CALL TO ACTION: Submit Trumpcare Comments to the Senate Finance Committee by Monday, Sept. 25

Posted byIndivisible Austin 40 Comments on CALL TO ACTION: Submit Trumpcare Comments to the Senate Finance Committee by Monday, Sept. 25

The Senate Finance Committee is accepting comments on Graham-Cassidy (aka Trumpcare aka Zombiecare) until 12 P.M. (CENTRAL) ON MONDAY, SEPT. 25.

Here are instructions from our friends at Community Catalyst:

Working against the September 30th deadline for the budget reconciliation instructions, Senate republicans are trying once again to ram a repeal bill through the Senate. After some members of the Senate called for regular order – a public process with committee hearings, expert testimony and opportunity to offer amendments – the Senate Finance Committee will meet on Monday, September 25th at 2:00pm EDT in a hastily thrown together attempt at “regular order.” However, without a full CBO score detailing the impact on how many consumers will lose coverage and with no time for actual debate, this hearing is nothing more than a distraction from what is really happening: the latest attempt to gut Medicaid and strip health care from millions of Americans.

The hearing record needs to be filled with strong statements of opposition from organizations and individuals!

  1. Draft comments detailing the harmful effects of the Graham-Cassidy bill.
  2. At the committee’s request, be sure to submit comments with the following formatting instructions: a typewritten, single-spaced statement, not exceeding 10 pages in length, with title and date of the hearing and the full name and address of the individual or organization on the first page of the statement.
  3. Email to GCHcomments@finance.senate.gov by 12pm CDT on Sept. 25.
  4. We recommend that you also provide a copy of the letter to your own Senators.

Talking points from Community Catalyst (PDF)

40 replies on “CALL TO ACTION: Submit Trumpcare Comments to the Senate Finance Committee by Monday, Sept. 25”

  1. I am vehemently opposed to the Graham/Cassidy act. It is unconscionable to me that our elected officials would even think of killing off the ACA, which has covered so many more Americans and decreased the trajectory of medical costs and imposing this new law which will upend the insurance and medical fields, and throw so many citizens off health insurance. From what I’ve read, not one industry involved in the medical field is in favor of this law.

    What we need is a thoughtful, bipartisan discussion of how to improve the ACA and how to finance it so that as many Americans as possible can have basic, affordable health care.

    Margaret Walker

  2. Can’t understand how any Senator , who represents their state and works for all CITIZENS can in good conscience, take away the healthcare we get from ACA. It’s NOT Obamacare, It’s the Affordable Care Act and one that millions of American Citizens rely on. To push this horrendous, mean spirited Graham/Cassidy bill in would be detrimental to all citizens that now have healthcare for the first time. It is incomprehensible to us why you won’t work to fix the problems with ACA so that it takes care of all health issues. The only explanation for this failure on your part is extreme prejudice against the first black president who managed to provide coverage for healthcare for all Americans. Pres Trump’s williness to remove online reminders about renewing healthcare from the internet, threatening to withhold payments to insurance companies so they withdraw from the insurance pool in states and you Republicans letting this happen, tells all of us that you work for your donors and yourselves and not for us. The extreme right wing, like Rand Paul, that feel your awful bill doesn’t go far enough, are selfish souless individuals. They don’t understand or know the plight of millions of fellow Americans. Less military spending and boondoggle spending by GOP, would provide more than enough $ to provide good healthcare for all Americans. The GOP actions trying to sneak & push this egregious healthcare bill through is why many more Americans are now going for Bernie Sanders Medicare for all. This is what happens when GOP try to hurt so many. Never mind the tax cuts you r trying to push through once ACA is gone. The ones who really benefit from these tax cuts are the extremely wealthy 1% people, who pay little or no taxes. Warren Buffet admits that the 13% tax rate he pays, VS the 33% tax rate his secretary pays is totally wrong. Removing ACA would benefit the 1% in this country, but not the 99% . This is what this awfully bill is about. If the GOP really cared about the citizens of this country, they would work to fix and make ACA better and stronger. We deserve a good, strong, caring healthcare system in the best country in the world. Maybe if we vote all GOP out in 2018, we will get that. For sure, if you vote to remove ACA and put Graham/Cassidy bill in, we will fire all GOP. You will then have shown all voters that we can’t trust you to care about our country, only your mega donors.

