JWI Urges Senate to Undo AHCA Bill

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                    

CONTACT
Meredith Jacobs, VP Communications
direct: 202.464.4803// cell: 301.529.8591

Washington, D.C. – JWI is deeply disappointed by yesterday's narrowly passed repeal of the Affordable Care Act and its replacement with the American Health Care Act, a bill that will cost millions of people a fair and equitable healthcare plan. JWI CEO Lori Weinstein issues the following statement:

Shame on those Republicans who voted in favor of the new health care bill. Not a single Democrat supported and twenty Republicans voted against what was clearly a hastily put together replacement of last month’s failed effort.  This plan, which has yet to be vetted by the Congressional Budget Office, calls for changes that will not only undo President Obama's healthcare bill but will leave millions of Americans vulnerable when it comes to their healthcare and ultimately their economic security. Millions of women and children will be the victims of this law’s sweeping changes which include, but are not limited to, revisions that allow for penalties for pre-existing conditions, decreased federal subsidies to help those with lower income access healthcare, potential restoration of life-time benefit limits, and pullback of the ACA’s Medicaid expansion. It is unconscionable that while so much is being taken from poor and working class individuals and families, taxes on healthcare plans will be rescinded for the wealthy.

This plan is an economic injustice and we call on the Senate to defeat it.

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Jewish Women International (JWI) is the leading Jewish organization working to end violence against women and girls domestically and internationally. JWI is a Steering Committee member of the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence Against Women and convenes the Interfaith Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence and the Clergy Task Force to End Domestic Abuse in the Jewish Community, and is a member of the Gun Violence Table. JWI’s advocacy efforts focus on the passage of legislation that supports women and girls, ensures their economic security, and protects their right to live free of violence.