Return to a Preexisting Condition– #Trumpcare wants to return you to the “good old days.”
The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed “Trumpcare” yesterday – legislation that seeks to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The bill would shift federal funding from our most vulnerable populations and provide huge tax cuts for the rich. This harmful legislation would gut Medicaid and take away health care from 24 million people. In addition, the Republican-backed bill seeks to allow states to return to the “good old days” when insurers gleefully denied coverage or charged obscene amounts of money to vulnerable patients because they had preexisting conditions, such as being HIV+.
HR 1628 bill now heads to the U.S. Senate — please contact your senator today and urge them to vote no on this dangerous bill. Click here to find your U.S. Senator: https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/senators_cfm.cfm?State=OR
Executive Disorder– Trump tries once more to issue a license to discriminate
The Trump administration attacked vulnerable communities again yesterday in a new executive order that purports to promote free speech. The order provides religiously affiliated nonprofit organizations with the ability to engage in political “speech” without jeopardizing their tax-exempt status. Although the order dangerously blurs the line between church and state by allowing religious organizations to pontificate their political views from the pulpit, the “speech” they most likely have in mind is financial “speech.” The order would provide anti-equality donors with the opportunity to make tax-deductible donations which will be used by the church to campaign for candidates and still be able to keep those donations secret.
The order also requires that several agencies (Department of Treasury, Labor and Health and Human Services) consider issuing amended regulations that would allow more objections to the preventive care mandate of the Affordable Care Act, and directs the Attorney General to issue guidance interpreting religious liberty protections under Federal law. This blank check for Attorney General Jeff Sessions is deeply troubling and could result in a dramatic increase in religious exemptions that could undermine LGBTQ people in many different federal agencies.
This post, by TLC Policy Counsel Sasha Buchert, is part of our Policy Desk series.