YWCA: Protect the ACA

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 -- YWCA USA issued the following news release:

Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Lindsey O. Graham (R-SC), Dean Heller (R-NV), and Ron Johnson (R-WI) released new legislation that proposes to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The proposed amendment caps Medicaid funding and rolls it into block-grants for states; allows states to waive critical protections for people with pre-existing conditions, and threatens the provision of essential health benefits. It also drastically cuts funding for Medicaid expansion and for the financial assistance that helps low and middle-income families afford coverage; and restricts access to comprehensive reproductive health care.

In contrast, the ACA provides a healthcare lifeline to 9.5 million women who could not otherwise afford health insurance. The ACA includes coverage, affordability, and accessibility provisions that are critical to women's health, and has been particularly beneficial for women of color, whose uninsured rates have dropped dramatically.

STATEMENT BY YWCA USA INTERIM CEO CASEY HARDEN

"The Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson legislation released today is a remix of the dangerous public policy we have seen in other efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Any health care legislation must protect the gains that women, girls, and communities of color have already made with the ACA. The current proposed legislation would exacerbate remaining inequities and create new ones. Millions of Americans who have found relief from the ACA cannot afford for policies to regress."