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Expressing sincere gratitude to the United States Senators who are standing in opposition to legislation that would strip healthcare from millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians and calling upon these Senators to use every means at their disposal to prevent its passage, including withholding consent for any waiver of rules and using the process of filibuster by amendment.
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WHEREAS, On May 4, 2017, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the American Health Care Act, also known as the AHCA; and
WHEREAS, The AHCA is designed to destroy the vital health care safeguards guaranteed to all Americans under the Affordable Care Act also known as the ACA or Obamacare; and
WHEREAS, According to the Congressional Budget Office, the AHCA will take away health care from 777,000 Pennsylvanians alone and 23 million Americans throughout the nation, which will result in 24,000-44,000 more Americans dying every year from lack of insurance, not to mention medical bankruptcies, lost wages, and untreated illnesses; and
WHEREAS, The AHCA will also hike premiums on average by $1,003 in Pennsylvania, end the federal protections for people with pre-existing conditions, allow insurance companies to charge older Americans significantly more for their health care, cut $834 billion from Medicaid, cutting off nearly 372,000 Pennsylvanians from this vital service, reinstate lifetime and annual benefit caps even those with employer coverage, make women pay more for health insurance than men, defund Planned Parenthood, and harm children with special needs by cutting Special Education funds for schools; and
WHEREAS, A small group of Republican Senators, all men, are currently deciding the future of the American health care system by working on this legislation completely in secret, without any public hearings, without receiving any feedback from key stakeholders, and without allowing the public to see the text of the legislation; and
WHER...
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