#save aca

[grabthewind]

Today I want to remember the Americans who have fought for our freedoms.

Not only the Military.

Today I want to remember:

The Protestors. The Union Members. The Picketers. The Marchers. The Glass Ceilings Breakers. The Strikers.

Today I am grateful for all of the Americans who have stood up to corrupt systems in our Nation and demanded the Freedom and rights they deserved.

Today I want to remember those who exercised their right to protest an unfair government.

Or unfair working conditions and evil corporate fat cats.

Today let’s remember:

The May Day Parade. The Coal Strike of 1902. The Southwest Railroad Strike. The Dearborn Hunger March. The Textile Workers Strike. The Harlan County War. The Birmingham March. The National March on Washington. the US Postal Workers Strike. The Stonewall Riots. Fountain House. The Million Man March. The Los Angeles Riots. Ferguson. Standing Rock. The Women’s March. The March for Our Lives. The March for Science.

Sojourner Truth. Mother Jones. The “Rednecks”. The Suffragist. Francis Perkins. Lucy Parsons. Martin Luther King. Rosa Parks. Malcolm X. Ruby Bridges. Kent State. SANE. MADD. Occupy Wall Street. Black Lives Matter. Times Up. Emma Gonzalez.

And all the other groups and unnamed/forgotten individuals who put themselves in harm's way to fight for the rights we deserve.

Freedom isn’t free.

*Sometimes yes that will mean war and the lives lost protecting America*

Sometimes, however, it means using your voice to stand up against the wrongs that our own country is allowing or committing. Freedom then comes at the price of being blacklisted, rubber bullets, tear gas, lives lost, and long nights spent in jail. Do not forget the cost it took to get to where we are today. Even when it feels like we have so far left to go.

Remember protest is patriotic. It’s the very freedom our Founding Fathers wanted to ensure we had when they wrote the Bill of Rights. Even if we have used those rights to grant more freedoms then they ever anticipated. Expanding and evolving the concept of freedom to reach more than just rich, white men.

Protesting is the very reason America exists.

Never forget those who have fought for our rights.

Never forget that you yourself hold this same power.

This Fourth of July educate yourself on the movements, marches, and protests that it took to make America the nation we know today. Then think about the ways you can use your voice to continue to improve America and make it a place we can all be proud to call home. A place where even the most marginalized groups can feel free.

Happy Fourth of July.

Let Freedom Ring.

[wilwheaton]

In reality, just a tiny fraction of Americans — disproportionately young, male, healthy and middle-to-high income — has seen costs sharply increase because of Obamacare. Liberal and conservative experts alike place the number well below 10 million people — 3 percent or less of the population.     Twice that number – disproportionately poorer and less healthy people — gained insurance under Obamacare. Many received immense medical and financial benefits.     True to their anti-government ethos, Republicans disdain Obamacare on tax-and-spending grounds. But ideological complaints that its mandates inhibit freedom never achieved broad resonance. Attacks on its "job-killing" effects faded amid uninterrupted private sector employment gains since it passed.     That left out-of-pocket costs through premiums and deductibles the most potent GOP weapon – even though premiums and deductibles for most Americans were little changed by Obamacare. In fact, Obamacare's principal impact on the bulk of the population has been political noise.     More than 90 percent of those with health insurance before Obamacare got it from employers or the government, mainly Medicare and Medicaid; their coverage didn't fundamentally change.

Republicans wage 7-year war against Obamacare on behalf of a tiny fraction of aggrieved Americans

Got that? When you hear someone complain about how ACA hurt them, you are almost certainly listening to someone who is young, white, male, healthy, who earns middle to high income.

[lauraannegilman]

Graham-Cassidy ACA Repeal Bill Would Cause Huge Premium Increases for People with Pre-Existing Conditions - Center for American Progress

Under Graham-Cassidy, states could allow insurers to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions once again.