  3. These repeal “efforts” are immoral. You have people’s LIVES in your hands! Do the job you were elected to do to improve the health of American citizens in a responsible manner. No one elected you to blindly say “Yea!” to any piece of crap legislation thrown your way for political points. Hold hearings and work in a bi-partisan fashion to fix the problem issues. Allow Medicare to negotiate drug costs. Listen to the people in the industry that all oppose these reckless attempts to ram through anything by a ridiculous deadline that puts party over people. Again, DO YOUR DAMN JOBS!

  4. This latest repeal effort is worse than the last one. GOP needs to grow up and start acting like responsible adults and work with Democrats and medical professionals and FIX what needs to be repaired with ACA.
    NO ONE, except 50 (plus the VP vote) greedy, self-serving Republican senators wants the Graham Cassidy repeal. GOP needs to stop putting party and donors over Country and do what’s right for the American people.

  5. #GrahamCassidy has little support from physician/patient groups. It effectively has little in terms of “replacement” for estimated 32 million. There is no complete CBO score, no Democrat input, hearings. This is “no health care” bill. If it were, much more thought and TIME would have been given, MORE people would get coverage than current system. Pew Research= Majority support ACA! Republicans want to keep a promise that is outdated with “nothing” aside from tax breaks for the 2%. #Graham Cassidy is vile as written and removes protections for preexisting conditions, increases cost for the elderly, puts children and veterans at further risk. This is not “health” care it is “wealth” care. It is robbery. It is shameful. Republicans aren’t listening to the majority for the sake of the richest, Koch/Mercer. Most Americans see and know the truth.

  6. VOTE “NO” GRAHAM-CASSIDY BILL

    Our elected representatives have a fiduciary responsibility to protect the American people, not cause them harm, let alone death! Stand up, do the right thing, VOTE NO!
    PEOPLE BEFORE PARTY-LINE!!!!!

  7. OMG I am so tired of this repeal. You do know the people do not want this. You will be hurting so many familys . You will also be hurting your self. People will remember you voted for this. As a women it is the first time I was called a Pre-Existing condition. sham on you I am asking you to do the right thing

  9. This bill is heartless, cruel, and mean-spirited. In no way does this bill in good faith serve the needs of American Citizens. You cannot be a Christian and hurl this insulting bill upon the American people. Wishing whoever votes for this bill an eternity in hell.

  10. I agree with John McCain. Trying to jam this through with 50 votes while cowering from the process this country was built on is a horrible idea. Unless you need the money from the healthcare industry, it makes no sense. Obamacare needs work, but it works. Get to work. Do the right thing.

  11. If we acted like this at our jobs, let alone but showing up to vote half the time, we would be fired! So….guess what? You don’t do your job, you get fired! It may not happen for a year, but we will remember, especially if this passes and we are living in this healthcare world you’re creating. Any of us that have any care by then will be paying hugely to big pharma, drs, tests and that’s if we don’t have preexisting conditions! We will be spiraling into a hell hole. How do we get out of that? DO NOT PASS GRAHAM-LINDSAY BILL!

  12. How can any of the GOP call this “healthcare” with a straight face. Calling it such is an affront to the intelligence of ALL of the citizens of this United States. It should rather be called “DEATHCARE” because KILLING people is EXACTLY what this bill will accomplish. How will you all live with yourselves when disabled children, the elderly, and people with pre-existing conditions can no longer get, or afford, the healthcare they so desperately need to stay alive?
    My son has Juvenile Diabetes and was diagnosed at 9 years old. He has this life long disease through no fault of his own and I am worried to death that he will either not being able to have health insurance, he will exceed the lifetime caps, or it will become way too expensive for us to be able to afford!
    I am vehemently against this bill and the horrors it will force upon the citizens of this United States.

  13. As a family that would be directly impacted by the repeal of the ACA, the Graham Cassidy bill offers no guarantees that our family will protected from possible bankruptcy and financial ruin because of a preexisting condition. My husband has a preexisting heart condition, he is the breadwinner in our family of five. We are both in our fourties and delayed having children for many years because of the nature of his illness and the costly hospitalizations that nearly ruined us financially in our twenties. Because of Obamacare my husband receives the care he needs to stabilize his preexisting condition so he can lead a full life as a father and husband. Please do not hurt our family. By supporting the Graham Cassidy Bill.

