Rumors around Capitol Hill at the end of last week suggest that the Republicans are close to being finished with their AHCA bill, and they also think they’re close to having enough votes to pass it. (Image Credit: Flickr/Gage Skidmore)
Lately, you may have found yourself thinking, “Hm. I wonder whatever happened to the Obamacare repeal? You don't hear much about that any more.”
There’s a good reason you don’t hear much about it: the Senate Republicans don’t want you to hear much about it.
OK, that’s actually a shitty reason. It’s sneaky and underhanded and I don't like it one bit.
After the House passed their American Health Care Act (AHCA) — a bill that the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says would kick 23 million people off their health insurance — the Senate got started revising it so they could pass their version.
The Senate decided to be sneaky about it. There is a working group of 14 Republican men and one Republican woman (the woman was added after the outcry about the original all-male revue-style workgroup got loud enough) who are creating the Senate version of the bill in secret. Behind closed doors. No hearings to discuss major points of the law. No input from stakeholder groups like hospitals, patient advocacy groups, doctors, or insurance companies. No input from Senate Democrats. Just this tiny group of people writing this bill all by themselves.
If you think they were hoping they could do this without the American people noticing and getting upset, you’re a winner!
Rumors around Capitol Hill at the end of last week suggest that the Republicans are close to being finished with their bill, and they also think they’re close to having enough votes to pass it. They’ll need to submit it to the CBO and get a score before they can vote on it, but the timeline for all of that is short; they may be planning a vote as early as June 30.
This is a moment for the Resistance to show the hell up, friends.
I’ve seen calls to action from groups like Indivisible, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, and Families USA. Other groups are hard at work on this and you can pick your favorite.
Or you can go it alone and pick up the phone and call your senators and tell them what you think about health care. They don’t know unless you tell them!
Let’s get the Senate phones ringing, friend! We can do this!
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