Save ObamaCare | Protect ObamaCare in 2018


What you Can do to Save ObamaCare in 2018

It’s up to you to help save ObamaCare from losing its ability to insure over 44 million uninsured Americans. Find out how to protect ObamaCare in 2018.

Join Democrats, Republicans, and the tens of millions of Americans who support health care reform in a bipartisan effort to stand up for America’s Patient Protections and Affordable Care.

It is reasonable for a health care reform bill to look different under a Republican Congress and President but, despite a few old plans floating around, and despite Ryan’s TrumpCare, we still don’t have a workable and widely accepted replacement plan on the table.

Meanwhile, the first move consisted of “a repeal and delay” tactics.

Simply repealing and delaying isn’t healthcare reform, and it isn’t the hope and change people voted for in 2008, 2012, or 2016.

Let us not “make America sick again.” let us “make it great” as was promised. 20 million lives are on the line here today, and countless lives are on the line in the future.

We must protect the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid. Republicans also want to repeal and replace Medicare and Medicare with privatized versions. This isn’t just about saving the Affordable Care Act known as ObamaCare; it is about saving our single-payer health care programs: the V.A., Medicaid, and Medicare, and standing up for the future of health care.

TIP: Contact your senators by writing, calling, or visiting them in person. Call (202) 224-3121 or follow the directions here.

TIP: Helping to save the ACA is as simple as staying informed and expressing support of the law publicly. Ideally, learn about the benefits, and make sure others understand what is on the line. If you can muster the time and energy, join supporters of the health care law at events like this. For now, the action we can take is general, and the path forward depends on the specifics of what happens next.

TIP: For more reading, see: A Bipartisan Reason to Save Obamacare.

Stop the Repeal and Delay Plan

There is more than one thing going on here, but the basics are simple:

Republicans have currently planned to “Repeal and Delay” ObamaCare starting “day one.” That means they wish to defund the law via “budget reconciliation” (starving key provisions of the law by stopping funding, which they have the votes to do and cannot be filibustered).

Then, after cost assistance, Medicaid expansion, and other key provisions are defunded, they will seek to repeal other provisions of the law while they spend the next 2-4 years working on a replacement plan (a plan that will likely include the privatization of Medicare and Medicaid).

Many are skeptical that a replacement plan will ever see the light of day if this method is used, and this is a real problem for the tens of millions who depend on the program.

Some critics even argue this is just a tactic to make people want ObamaCare to go away and we see the GOP’s favorite tactic, “starve the beast 101,” in action here. The tactic is 1. “starve the beast” (referring to the GOP’s view of the government as a beast) 2. make people dislike the now broken program. 3. now that the people don’t like the defunded broken program they will want a repeal. 4. The Republicans get to look good by saving everyone from ObamaCare.

We need to stand up for the millions here. It is a very political time, but the focus here must be on people, not politics.

Help us to save the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) by spreading the facts about what the GOP plans to do and what Obamacare does, by letting your state legislators know you support health care reform under the Affordable Care Act, and by supporting ObamaCare at a state level. We’ll explain more below.

TIP: Most people know 20 million people have been covered, millions have cost assistance on the marketplace because of the law, and everyone benefits from patient protections like the ban on preexisting conditions. All of this is on the line if the GOP moves forward on their Repeal and Delay plan. Get your self up to speed on ObamaCare via our ObamaCare explained page. The better you understand the program, the better you can help us to defend Affordable Care and Patient Protections and ensure a repeal doesn’t happen without a replacement plan on the table.

Key Provisions that Need Protection

Now that President has been elected, the Affordable Care Act’s key provisions are on the line. Here are the big 3 that I would call your attention to:

  1. The Preexisting Conditions Ban: This is the provision that ensures that no one can be denied coverage for preexisting conditions or dropped from a plan if they get sick. The GOP wants to eliminate it to reduce costs. They have a “lackluster” alternative version, featured in many of their potential plans that they will likely try to pass off as them keeping the provision (if they do ever actually put a workable replacement plan on the table). Watch out for the Republican’s “Continuous Coverage Exclusion” For Pre-Existing Conditions it is not the same as ObamaCare’s preexisting conditions protections.
  2. Medicaid Expansion: The GOP already denied coverage to 5 million Americans by blocking Medicaid expansion over concerns about cost. They will now likely move to defund Medicaid in more states by removing the federal funding needed to keep the program going. Their end goal is to block-grant and privatize Medicaid. At best this means a program like Indiana’s, but even that is a program created by Medicaid expansion. So that best case is perhaps overly hopeful.
  3. Cost Assistance: ObamaCare’s cost assistance helps millions afford premiums and out-of-pocket costs. The GOP on-paper plans, none of which are ready to be passed yet, all offer cost assistance. However, the assistance is less generous and less nuanced than the Affordable Care Act’s assistance. Good ideas on paper aside, repeal and delay starts with repeal and then follows up with no plan at all for a few years. The problem here is those few years in which people are left without cost assistance.