  14. We are also a family that will be adversly effected by the passing of the Graham-Cassidy bill. My husband & I are hard working Americans + tax payers with pre-existing conditions. My husband is a heart patient with 8 heart attacks, 3 stents and 1 quadruple bypass under his belt. His medications are expensive & he needs them + cardio care to live and support his family. I have asthma and our 19 yr old daughter, who also works hard, is a victim of a violent crime that left her with a TBI, brain bleeds and memory problems coupled with crippling headaches, struggles with depression (as is common with this injury) & seizures caused by an over crowded school her Sophomore year, yet, she gets up every day and goes to work to pay her way and make her contributions. Our family needs the ACA, literally to live. If the bill is passed, it will take a husband/father away from us, leave a 19 yr old young woman left to fend for herself after being physically victimized leaving her with a life long injury & myself, well , I need the ability to breathe to live.

  15. The Graham-Cassidy bill is cruel and poorly developed and lacks good judgement and common sense. Stop trying to repeal the ACA for childish political and bigoted reasons and work in a bipartisan manner to fix it. The ACA is not perfect, but it is far superior in practicality and humanity than the Graham-Cassidy bill or any of its predecessors. Stop the hurtful fighting on Capitol Hill and do the jobs you were elected to do. Leaving the fate of the coverage of preexisting conditions up to the whims of politicians at the state houses is unconscionable. You have a moral duty to protect the American people, not hurt us.

  16. PLESSE, PLEASE, DO NOT ALLOW THIS BILL TO PASS! And if it does, it should apply to ALL government officials from 45 on down!

  17. Repeal of ObamaCare is out of the question. It works . It works very well for all parties and Trump better get out of the way. It’s enough . The people making decisions for all of us have nevr been in any of our shows. They are paid to be public servants but act like dictators. It must stop. I have numerous health conditions have had three heart attacks and i will not allow this farce of a government with all the charades and posing to be the cause of yet another heart attack. My family will sue. Many thousands will sue this governmanet and it’s elected officials for failing to do what is right for the people. We do not exist to feed some Trump – Cassidy – McConnell- Ryan- Graham ego fest. We will not stop.Obamacare ! We want and need Obamacare.

  18. Do not take away medical insurance for millions of families. You know this is wrong. Do what you committed to do in our senate for all Americans. What will happen to my senior fixed income, if Medicare insurance is changed for me. Don’t pass the problem down to the states. DO YOUR JOB!!! The American people are counting on you.

  19. We need to do more to keep this adminstration from committing second hand genocide on the old and disabled via the new healthcare bill. This country I fought and became permanently disabled over stands to repel dictatorship, yet day after day more similarities are being drawn to show the GOP is exactly that.

  20. I am completely against the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson proposal to eliminate the ACA. How can any Senator believe that this proposal will be beneficial to our fellow citizens? I am so thankful to Senator John McCain for his belief that Republicans and Democrats need to come together to work on healthcare and that he won’t vote for a bill not knowing how it will affect insurance premiums and coverage. I know of so many people (including my own son) who have been able to receive life-saving treatments with Obamacare. I can only hope that compassion for the sickest and neediest in our country will be first and foremost in the minds of our elected officials.

  21. This repeal is a horrible plan. I have many friends who never had insurance before the ACA. They like their insurance under Obama Care. Now they are terrified they will lose it. One has cancer. Another is pregnant. Why in the world can’t the Republicans work with the Democrats improve Obama care? They are selfish and don’t give a damn about ordinary people. The Congress have wonderful healthcare so why shouldn’t We? The Problem Solvers, a bipartisan group are working on a plan to improve the ACA. Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray are working on a plan to improve the ACA. Do not vote for the repeal. Grow.some gonads and eork to improve not replace Obama Care.

  22. This is what I wrote:

    Senators on the Finance Committee.

    I am writing to express my opposition to the repeal of the ACA. You must all know that the GC Bill is worse than any other put before the Senate. Especially for me, as a Stage IIIC, bilateral breast cancer (short term) survivor. Prior to the ACA, I could not obtain coverage from anyone, even State’s high risk pool. I have new lesions and, without this coverage, I will die. And, my death, like millions of other Americans who will die if the GC bill passes will be in your heads. Make no mistake, it will be your fault.

    I understand that the galvanizing argument of the GOP leadership is that nationally and regionally donor funding is being reduced. And, the argument is that that no legislation has been produced. Have you considered that only large donor money like the Koch brothers is probably the most affected by this reasoning? Have you thought about smaller donor funding reduction may be the cause of disgust with the bills being proposed; with partisanship politics driving the bills being proposed; or, that the bills being proposed will hurt all but the most wealthy?

    This bill is bad for America as evidenced by every major Insurance association, every physician association, every hospital association and groups supporting individual diseases have come out resoundingly against this bill.

