POC State Teams Will Target GOP Senators in ME, CO, NC, IA, AZ, GA, OH and AK in effort to Protect People with Pre-existing Conditions, Lower Health Care Costs, and Hold the Line Against Health Care Repeal and Sabotage
Washington, DC — Protect Our Care (POC), the group which successfully fended off the efforts of President Trump and Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act and then led the campaign to make it the defining issue of the 2018 elections, is launching its Senate accountability efforts. The program will focus on key states that are critical to holding the line against repeal and holding Republicans accountable for repeated attempts to sabotage health care.
Over the past two years, Protect Our Care maintained a significant presence in eighteen states and scores of congressional districts, where it used numerous tactics to lift up the success of the health care law and to defeat repeal including hundreds of events, protests and rallies; paid ads on television and social media; promoting the real health care stories of citizens; and a nationwide bus tour.
As the new congressional term gets underway with a Democratic majority in the House elected on the issue of health care, POC is kicking off its Senate accountability work in eight states — Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, and Ohio. POC’s state teams will work with in-state coalition partners and allies to put pressure on Republicans through earned media events, digital organizing, grassroots mobilization, rallies, protests, paid ads and other proven tactics. We will also mobilize the voices of people with pre-existing conditions, healthcare storytellers, and policy experts, so that these Republican Senators continue to hear from constituents from their home states.
“Health care is still the number one issue on the minds of voters and we’re going to continue to hold Republicans accountable for a repeal and sabotage agenda they simply can’t or won’t give up,” said Brad Woodhouse, executive director of Protect Our Care. “Whether these members have voted repeatedly for repeal, refuse to oppose President Trump’s sabotage of the law or voted for the tax scam bill which undermined the health care law while lining the pockets insurance and drug companies, we are going to make sure their constituents hear about it – loud and clear. Scores of Republicans paid the price in November for their anti-health care agenda yet those who remain are committed to repealing American health care or are turning a blind eye to the Trump administration’s sabotage of the law – and they simply must be held to account and that’s exactly what we intend to do.”
Over the last few weeks our state teams have:
- Announced our Health Care Agenda priorities to Arizonans with Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick, Congressman Ruben Gallego, and healthcare advocate Alicia Held;
- Protested Senator Tillis’ office in Raleigh to demand protection from current threats to our health care;
- Led press calls to discuss how devastating the impact of the Texas lawsuit would be for people with pre-existing conditions in their states with Congressman Tom O’Halleran in Arizona, Congresswoman Diana Degette and Congressman Ed Perlmutter in Colorado and Congressman David Price in North Carolina;
- Partnered with allied groups in states to call out Trump and his Republican friends for sabotaging health care;
- Placed health care opinion editorials in the Anchorage Daily News, the Daily Iowan, the Portland Press-Herald, the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel, Swing State Voices and BlueNC;
- Held press calls with healthcare storytellers like:
- Two-time cancer survivor Toni Bannister in Arizona,
- Concerned Iowan with pre-existing condition Robin Stone,
- Susanna Orr in Alaska,
- Ohioan with pre-existing conditions Ethan Kissock,
- Family nurse practitioner (and state representative) Anne Perry in Maine, and
- North Carolinian with pre-existing conditions Montica Talmadge to hold Republicans accountable for their ongoing war on health care.