plan of action - july 17, 2017

Health Care


Mitch McConnell has delayed the vote while John McCain recovers from surgery. McCain has been opposed to certain aspects of the GOP bill and plans to file amendments addressing those concerns upon his return to the Senate after a short period of recuperation.  Susan Collins (ME) and Rand Paul (KY) (for opposite reasons) have both stated their opposition to the bill and will not consent even to begin debate. Dean Heller (NV) is also a possible no; if he supports the bill, he’ll be parting company with Nevada’s Republican governor, who opposes it. Rob Portman (OH) is fence-sitting, and Shelley Moore Capito (WV) is dubious.

Action:

1.  Email Senator McCain. Wish him a speedy recovery. Thank him for standing up for Americans’ right to health care, and ask him to prevent the bill being fast-tracked.  

2.  Pick one or two of the above-mentioned senators. Call their DC and constituency offices to plead with them to preserve Medicaid expansion and SSDI, to excise the Cruz Amendment, to continue the requirement that employers must offer health care coverage to full-time employees, etc. This article sets out the main differences between the BCRA and ACA.

As many of the Republican lawmakers and their staffers believe that single-payer health care is a crazed socialist idea and that those who advocate for it must be left-wing loonies, try to sound as much as possible like you’re conservative so as not to be written off. And of course, a single-payer health care system is in fact perfectly compatible with conservatism.