Today, the House of Representatives, including all California Republican Congressional Representatives—Ken Calvert, Paul Cook, Jeff Denham, Duncan Hunter, Darrell Issa, Steve Knight, Doug LaMalfa, Kevin McCarthy, Tom McClintock, Devin Nunes, Dana Rohrabacher, Ed Royce, David Valadao, and Mimi Walters—voted 217 – 213 to pass H.R. 1628, the American Health Care Act, that will have a devastating impact on California children and families.
“Today, House Republican leaders bullied their way to a vote on a bill that will reverse half a century of progress in covering children and families while giving a massive tax cut to America’s wealthiest individuals and corporations,” said Alison Buist, Director of Child Health, Children’s Defense Fund. “By passing the American Health Care Act that destroys Medicaid’s guarantee of health coverage for poor and disabled children, including more than half of all children in California, we will turn the clock back to the bad old days of insurance discrimination, debt, and even death. The American Health Care Act is a bad deal for kids and a bad deal for California.”
We know that the original American Health Care Act would devastate Medicaid, cutting more than $800 billion over 10 years, and resulting in at least 24 million more uninsured people within a decade. In their rush for a political win, House Republican leaders pushed this latest version through with even more harmful amendments. They also refused to wait for a fiscal analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, so even they have no idea how much worse the effect will be. The American Health Care Act will put many of the most vulnerable Californians at risk, including children, people with disabilities or pre-existing conditions, and pregnant women, while blowing a hole in California’s budget and leaving state and local taxpayers to foot the bill.
Going forward, the Coalition will continue to strongly support and protect the coverage and benefit gains in the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid as debate continues in the Senate.
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The Children’s Health Coverage Coalition is comprised of California Coverage & Health Initiatives, Children Now, Children’s Defense Fund-California, PICO California,, The Children’s Partnership, and United Ways of California. Follow the Coalition on Twitter at @KidsHealthCA.
