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protectourcare
In Statement

Protect Our Care Statement on Firing of HHS Secretary Tom Price

Washington, D.C. — Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse released the following statement in response to the firing of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price:

“Tom Price was fired because he was more interested in spending taxpayer money on fancy air travel than helping people get health care. But for all the talk of his chartered flights, the most fireable offenses were his dishonesty in the pursuit of health care repeal and his efforts to put people’s lives at risk by sabotaging the law. Good riddance to Secretary Price — but what we really wish will go with him is the political spitefulness that has undermined the health care of the American people. This is an opportunity for President Trump and Republicans to turn the page, appoint someone untarnished by this administration’s repeal agenda and put people’s health above partisan politics.”

protectourcare
In Statement

Protect Our Care Statement on Trump Administration’s Continued Sabotage Following Legislative…

Today, BuzzFeed News reported that the Trump Administration is doubling down on its sabotage of the health care marketplace by ordering the Department of Health and Human Services’ regional directors to stop participating in open enrollment events. According to BuzzFeed News, all ten HHS regional directors “were told not to participate in state-based events promoting open enrollment — a significant change from years past,” and one that will surely be detrimental to enrolling people across the country. “I didn’t call it sabotage,” Mississippi Health Advocacy Program Executive Director Roy Mitchell said. “But that’s what it is.”

Earlier in the day Vox reported on the events in Mississippi being abruptly canceled, and it is now clear such a directive is part of a larger nefarious plan. This order comes on the heels of the Administration’s decision to limit the working period of HealthCare.gov and decrease open enrollment advertising by $90 million, and as the President continues to call for a partisan repeal bill. Protect Our Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse released the following statement in response to the Administration’s unprecedented sabotage efforts:

“What this Administration is doing is appalling,” said Woodhouse. “President Trump and Republicans who have cheered him on and supported repeal, and now sabotage, of our health care are intentionally harming people for sheer politics. The fact that they’re carrying these actions out the day after their heinous repeal bill fell through makes it all the more shameful. These actions are disgraceful, unprecedented and will ultimately have harmful effects on the very people they purport to serve — the American people know who to hold accountable for undermining their health care.”

protectourcare
In Statement

Protect Our Care Statement on Trump Sabotage of Health Care and Anthem Pulling Out of Maine

Anthem Cites Uncertainty over Cost-Sharing Reduction Payments, which President Trump Has Threatened to Cancel, Among other Reasons, in Decision to Leave Market

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, one day after the failure of GOP’s latest iteration of a partisan repeal bill which would have thrown the country’s health care system into chaos, the effects of President Trump’s intentional sabotage of health care were once again made clear when Anthem announced it would exit Maine’s individual insurance market next year. Why?

“‘A stable insurance market is dependent on products that create value for consumers through the broad spreading of risk and a known set of conditions upon which rates can be developed,’ said Anthem spokesman Colin Manning in a statement. ‘Today, planning and pricing for ACA-compliant health plans has become increasingly difficult due to a shrinking and deteriorating individual market, as well as continual changes and uncertainty in federal operations, rules and guidance, including the restoration of the health insurance tax on fully insured coverage and continued uncertainty around the future of cost sharing reduction subsidies.’”

As the Portland Press-Herald noted, however, actions taken by Congress — like the payment of cost-sharing reductions — could potentially bring Anthem back into the marketplace:

“Manning did not close the door on returning to the Maine marketplace if conditions stabilized. There are proposals in Congress to mandate that the cost-sharing reduction funding be paid to insurers, and other measures to stabilize the marketplace. ‘Our commitment to members has always been to provide greater access to affordable, quality healthcare, and we will continue to advocate solutions that will stabilize the market. As the marketplace continues to evolve and adjust to changing regulatory requirements and marketplace conditions, we will reevaluate whether a more robust presence in the exchange is appropriate in the future.’”

In response, Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse issued the following statement:

“Anthem’s decision to pull out of Maine is the direct consequence of uncertainty created in the marketplace by Republicans pushing for partisan repeal of our health care and President Trump’s intentional efforts to sabotage the law,” said Woodhouse. “President Trump has been playing politics with cost-sharing reduction payments by continually threatening to cancel them even though they lower out-of-pocket costs for millions of Americans. This uncertainty has led to decisions like Anthem’s.

