Photo by freestocks.org on Unsplash
Republican Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana are in the process of scrambling for votes in their latest effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
This bill is essentially a “screw you” to anyone with a pre-existing condition, anyone of low income, anyone on Medicaid, or basically anyone with a vagina. Dr. Jennifer Childs-Roshak, Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts president and chief executive officer, regards this bill as a “dangerous scheme” and “devastating to women” because of the threat it poses on women’s access to affordable health care, reported by feature writer for Masslive.com, Anne-Gerard Flynn.
The organization is Massachusetts’s largest sexual and reproductive health care provider and says to provide around $2 million worth of annual services to Medicaid patients.
Photo by Camila Cordeiro on Unsplash
“Nearly half of the patients who visit the Western Massachusetts Planned Parenthood health center rely on Medicaid. If Senators Graham and Cassidy have their way, these thousands of patients — and thousands more across the state — would be blocked from the basic, preventive care they rely on. This dangerous scheme would limit access to birth control, cancer screenings, STD testing and treatment in Springfield, making it harder for the most vulnerable members of our communities to stay healthy and take care of themselves,” said Childs-Roshak.
I guess that’s just what happens when a couple of old, rich, white guys who think that a cervix is a manufacturing tool, write a health care bill…. Okay, that was a lie. But I still wouldn’t be surprised if they thought that.
According to the non-profit organization known as the Kaiser Family Foundation, “Medicaid finances nearly half of all births in the U.S., accounts for 75% of all publicly-funded family planning services and half (51%) of all long-term care spending, which is critical for many frail elderly women.” They also reported that Medicaid gave more than 25 million low-income women health and long-term care coverage in 2014, as seen in the diagram above.
“The proposed legislation is directed at Medicaid recipients, but the provisions dealing with reproductive health issues would end ACA mandates that guaranteed coverage for such services as maternity care, and continue Republican lawmakers efforts to prohibit insurance coverage for abortion even in the private market,” Flynn reports.
Because there’s nothing inhumane about making it nearly impossible for women to raise their families or to have a healthy pregnancy or to prevent unintended pregnancy… *Insert eye roll here*.
If you want to do something to stop this atrocious bill from passing, ask your local representative to vote NO on Graham-Cassidy as soon as possible.
Here’s the information for Massachusetts’s representatives:
Markey, Edward J. – (D – MA)
(202) 224-2742
Warren, Elizabeth – (D – MA)
(202) 224-4543