    I have heard one senator say that unhealthy people don’t deserve healthcare. I have worked amd supported myself since I was 16. I earned and paid my way through university and graduate school. I have worked my whole life. It was cancer that sidelined me. And, now I will be punished.

    I worked in healthcare administration and consulting for over 15 years. I worked for a disproportionate share hospital where 92% of our ED visits/admissions were bad debt because of the lack of insurance. We were a Level I Trauma, Level III Nursery. We could not cherry pick our patients. I testified before Congress about disproportionate share and the impact of unsatisfactory reimbursement on the quality of patient care. You must understand that this bill will not save money…..it will transfer the burden onto healthcare providers…who then will be forced to transfer the burden onto commercial insurance policies. Effectively this will price even more people out of the ability to have healthcare insurance.

    I’m probably not your constituent, so my life may not matter to you. And, this is my obituary that will be written with the passage of the GC Bill. And, even if I am not your problem, millions of people….Voters… who rely on the ACA for coverage are your problem.

    There is no need to beat the clock to pass something by a simple majority. The ACA needs improvement. Work across the aisle to bring the best coverage and a 2/3 majority will be unachievable.

    Respectfully,

    Deborah Welch

  23. I met my wife at the age of 11.I was 14 yrs. old we dated for 7 yrs and have been married for 44 yrs and together for 51 yrs.I love her to death.In february 2016 she was diagnosed with chronic lymphocidic leukemia.Her hospital bill for 3 days was $150,000.00.Her 90 pills a month to keep her blood levels good are now $13,000.00 a month for ninety pills.With Obamacare we pay nothing.In June 2016 i had quadruple open heart bypass surgery.My hospital bill was $250,000.00 for 5 days in the hospital we paid very little with Obamacare.If they pass this terrible Graham-Cassidy nightmare which will leave 32 million people uninsured we will either die or not be able to afford this terrible plan.Why can,t they just fix what may be wrong with Obamacare and work with the Democrats instead of rushing a new plan so Trump can get his promise to replace and repair Obamacare.Why won,t these politicians take the same health insurance they’re trying to shove down our throats?Because they know it’s horrible and because they have stock in the pharmacutical industry and it makes them rich.They get free healthcare and a huge pension for the rest of their life.No worries for them.Also if Trump said Australia has one of the greatest health care plans why doesn’t he ask them what they are doing to have great healthcare?They have to stop the pharmacies from gouging everyone for medication and and all the insurance companies from charging so much.We need medicare for all free like Bernie Sanders said.It can be done.We can spend millions on wars but can’t get great healthcare.Everyone in the usa would have free healthcare if not for the spending on the wars.Canada ,England all have great healthcare.Before Obamacare i as a self employed small business man was paying $1,200.00 a month for Amerihealth with a$5,000.00 deductible.I couldn’t afford it so we went 3 years without any healthcare insurance and thank God for Obamacare or else we would have been paying hospital bills for the rest of our lives.I am now 65 yrs old and my wife is 62 yrs old and we would like to be able to live a long and healthy life so i,m asking all senators to PLEASE be considerate and vote no for the Graham-Cassidy plan and work together with the Democrats and take their time and come up with a great healthcare plan for everyone and not rush this through just to get it done.Half of the senators haven’t even read this plan.Also get rid of all insurance companies and pharmacies and we’ll be able to get great healthcare.
    ThankYou

  24. To the Finance Committee of the United States Senate,

    I am writing to express my opposition to the repeal of the ACA. You must know that the GC Bill is worse, especially for me.

    I am a breast cancer survivor, therefore have a pre-existing condition. My husband was recently forced to retire from the oil and gas industry. I am a private consultant. Without ACA I would not be able to obtain health insurance. With the new suggested bill I will surely not be able to afford the changes that the states will make and insurance companies will surely want to bypass customers such as myself.

    Should you pass this bill, I most likely will die without being able to get coverage as I will not be able to afford yearly check ups, nor any treatments should my cancer return. It sounds fatalistic, unfortunately it will be the truth.

    This bill is bad for most Americans as evidenced by every major Insurance Association, every physician Association and every hospital association and groups supporting individual diseases have come out against this bill as well.

    There is no need to beat the clock to pass something by a simple majority and just because. The ACA needs improvement. No one denies that. Please work across the aisle to bring the best affordable coverage to the citizens of this great nation. Many of us, would like to see our premiums go down and prescription medicines more affordable. Surely something close to a one payer system might be more feasible then repealing a bill that has helped me, my son and so many others in need.

    Respectfully,

    Lisa Thornton

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