The Feminist Majority condemns the vote today in the U.S. House of Representatives to demolish the Affordable Care Act and calls on the U.S. Senate to stop the deadly, cruel so-called American Health Care Act.

Statement by Feminist Majority President, Eleanor Smeal:

“Today, House Republicans voted to throw over 24 million people off of health insurance and cut some $890 billion from Medicaid, taking coverage from the poor, disabled and elderly, and giving it to the wealthiest Americans as a tax cut.

The American Health Care Act is a fraud. That’s why it is opposed by dozens of the nation’s top healthcare advocacy groups and medical associations, including the American Cancer Society, the American Diabetes Association, the American Public Health Association, the American Lung Association, March of Dimes, the American Medical Association, AARP, and the American Hospital Association.

This bill won’t just affect Medicaid recipients and people who have their coverage through the insurance marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act; it will affect nearly every American and is particularly cruel to the more than 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions.

If this bill is signed into law, the suffering will be widespread, needless and cruel: hospitals will close, middle class families will go bankrupt paying healthcare costs, and women will be charged more than men for coverage that doesn’t even guarantee maternity care. We will fight this bill in the Senate with every fiber of our being. Women will not go back.”

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