What a week. The highs of anticipation, the hope of change, the desperate lows many are feeling following the election. The questions, anxiety, and numbness many are struggling with right now. We want to let you know, we are not going anywhere.

After the 2016 election, we went from a group wanting to fix and expand the ACA, to a group of people committed to protecting and defending it. And we will do it again. 
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Right now, many are asking what they can do. Most importantly, tell people:

• NOW is open enrollment for ACA plans across the country.
• NOW there are enhanced subsidies making insurance more affordable than ever before.* 
• NOW DACA recipients are eligible to enroll in ACA plans with no danger to themselves or families.

​Let's make sure to get everyone enrolled who needs health insurance. If you or someone you know needs help with the enrollment process, go to healthcare.gov, or to the Connector to find someone near you to help.

* The increased subsidies are scheduled to sunset (i.e. go away) in 2026. The incoming Congress will likely not extend them. Call your elected officials and urge them to extend the ACA subsidies now - millions of people have been able to afford strong silver or even gold plans with them.

If you can, help us grow. We have plans to expand our work, but we need your help to do so. We do not take money from big Pharma or big Insurance, so we need you to help us keep going. We also have t-shirts, water bottles, and coffee mugs to show your commitment and support if you are interested here.

Let people know about what we are doing. Watch your inbox for events and information. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for updates and news. Take time for yourself and family, do what you can when you can. We are all in this together, and together we are mighty.

Today is a dark day. It is a gut punch. It is supremely disappointing and outrageous. It shows how our own apathy and indifference have allowed our institutions to be subsumed by those who put their personal ideology over precedent, democracy, and both the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Reproductive health care includes abortion. Abortion is critical health care. Birth control is critical health care. At a time when our country is finally coming to terms with the unconscionably high rate of maternal and infant mortality for our residents, critical options have been stripped away.

Today's decision by an activist majority of our Supreme Court has once again relegated women to second class citizens, stripping away the right to bodily autonomy. This decision, coupled with the gutting of the Voting Rights Act previously, and this week's decisions weakening of the separation of religion and state, allowing police to ignore the Miranda rights, and eliminating states' ability to legislate gun laws is steering us down a dangerous road.
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Now more than ever, we must come together and get out the vote. We MUST elect lawmakers at the local, state, and federal levels that believe in inherent rights, that health care is a human right, that people are more important than profits, and that the role of government is to protect the freedoms of all peoples, not just those who follow a narrow religious ideology or profit motive.

We need you and your family and friends to stand up, and declare that this will not stand. Because we will NOT let it.
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#BansOffOurBodies

True health care reform will only happen in the United States when everyone who needs to can access the health care they need and want, without restrictions based on ideology and misogyny. To this point, complete reproductive rights are critical for the realization of true health care reform. These rights have not been in more jeopardy since the verdict in Roe v Wade, and later Planned Parenthood v Casey.

The passage of the latest attack in Texas on abortion - SB8 - prove the protections of Roe v Wade are in serious jeopardy. In the almost 50 years since the Supreme Court decision which declared abortion a matter of privacy between a pregnant person and their doctor up to viability of the fetus - usually 22-24 weeks of gestation -  Congress has failed to codify these protections into federal law. Those opposed to the protections of Roe have worked to maintain the status quo while they worked to put Justices on the Supreme Court who oppose the Roe verdict.

Since 1973, the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v Wade has maintained that women have the right to privacy in their reproductive choices under the Constitution and that states could not impose undue burdens on women seeking an abortion has been deemed the law of the land. And since 1973, issue groups, religious organizations, and ideological lawmakers have worked to erode that right by preventing access to health clinics, impairing access to birth control, passing laws that determine when and how a woman may decide to carry a pregnancy to term or not, and providing decision power and even visitation rights to rapists whose criminal assault resulted in an often unwanted pregnancy. Women and child-bearing people have become secondary to the potential life of a fetus, yet no social safety net for the care of the product of these pregnancies have been reinforced. In fact, these same actors have worked to reduce any potential help to mothers following the birth of a child.

The fetishization of the fetus has led us down a dark and dangerous road, that is yet again under attack from a new case that will be ruled on by the Supreme Court this spring. This case refers to the constitutionality of a new Mississippi law that would prohibit abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, significantly before viability that is outlined in Roe v Wade. The State of Mississippi has asked that the Court overturn Roe in its entirety. 

In anticipation of the Court ruling the Mississippi law constitutional, the Texas governor signed into law a prohibition of abortion after 6 weeks, well before most child-bearing people even know they are pregnant. Above and beyond other ‘heartbeat bills’, this  “... bill turns the reins over to private citizens — who are newly empowered to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps someone get an abortion after a fetal heartbeat has been detected.” Further misinformation about pregnancy abounds as media outlets continue to call these ‘heartbeat bills’, when at 6 weeks there is no heart or circulatory system existing in an embryo.

