PELOSI — Dear Colleague on Protecting and Defending the Affordable Care Act

February 3, 2017

Dear Democratic Colleague,

On January 20th, our nation witnessed the peaceful transfer of power with the inauguration of a new president. The next morning, America awakened to a peaceful show of power from millions of women and men across the country, in the Women's March.

Many marched to protect affordable health care in America. And many people are asking what they can do next to defend it.

In order to maximize the impact of our next actions, we are asking Members to have events on the same day, Saturday, February 18th, to protect the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Medicaid. On Presidents' Day weekend, we will honor our Founders' vision of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Preserving the ACA is not only important for the 20 million newly insured Americans, but for the more than 150 million Americans with coverage through their employer. Our goals were to expand access, improve benefits, and reduce cost - and we are very proud of the law's success so far.

Many outside groups want to protect our health care and participate in district events. We have available a list of outside advocates from health care providers, to patient disease advocacy groups, to others who wish to participate. A few event suggestions are attached at: http://democraticleader.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Event-Suggestions-on-GOP-Assaults-on-ACA-Health-and-Economic-Security-...-1.pdf.

On Tuesday, information will be available at the Caucus Meeting and we will have a meeting of the Democratic Members from Medicaid expansion states. Later that day, you are invited to a press event with Ranking Members Scott, Pallone and Neal on the impact of repealing the ACA on children.

I believe that working together and engaging the public, we can defeat efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. We must be engaged and unified to do so. Please let me know what approach works best for your constituents, and what further assistance my office can provide.

Thank you for your leadership.

best regards,