‘Better Care Reconciliation Act’: a threat to our Healthcare, our Patients and our Hospitals!

Tell Congress to Vote “No” On This Terrible Bill!

The Republican leadership of the Senate, after working in complete secrecy for more than a month, has finally released its version of legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

There was some hope that the Senate would propose legislation that was not as “mean” as the American Health Care Act passed by the U.S. House of Representatives with seven N.Y. Republican votes in May.

The Senate version, however, is even worse than the original passed by the House.

The “Better Care” bill keeps most of the bad elements of the House bill: it repeals the tax on billionaire hedge fund owners to keep Medicare solvent, eliminates the requirement that employers offer health coverage to their workers, eliminates the requirement that insurance plans cover minimum essential benefits, and allows older people to be charged more for their coverage.

Even worse, however, the Senate version makes deeper cuts to Medicaid than the $830 billion proposed by the House. The Senate version ends the Medicaid expansion and will turn Medicaid into a block grant program in which future funding will dramatically shrink over time. These cuts to Medicaid will eliminate or diminish the health care of millions of New Yorkers and will lead to cuts in services for seniors in long-term care, disabled adults and children. and those needing opioid and other substance abuse treatment.

Our hospitals will see less federal Medicaid funding and at the same time will have to care for more uninsured patients. This means reduced services, closures of units or entire hospitals, and layoffs of nurses and other direct care workers.

The Senate legislation was released Thursday, and Senate leaders plan to ram it through to a vote next week, without holding public hearings or any opportunity for meaningful debate.

This proposed legislation will devastate our health care system and the health of our communities in order to fund massive tax cuts for the richest Americans, with almost all of the benefits flowing to the top 1%.

ACT NOW to Stop this Devastating Bill:

• Call (844) 898-1199 or Click HERE to e-mail or tweet Your Congress Person and Tell Them To Vote “NO” on the “Better Care Reconciliation Act” in the Senate (and in the House when it comes up for a vote there).
• Join our Union brothers and sisters in phone banks to ask voters in neighboring states to tell their Senators to vote “NO” (NY State Senators Schumer and Gillibrand are strongly opposed, but Republican Senators in Ohio and Pennsylvania are likely to approve the bill). Click HERE for a list of phone bank actions that you can join.
• Learn more about the devastating impact of this proposed law on New Yorkers by attending one of the expert panel discussions being organized by Governor Andrew Cuomo across the state. Click HERE for a list of dates and locations.