This is a black and white image of a rotting evil zombie. Text is superimposed in creepy, dripping letters: "It keeps coming back!"

Zombie Trumpcare Rises from the Bowels of Hell Again

Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are hellbent on scoring a healthcare win through their incessant efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. These bills have done under different names, but they are collectively known as Trumpcare. Though this year’s bills have all failed, Republicans keep introducing new repeal bills. Like undead monsters that just won’t stay in of the grave, Trumpcare keeps coming back to haunt us.

Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) are responsible for the latest attempt to resurrect Trumpcare. They’ve introduced a new healthcare bill as part of their attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, known as the ‘Graham/Cassidy bill’. Other Republican senators, like Dean Heller of Nevada, have also expressed support for this bill.

This incarnation of Trumpcare is even worse than the ‘skinny repeal’ rejected by Congress in July. The skinny repeal was bad enough, but Graham/Cassidy is probably the worst proposed version of Trumpcare to date.

The Graham/Cassidy bill would turn Medicaid into a state block-grant system, strip out many of the patient protections guaranteed through Obamacare, bring back higher rates for people with pre-existing conditions and defund Planned Parenthood. Insurers would no longer be required to have disabled people pay the same rates as non-disabled people. There would be no more guarantees for mental health coverage.

Medicaid block grants are essentially funding cuts that would strip federal support from state healthcare budgets. Changes to essential benefit and pre-existing condition policies will make it difficult or impossible for disabled or chronically ill people to access the healthcare they need.

Moreover, the bill would shift funding from states that expanded Medicaid to states that did not, meaning that Texas’s state government would benefit from the bill while California’s suffers.

Let’s drive a stake through Trumpcare once and for all. Contact your senators — especially if they’re Republicans — and tell them that the Graham-Cassidy bill would be detrimental to people’s lives. If you have personal stories about how you or people you know have benefited from the protections in the Affordable Care Act, tell them. If you live outside the US and want to help, feel free to signal boost this article. Kill Trumpcare before it kills millions of people.

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