“President Trump and Republicans who have cheered him on and supported repeal are intentionally harming people’s health care for sheer politics. The American people know this and they will hold them accountable for undermining the health care of the American people. Instead of sabotaging America’s health care, Republicans should follow the example of Senator Susan Collins, who has called for Democrats and Republicans to work together to improve health care for the American people.”

protectourcare
In Statement

Protect Our Care Statement On Latest Failure of Health Care Repeal

Facing opposition from every health care organization, bipartisan opposition in the Senate and overwhelming opposition from the American people, Senate Republicans abandoned their latest health care repeal scheme today, known as Graham-Cassidy-Heller. This is at least the fifth attempt in 2017 at health care repeal by Republicans in Congress without any bipartisan or public support. Every version of health care repeal would have raised premiums, resulted in millions of people without coverage, allowed insurance companies to gut protections for people with pre-existing conditions, re-implement lifetime limits and charge an age tax, and ended Medicaid as we know it.

In response, Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse issued the following statement:

“None of these health care repeal bills were ever about health care, they were about political wins for the Republican Congress and President Trump,” Woodhouse said. “No matter how hard they try to repeal our health care, the American people keep winning. Make no mistake, though, too many Republicans in Congress refuse to move on and are already promising to revive zombie repeal. The American people must remain vigilant.

“It’s past time for Republicans to abandon partisan repeal, stand up to President Trump’s sabotage of our health care system and work across party lines to improve our health care system. Senators Alexander and Murray had started that important work and it’s the path we need to take now.

“The Trump Administration and Republican leaders face a fork in the road — will they continue to be the party of partisan health care repeal and sabotage? Everyone is watching.”

protectourcare
In Statement

Protect Our Care Statement After Another Awful Day for Graham-Cassidy

Today was perhaps the worst day yet for Graham-Cassidy, the GOP’s latest secret, partisan health care repeal bill which would raise costs, lower options, remove protection for pre-existing conditions and end Medicaid as we know it. A new poll found just one-fifth of voters supporting the bill; CBO analysis found “millions” would lose their insurance; and Sen. Susan Collins announced her opposition to the legislation, calling it “as deeply flawed as the previous iterations.” In response, Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse released the following statement:

“Today’s developments represent more major setbacks for the latest secretive, partisan effort to repeal the health care of the American people,” said Woodhouse. “A new CBS News poll this morning pegged support for the Graham-Cassidy repeal effort at a paltry 20 percent and terrible reviews of the latest draft poured in from expert voices and stakeholders across the country. And if all that wasn’t bad enough, the Congressional Budget Office released a partial analysis of the bill this afternoon which confirmed what every independent analysis has shown — that Graham-Cassidy repeal would strip millions of coverage and slash Medicaid. And to top it all off, Senator Susan Collins of Maine said she is a hard no on the bill.
 
“It should now be abundantly clear that partisan repeal is a loser both politically and substantively and that it’s time for Republicans to stop partisan repeal and return to bipartisan efforts to improve health care which were underway before Republicans pulled the plug. Until they do, the calls will continue, the ads will stay up and millions of Americans will write, email, tweet and protest until the effort to strip millions of health care and spike costs for millions more is dead, once and for all.”

protectourcare
In Statement

Protect Our Care Statement on Trump Administration’s Continued Health Care Sabotage

Washington, D.C. — During a webinar this afternoon, HHS announced that HealthCare.gov would be offline 5 out of the 6 Sundays during the upcoming open enrollment period. This means that during the shortest open enrollment period ever, HealthCare.gov will be down for 3 full days. Today’s announcement follows recent decisions by the administration to cut navigator funding by 40 percent and the outreach and advertising budget by 90 percent.

“This is outrageous. It’s clear that even if Republicans continue to fail to repeal the Affordable Care Act that the Trump administration will go to any lengths to sabotage the law,” said Brad Woodhouse, Campaign Director for Protect Our Care. “From destabilizing the health care market by threatening not to pay cost sharing reduction payments to undermining open enrollment, the Trump Administration will pursue every tactic to undermine health care no matter how many Americans it hurts. The American people are sick of it — they oppose repeal and they will hold President Trump and Republicans in Congress accountable for sabotaging their health care.”


protectourcare
In Statement

Protect Our Care Statement on Sen. John McCain’s Announcement in Opposition to Graham-Cassidy

“Senator McCain established a test which all Senators should follow on health care: reforms to an issue of this importance and magnitude should be addressed on a bipartisan basis and should follow regular Senate procedure including hearings and expert witnesses. Graham-Cassidy fails this test in every regard, and Senator McCain is right to oppose this latest effort at partisan repeal,” said Brad Woodhouse, Campaign Director for Protect Our Care.

