The thing that keeps me up right now is Trumpcare, and you all know that because you follow me on Facebook and I haven’t posted about anything else in days. Weeks. Months. YEARS. WHO KNOWS. It’s gotten to the point where people at work are asking me to send them things because I’ve become that girl with the list of links about healthcare. Since most of you don’t actually work with me, I’ve put them for you here instead:
https://www.ouramendments.org/ – the budget reconciliation process that the Republicans are using to pass the healthcare bill allows for unlimited amendments. If Democrats propose like 4,000 amendments, we could theoretically delay the bill until midterms. You can basically use that link to submit your own amendment and it gets sent to the healthcare aids of your senators and it goes to Minority Leader Chuck Schumer because he’s the one who decides strategy. It’s a creative way to advocate without having to actually talk to people on the phone, which, let’s face it, is the worst.
https://www.indivisibleguide.com/resource/withholding-consent-filibuster-amendment-call-script/ – call scripts for Democratic Senators. They also have links to ones for Republicans and Republicans in the ten vulnerable states where people might flip.
Honestly, these scripts have good info, but they are kind of involved. If you want to have a conversation with the person who answers the phone, that’s AWESOME. And I full support that and there’s a lot of good info for that here. I rarely want to have an actual conversation so I usually just go with something like
“Hi, my name is [NAME] and I’m a constituent from [ZIPCODE] and I’d like to leave a comment for the Senator”
“Sure, go ahead”
“I’d like to ask that the Senator do whatever he/she can to block passage of the TrumpCare bill. Whether it’s by filibustering, filibustering by amendment or objecting to unanimous consent, I hope that he/she will do whatever they can to make sure that this bill doesn’t pass. We need to see leadership from our Democratic Senators, and we need to see them fighting for us and our loved ones.”
“Great, I’ll pass that along!”
“Thanks, and have a great day!”
“You too.”
END.
You can also call the HELP committee to yell at them for abdicating their responsibility to hold hearings on this bill if you’re feeling ambitious, by calling: 202-224-5375. If you want a script for that, let me know, and I’ll write one.
https://www.trumpcareten.org/ – if you know anyone who lives in Alaska, West Virginia, Maine, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Louisiana or Arkansas, they have particularly vulnerable Senators or Senators who might be persuaded not to vote for Trumpcare, and you can pass those resources along if they are inclined to do something about it.
https://swingleft.org/district-funds – if you’d rather just donate money, feel free! Swing Left is fundraising for the future opponents of Republicans so that after a Democrat/progressive candidate wins their primary they have a pot of money they can access. People usually spend most of what they’ve fundraised during the primary so this is a good way to give progressive candidates a running start. Pick some Republicans who voted yes on AHCA so that the Senators in those states know that there is national pressure.
https://www.vox.com/health-care – finally, Vox has been doing some EXCELLENT healthcare coverage, from what’s wrong with the way they are passing the bill now, to facts about what’s probably in it that you can use to argue with friends, coworkers, family, people on the street or the MAGA assholes on Twitter.
If you have any questions, let me know because I honestly can’t help myself.
Sleeping is giving in 
My question would be this:
For those who want to repeal Obamacare, what should we do? Personally, I’m forced to pay a ridiculous premium to an insurance company I was forced to accept. With a deductible that would sink most American families. If I refuse, I have to write a check to the government. Sure I have health insurance, which is one of those little check marks the left loves to use. “Look how many people have health insurance now!!!” But how many of them are like me? Forced to buy insurance that doesn’t actually cover any healthcare? Yeah, I have insurance. But it is entirely useless. And from a healthcare standpoint, I’m worse off than I was before Obamacare.
Because I work in the medical field, I also had to get a new job because of Obamacare. Seeing a 200%+ increase in premiums, and a reduction of pay…was too much. I still have had to drop some insurance simply because of cost.
Because of the inflation rate of premiums, I literally can’t afford myself. How weird is that? The cost for me to use my medical training on myself is higher than I can afford (going through legal channels.) Of course, I’m at liberty to treat myself outside of the scope of licensed medical practice, but any misdiagnosis, subsequent infection…is ultimately my responsibility in that case.
Check out this article: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/09/us/counties-with-one-or-no-obamacare-insurer.html
What do you tell the people living in those counties who are just…left with no choice? Two gangsters…the government or insurance companies. Each one with a gun to our head, demanding cash for nothing. Which do we choose? I chose the insurance company, because at least they don’t destabilize the middle east.
I’m not saying the GOP plan is better. But Obamacare was singularly the worst thing to happen to my health in my entire life. I haven’t had a check up since it was implemented. I have no primary care doctor. Nor can I afford to go to the dentist since its implementation. Not without significant financial sacrifice.
I also don’t qualify for any subsidies, and would end up paying more to the exchanges than I do my employer sponsored plan. I’ve checked. I check every year.
Any advice on what to tell my wife? About how a baby is almost too expensive to even birth without risking her life?
I would say that millions more people were going through what you’re going through now before Obamacare passed, and that millions more will go through that same thing if Trumpcare passes, and to wish that on them when you know how hard it is is a special kind of vindictiveness.
I would also say that you should push for substantive reforms. No one has ever said that Obamacare was perfect or that we should keep it exactly as is. But nothing the Republicans have put forward actually answer those problems. Yes, premiums for young, healthy, wealthy people will probably go down. But premiums for the poor and the sick and the elderly would skyrocket. And those are people for whom life is already really really hard. Harder than it is for me, by a long shot, which is why I’m okay with my premiums being where they are. But if you think Obamacare was a bad deal for you, like it sounds like it was, push for substantive reforms that stabilize markets for EVERYONE, not ones that give you a better deal at the expense of someone else. Push legislators to actually deal with the problems at hand instead of cutting Medicaid and reinstating lifetime and yearly caps. Nothing that has been proposed promises to do that. The solutions are out there, but instead of looking for them we have to have this stupid fight about how many people can we screw over at once.