Congress is continuing with their efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act before a September 30 ^th deadline. Their latest effort is legislation sponsored by Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC). This bill threatens survivors’ access to the comprehensive health services they need, including physical and mental health services as well as preventive care. Survivors need all of these critical services in order to heal and thrive. This bill would allow insurers and states to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions and charge them  higher premiums or deny coverage altogether. It gives states an opportunity to opt out of covering essential health benefits, allow states to block grant money and determine how they want to provide health coverage and leaves more than 30 million people uninsured. Additionally, this bill would cut Medicaid funding for tens of millions of seniors, people with disabilities and families with children beginning in 2020.

Take Action
Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris need to hear from you about your opposition to any health care legislation that would take away access to affordable, comprehensive health care from millions of survivors. While they have publicly opposed the Cassidy-Graham bill, it’s important that they hear from you about how important their continued efforts to protect survivors’ health care are, and the importance of accessible and quality health care services. We also encourage you to share specific survivor impact stories so the Senators can  further understand the impact of the bill on survivors. Please call Senator Feinstein’s office at (202) 224-3841 and Senator Harris’ office at (202) 224-3553 today.

Sample call script:
Hello, my name is (name) from (organization) in (city) and I’m calling to thank the Senator for her continued efforts to protect the health care of survivors of domestic and sexual violence. I urge the Senator to oppose any health care legislation that would leave millions of survivors without health care access, cut Medicaid, and remove requirements around pre-existing conditions and essential health benefits. If you have a specific story of a survivor who has benefited from access to health care services, share it here. Thank you.

Additional Information
For more background on this bill, please read this report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities here.

If you have any questions regarding the efforts to repeal and replace the ACA, please contact

• CALCASA’s Communications Coordinator, Lorena Campos. Email: lcampos@calcasa.org or Phone: (916) 446-2520
• The Partnership’s Public Policy Coordinator, Christine Smith. Email: christine@cpedv.org or Phone: (916) 444-7163

In solidarity,
 
California Partnership to End Domestic Violence 
California Coalition Against Sexual Assault