“But beyond process, Senators should oppose this latest repeal effort because it would devastate our health care system. Graham-Cassidy has been called radical and the worst of all repeal bills, and rightly so. It would deny coverage to 32 million Americans, end Medicaid expansion, undermine traditional Medicaid, impose an age tax on seniors and end protections against discrimination for people with pre-existing conditions. Graham-Cassidy is bad on process as Senator McCain has rightly noted, but it would be a dumpster fire for the American health care system. It’s time for Senator Mitch McConnell to set this partisan bill aside and allow bipartisan efforts to stabilize our health care system to move forward.”

protectourcare
In Statement

Protect Our Care Statement on Introduction of Graham-Cassidy-Heller

Washington, D.C. — Today, GOP Senators Lindsey Graham, Bill Cassidy, Dean Heller and Ron Johnson introduced yet another bill to repeal the health care of the American people that would slash coverage, raise costs, eliminate protections and gut Medicaid. This desperate bill comes after three failed Senate repeal votes and a declaration from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that “it is time to move on,” and amidst the bipartisan hearings more than a dozen GOP senators have called for. The renewed partisan effort to repeal health care threatens the bipartisan efforts that began in earnest last week. In response to the GOP’s attempt to revive the least-popular piece of legislation in three decades, Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse issued the following statement:

“Time and again, the American people have made explicitly clear that they do not want partisan health care repeal. The Graham-Cassidy-Heller bill is as bad or worse than the GOP’s previous efforts to repeal health care. It contains deep cuts to Medicaid, would eliminate payments to help lower out-of-pocket cost and deductibles and guts protections for people with pre-existing conditions, while disproportionately harming states that expanded Medicaid over those that did not. In short, it’s everything voters of both parties have said they don’t want.

“Attempting to jam a partisan repeal bill through the Senate at the eleventh hour is shameful and unnecessarily puts the bipartisan process underway in jeopardy for no reason. It’s time for Republicans to finally abandon their failed, partisan efforts and follow the lead of Senators Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray to focus on making the bipartisan, common sense fixes necessary to improve health care for millions of people.”

protectourcare
In Statement

Protect Our Care Statement on Today’s Senate HELP Committee Hearing on Market Stabilization

Washington, D.C. — Protect Our Care Campaign Director Brad Woodhouse released the following statement in reaction to today’s Senate HELP Committee hearing on the health care marketplace:

“First and foremost, today’s hearing was a notable and welcome departure from the secretive, partisan and ultimately failed repeal effort which President Trump and Senate and House Republicans pursued for the first half of this year,” said Woodhouse. “The mere fact that these hearings are occurring and that bipartisan approaches to market stabilization are being discussed should send a strong signal to the partisan repeal holdouts that it is time to set aside that approach and instead work together to ensure more and more Americans have access to reliable, affordable care. It should also send an unmistakable signal to President Trump that his strategy to sabotage the law is wrong headed and faces bipartisan opposition.

“Substantively, there was broad agreement that Congress must ensure that cost sharing reduction payments continue to be made to lower out of pocket costs for millions of low-income Americans. Every insurance commissioner who testified agreed that ensuring these payments are made must be part of any stabilization plan and nearly all Senators on the panel agreed with that notion. As we have said before, these payments are an essential feature of the health care law, President Trump has been wrong to sow uncertainty in the market by threatening not to pay them and ensuring they continue is among the most important features of any stabilization bill. That there was broad agreement by the panel and the witnesses on the importance of these payments to make health care more affordable for millions of Americans was a welcome sign to say the least.”

protectourcare
In Statement

Protect Our Care Statement on 100% of American Counties Having Access to Affordable Care Act

~The threat to your health care is now Trump and the Republican Congress~

With today’s announcement by the Ohio Insurance Commissioner that Paulding county now has a health insurer, every county in America has a health insurance provider for plans under the Affordable Care Act Marketplaces for coverage next year. In response, Protect Our Care Campaign Director Leslie Dach released the following statement. Dach is a former Senior Counselor at HHS.

“Trump and Republicans in Congress have been rooting for health care to fail. With today’s announcement, their talking points continued to evaporate.

It’s official. The biggest threat to your health care is still sabotage from the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress.”

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