Why you need to call NOW, and tell your representatives to say NO to the Graham-Cassidy Act.  It’s not health care; it’s a death sentence. "Those who did not lose coverage would see their premiums increase significantly. In the first year, premiums would increase by 20 percent. But the increases would be even greater for people with pre-existing conditions because the bill would let insurers in the individual market charge a premium markup based on health status and history, which could increase their premiums by tens of thousands of dollars.... Based on our analysis, we estimate that individuals with even relatively mild pre-existing conditions would pay thousands of dollars above standard rates to obtain coverage. For example, an individual with asthma would face a premium surcharge of $4,340. The surcharge for diabetes would be $5,600 per year. Coverage could become prohibitively expensive for those in dire need of care: Insurers would charge about $17,320 more in premiums for pregnancy, $26,580 more for rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune disorders, and $142,650 more for patients with metastatic cancer."

[dragoni]

Latest Obamacare Repeal Effort Is Most Far-Reaching

The Graham-Cassidy bill would turn federal funding for a law Republicans loathe into block grants to states, realizing a long-held goal of the party.

Graham-Cassidy  is 100 times more draconian than RyanCare and McConnellCare. Nothing short of legalized coup of Health Care.

California and New York will receive substantially less money even though they are the number 1 and 3 contributors to America’s GDP. And their populations are also rank number 1 and 3. Is it a coincidence that they’re Democrat states or Republican and Trump payback?

“This is by far the most radical of any of the Republican health care bills that have been debated this year. And the reason for that is that this would be the biggest devolution of federal money and responsibility to the states for anything, ever.”,  Larry Levitt, a senior vice president with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

It dismantles the Medicaid expansion and the system of subsidies to help people afford insurance.

It gives the states the right to waive many of the consumer protections under President Obama’s landmark health law. 

Turn over more than $1 trillion that would have been spent on the law known as Obamacare over the next seven years to states as “block grants” with very few strings attached

Removes the guaranteed safety net that has insured the country’s poorest citizens for more than half a century. 

Winners and Losers

Texas would receive an additional $35 billion by 2026 

California would get $78 billion less through 2026

New York would get $45 billion less through 2026

Mississippi would reap an extra $6 billion through 2026

Unite, Resist and Take Action. Call your Senator.

#NoRepublicanCare #NoTrumpCare #SaveMedicaid

[plannedparenthood]

I’m one of millions of Americans who have access to health care today because of the Affordable Care Act. It saved my life. Now we have to save it.

via The Advocate

[reaperlight]

What you need to know about Graham-Cassidy

It's the new version of Trumpcare, and the worst yet.

It’s the new version of Trumpcare, and the worst yet.

[snowgall]

Twitter comment: (July 28, 2017)

Amazing. Also clear now that McCain's yes on motion to proceed is what killed the bill.

Embedded image text from reddit:

I'm not sure if it's really being appreciated just how comprehensively the Republicans were just fucked over.

See, the Republicans have been trying to pass these godawful healthcare bills through a process called budget reconciliation, which, among other things, protects the bill from being filibustered in the Senate and only requires a simple majority of 50 votes (rather than 60, which the Republicans don't have).

The thing is, the Senate can only consider one budget reconciliation bill per topic per year. Of course, if the bill dies in committee and never comes to an official vote, it doesn't count- which is why they've been able to keep hammering away at the issue.

This bill, though, was allowed to come to the Senate floor, because the Republicans thought they'd secured the votes. Collins, Murkowski and the Democrats would vote no, everyone else would vote yes, and Pence would break the tie. And then McCain completely fucked them. And it was almost certainly a calculated move; he voted to allow the bill to come to the floor. Had McCain allowed it to die in committee, McConnell could have come back with yet another repeal bill; but he let it come to a vote, and now they can't consider another budget reconciliation bill for the rest of the fiscal year. The Senate needs 60 votes to pass any kind of healthcare reform now.

So now they're caught between a rock and a hard place. Either they concede defeat on the issue and try again later (causing a big, unpopular stink that could damage elections if they try it before the midterms, or risking losing the slim majority they already have if they wait) or they actually sit down with the democrats like adults and write a halfway decent healthcare bill.

This is amazing.

[prochoiceamerica]

The phone lines are jammed, but this member was still able to get a fax through to her Senator to share her struggle with endometriosis and demand he vote NO on the GOP healthcare bill.

Click here to send a fax to your Senator—right through Facebook on your phone or desktop—and tell them to #KillTheBill