FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 13, 2017
CONTACT
Email: [email protected]
Juan Gastelum, 213-375-3149
Hayley Burgess, 202-384-1279
Trump’s Relentless Attack on ACA Health Law Is Another Attack on Disenfranchised People
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration over the past week announced several federal health policy changes that will undercut access to vital health services for millions of people, especially women, people with serious or long-term health conditions, and low- and middle-income families. The new policies will destabilize insurance markets and drive up premiums, making coverage less affordable for those with the greatest health needs.
The changes are the latest in a relentless, hyperpartisan effort by President Trump and conservative Republicans to undermine the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the 2010 health law that expanded access to affordable health coverage to 20 million previously uninsured Americans, including lawfully present immigrants. They come after several failed attempts by Republicans in Congress to garner enough support to repeal the law.
The Trump administration also suggested it would reject bipartisan efforts to stabilize the insurance markets unless Congress funds more of Trump’s anti-immigrant, white supremacist agenda, threating to hold hostage millions of people’s health care.
Matthew Lopas, health policy attorney at the National Immigration Law Center, issued the following statement:
“President Trump’s actions over this past week fall in line with a disgraceful pattern of reckless decision-making that willfully disenfranchises already vulnerable communities. These new policies threaten to throw our entire health system into chaos, and they will hurt women, people who are sick, and families with modest means the most. We should all be outraged by Trump’s uninhibited tendency to put political gain above the health and wellbeing of our country. Congress must do its job to stabilize the health system and prevent millions of people from losing their coverage, without caving to Trump’s ludicrous demands.”
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