In the News
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, South Florida Healthcare Advocates Slam Republican Plans to Repeal Affordable Care Act
(Miami, FL) — Earlier today, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL-23rd) joined the Florida Democratic Party and Protect Our Care Florida to mark the 12th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) being signed into law by calling out ongoing Republican efforts to strip healthcare coverage and raise premiums for seniors and working families in Florida.
Republican Senators like Marco Rubio have spent years trying and failing to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, and Republicans have vowed to raise healthcare costs by stripping coverage for millions of Americans and opposing plans to lower the cost of prescription drugs if they gain control of Congress.
By repealing the ACA, Republicans would remove protections for 135 million Americans with preexisting conditions, charge women more than men for the same care, and dramatically raise premiums and prescription drug prices for working families across Florida.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
“The ACA is a healthcare security blanket for every American. Sure, Republicans have spent those 12 years trying to steal that blanket from Americans families, but Democrats beat them back. Yet as we speak, Republicans are still looking for ways to set this security blanket on fire. Just in the last few weeks, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson told the far-right outlet Brietbart that if Republicans take control of Congress, they will repeal the Affordable Care Act. What he didn’t say is that if Republicans succeed in repealing the Affordable Care Act, more than 100 million Americans with preexisting conditions like me, a breast cancer survivor, will lose our insurance protections.
“The totality of the current Republican healthcare plan is three words – repeal the ACA. They still have nothing more than that. But it gets worse – Florida Senator Rick Scott just unveiled the Republican plan to raise taxes, premiums, and eliminate coverage. Scott’s plan is to raise taxes on half of Americans, with that pain mostly falling on people making less than $100,000 per year. This radical, trillion-dollar ten-year tax hike plan would also sunset programs like Medicare and Social Security. That means make them go away. Can you imagine what that would do to seniors in Florida? But that’s the plan that Florida’s Senator Tax Hike laid out. As any sane voter can see, a Republican majority would be deadly and devastating, both for Americans’ health and their pocketbooks. The choice can not be more clear.”
Laurie Scop, Miami Beach social worker with a story related to the importance of the ACA in her life
“During the pandemic, while I was in between jobs, I felt so fortunate to be covered by a Marketplace plan. It allowed me to receive needed medication in the form of injections that are not available through the public health system. The ACA undoubtedly saves lives and it ensures the human right to health and wellbeing. Thank you to everyone who continues to fight to keep the ACA alive so that Floridians like myself can stay alive.”
Louisa McQueeney, former healthcare navigator in South Florida and local healthcare advocate
“When the doors first opened, the people that came to enroll themselves in health insurance were the people that had been denied health insurance due to terrible preexisting conditions. .And finally, for the first time in their lives, they were able to sign up for health insurance they could afford and got coverage that they needed. And I will tell anyone, the look on their faces once they had the security that there was a health insurance program, that they could go see a doctor and get the care they needed – it’s something that when you see it, you will never forget it.
“Unfortunately, we still have to fight for parts of the population, especially the ones that are falling in what we call the Medicaid gap. Florida has still not expanded Medicaid, even though the federal government has made it very attractive for them to do so. I still cannot imagine why you would want to withhold healthcare from people that so deserve it.”