28 Jul Workers’ Weekend Message: Together we WIN
In the early hours of this morning, Senate Republicans held a dramatic vote on their last ditch effort to to undo the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and gut Medicaid. The so-called “Skinny Repeal” would have repealed the ACA’s individual mandate and suspended the employer mandate for nine years, disrupting insurance markets and eliminating access to health care for 16 million Americans.
Republican Senators Susan Collins (ME), Lisa Murkowski (AK) and John McCain (AZ) joined all 48 Democrats in voting to defeat this bill. For now, the Affordable Care Act remains the law of the land. Union members from coast to coast made thousands of phone calls to Congress in the past few months, many in the past few days, to fight back against the repeal efforts.
Still, the fight will continue. Republicans are likely to make more attempts to repeal-and-replace the Affordable Care Act, threaten Medicare, Medicaid and workplace coverage and disrupt the individual insurance markets. Additionally, this week saw two amendments to the Republican health care bill that would have repealed the Cadillac Tax, which would tax working peoples’ health plans.
What You Can Do NOW
- Contact your senators today to either thank them or hold them accountable for their vote. All senators should be contacted, but immediate outreach is particularly needed for Senators Collins, Murkowski, and McCain as well as Democratic senators who are on the ballot in 2018 and from states Donald Trump won last November.
- This weekend, working people will join with allies at Our Lives on the Line events across the country. We will thank those elected officials who stood up for us and hold accountable senators like Dean Heller (NV), Shelley Moore Capito (WV), and Rob Portman (OH) who violated their promises to protect their constituents. Please share these events widely and encourage union members and their families to attend.
- The House and Senate will soon break for August Recess. It is important that we use recent momentum to hold accountable members of Congress who have voted against the interests of working families on this and other important legislation. Visit Town Hall Project (updated daily) and mobilize members and their families to attend public events and town halls during the month of August.