatest threat. Donald Trump and Republicans’ failure to address these tax credits has created a health care crisis for working families. When premiums go up and help disappears, families are forced to make impossible choices. Do they keep their health insurance, or do they pay their rent? Do they refill their prescriptions, or do they buy groceries?” said Congresswoman Lauren Underwood (IL-14). “Expanding health care coverage saves lives, and the choice before us is clear. For the sake of families across the country, we must protect and strengthen the progress that we’ve made, not tear it down.”
“They’ve already gutted Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, kicking 15 million Americans potentially off of their health care. And now they want to kick off hundreds of thousands more every day working families from their health care to pay for Trump’s completely unnecessary war of choice in Iran,” said Congressman Greg Casar (TX-35). “We’ve got to put everyday Americans’ lives above more and more profits for the Trump administration and their rich friends.”
“I’m a mom and a full-time caregiver to my 13-year-old twin boys, who are both autistic and rely on Medicaid for their health care. Republicans in Washington have worked day and night to raise costs for families like mine and make it harder for us to make ends meet, and now they’re doubling down, threatening even deeper cuts to Medicaid so they can pay for their war and continue handing out tax breaks to billionaires,” said Theresa Luoni, a New Jersey resident. “Cuts to health care are not abstract. They have real, devastating consequences. When you cut Medicaid, people lose access to care, people delay treatment, people skip medications, and yes, people die.”
“Our campaign and this month of action is designed to hold these people accountable for their vote on things like the Big Ugly Bill, which failed to extend the tax credits for the Affordable Care Act and cut a trillion dollars out of Medicaid,” said Social Security Works Senior Advisor Jon “Bowzer” Bauman. “Our message is simple: stop taking our health care.”
“Republicans in Congress promised to lower costs, but instead, they cut our health care and made life even more expensive for working families. They voted to cut Medicaid, end enhanced ACA tax credits, and put hospitals and health clinics at risk, all while giving tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations,” said Unrig Our Economy Campaign Director Leor Tal. “And now Republicans in Congress want to cut health care even more to pay for this unnecessary and expensive war that they’ve started, which is already driving up costs for working families. That’s why we’re launching Stop Taking Our Health Care, a nationwide campaign fighting back against Republican efforts to rip health care coverage away from working families.”
Learn more about the Stop Taking Our Health Care campaign here.
Watch the livestream here.
About Unrig Our Economy
Unrig Our Economy is a national campaign to fix the rules of our economy to make it work for working people. We know that when the middle class does well, all of us do well — which is why we’re fighting on behalf of working Americans and holding corporations, their wealthy executives, and the politicians who enable them accountable.
About Social Security Works
Social Security Works is a non-profit fighting to protect and expand Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—because everyone deserves to live in dignity.