Which Provisions are at Risk of Being Defunded?

The “good news” here is that not every provision depends on the budget. So plans for a full repeal aside, in terms of just budget reconciliation:

  • The elements of the Affordable Care Act that can be changed through reconciliation include cost assistance, Medicaid expansion, and the individual and employer mandates.
  • The elements that would likely remain in place include guaranteed issue coverage, the prohibition on preexisting condition exclusions, modified community rating, essential health benefit requirements, and actuarial value standards.

This means two of our three main provisions are on the line “day one,” and but the third requires a repeal in Congress. Democrats can filibuster a repeal, but only you can speak up and stop reconciliation.

obamacareHow You Can Help Protect ObamaCare at the State Level?

Although the PPACA is a federal law, there is a lot we can do to protect it at a state level. Protecting ObamaCare at a state level is all about two things:

1. Educating Your Fellow Americans. Read up on the facts on what ObamaCare does, how it saves lives and money and how it creates jobs and offers tax breaks. Pretty much every anti-ObamaCare talking point is bunk. Don’t fight with your neighbors, just let them know they facts. Read ObamaCare Facts

2. Contacting Your State Representatives. The Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) has two aspects which are going to vote at a state level.

TIP: The battle over ObamaCare includes the ongoing battle over Medicaid Expansion. Medicaid is a joint federal and state-level program, thus “we the people” have real power in the conversation about what happens to Medicaid. Make sure your rep knows you support ObamaCare, Medicaid, and Medicare! Read More On ObamaCare and Medicaid Expansion.

Moving Forward With ObamaCare

ObamaCare isn’t perfect. Aspects of ObamaCare will need to be reformed moving forward, and we support any efforts to do this. This fight isn’t about reform it is about rejecting the half-baked “repeal and delay” plan.

Make no mistake, the ACA, ObamaCare, saves millions of lives and that isn’t something we can ignore in an honest debate over the future of the healthcare law.

Can Government Programs Like ObamaCare Work?

ObamaCare has already been working since 2010 banning lifetime limits, decreasing annual dollar limits, allowing young adults to stay on their parent’s insurance to 26, expanding coverage, reducing waste, creating jobs and reforming the practices of insurance companies. Just like other public programs, ObamaCare isn’t perfect, but it can and does work.

We’ve all heard the lines “less government” and “government can’t do anything right,” but this is just an out right lie. If the founders didn’t want a federal government, they wouldn’t have created one. The GOP plans to undo much of what FDR and LBJ did, but you can stop them.

No system is perfect but our founding fathers built this country on the idea that government was by the people and for the people to protect the common welfare. Less government means less control over things like wages, health care, social security, basic rights, workers rights, women rights and more. Less government does not return taxes and legal control to the states; it relinquishes all protection and control.

At ObamaCare Facts we’ve presented you with the facts on every aspect of the popular recent health care reform, now it’s time to stand up for the ACA, ObamaCare, and voice your support of the program alongside us.

Support ObamaCare and Show them We Mean Business

Most of us are in the 98% percent of Americans who greatly benefit from the protections and reforms of the Affordable Care Act, ObamaCare. 98% = those who would face bankruptcy without basic coverage and preexisting conditions protections in a catastrophic situation.

Not only do millions of us save money on health insurance and get better coverage, but we also save millions of lives by protecting ObamaCare. This social benefit should not be overlooked in conversations about cost curbing and cost assistance.

If the effectiveness of health care reform is diminished at a state level or federal level, it will be another victory for Big Business and prove that Americans are willing to give up their rights based on talking points.

Stand up to for your rights on a state level using the ObamaCare facts we present and help us to make a better future for our children, our poorest, our seniors and America as a whole.

 

Protect ObamaCare By Supporting it at a State and Federal Level
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Author: Thomas DeMichele

Thomas DeMichele is the head writer and founder of ObamaCareFacts.com, FactsOnMedicare.com, and other websites. He has been in the health insurance and healthcare information field since 2012. ObamaCareFacts.com is a...

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