In 2021 alone, there were more anti-abortion laws introduced in states than in all of 2011 -  the last year with the most proposed legislation to reduce access to reproductive care since the Roe decision in 1973. Laws passed have required invasive ultrasounds for women seeking an abortion, criminalized the act of performing an abortion, restricted access to contraception, prevented abortion after a incorrectly termed ‘fetal heartbeat’ is detectable, and one law even removes the right to an abortion from a state constitution.

We are also seeing lawmakers blur the line between contraception - medications that prevent pregnancy - with those designed to terminate pregnancy, and discussing banning coverage of birth control from Medicaid programs. 

In 2021, as in every previous session since 2013, a Congressional bill has been introduced that would codify the protections delineated in the Roe v Wade decision. This bill, The Women’s Health Protection Act, would “protect a person’s ability to determine whether to continue or end a pregnancy, and to protect a health care provider’s ability to provide abortion services.” On September 24th, the House passed this bill and it now sits in the Senate.

Without the passage of actual legislation on the federal level that will codify the rights confirmed in the Roe decision, states controlled by those who seem to believe, as Monty Python posited, that ‘every sperm is sacred,’ will continue to pass more and more restrictive legislation aimed at reaching the Supreme Court to challenge the findings in both Roe, and even Griswold, which determined that women had the right to access contraception.

Without the passage of real federal legislation, women of color will continue to be disproportionately impacted by anti-abortion and anti-contraceptive laws. Women will no longer be able to make decisions about their own bodies, at least as far as current laws permit. Those who are lower or even middle income who live paycheck to paycheck will continue to be unable to access the care they may desire and need.

There seems to be a substantial number of especially state-level legislators that want to bring back the days of women as chattel, while ignoring that much of our national economy is dependent on women they refuse to acknowledge as having the rights laid out in our Constitution - the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Without full access to reproductive rights - access to no-cost contraception, the ability to terminate an unwanted or dangerous pregnancy, the ability to terminate a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, the ability to terminate an unviable pregnancy, the ability to choose a tubal ligation during a C-section, the ability to have a hysterectomy without being asked if a woman truly understands the implications of the procedure -- even if it is medically necessary -- those rights will remain out of reach for over half of Americans. 

What can you do? Call your Senators and urge passage of the Woman’s Health Protection Act. Join with other grassroots advocates in one or more of several organizations fighting for reproductive rights. Some groups include Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and Men4Choice. There are also state and local organizations. Many Indivisible chapters have subcommittees focused on Choice. If you live in a state with abortion clinics, consider volunteering to help women and others seeking treatment there. Learn what you can do counteract false information being spread about abortion and reproductive rights.

Without full reproductive rights with no interference from the government, we can never have true health care reform in this country.

We believe it's all connected. If you do, too, click here to order your t-shirt.

These achievements were possible due to you speaking out and being involved. Making calls, attending town halls, signing petitions, writing letters, talking to friends and family, and staying informed are critical for us to eventually realize a comprehensive, universal, affordable, accessible, high-quality, and truly equitable health care system for all.

2021 also saw significant advances for us here at ACA Consumer Advocacy. Our 501c3 was approved. We joined with new coalitions working to effect change in our health care system by bringing consumer voices to the table, held online discussions on getting vaccinated and getting enrolled for 2022, and we began a new project looking at the importance of lifting up numerous social justice issues to achieve comprehensive health care.

We have big plans going forward and are glad to have you along on the journey. If you can, any support is greatly appreciated to help us reach our goals.

The truth is we can't do our work without you. Thank you.

We believe that so many issues are connected with true health care reform.
​If you do, too, show it with a shirt!

Since 2016, ACA Consumer Advocacy has been fighting to preserve and expand the availability of affordable health care in America. Our mission is to achieve truly comprehensive, universal, health care reform and educate and activate members of the public impacted by health care to advocate and work with lawmakers to achieve it. However, as the last few years, the last decades, the last century have shown us, improved access to healthcare is, like so many other parts of our shared life, meaningless if it is not available to each and every one of us. At ACA Consumer Advocacy, we are committed to fighting not only for the continuation and improvement of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), we are fighting for the ability of all Americans to live a full and dignified life with access to health care as a key component of that life.

While we will continue to seek protection of, access to, and expansion of the ACA, we will be examining in depth the areas in dire need of improvement that touch on our existing healthcare system. It is not enough to demand healthcare reform without also acknowledging how our society has continued to provide separate and unequal care that falls on clearly delineated lines of race, gender, religion, wealth, and more. We can no longer afford the luxury of saying we only support single-payer health care, or a public option, or health care for immigrants, or permanent protections for medical history (pre-existing conditions), or prescription cost reduction. True reform means so much more than that.

True health care reform means that we sincerely believe in what our Declaration of Independence says — that every person is endowed with the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, and that we are committed to making it real in our lifetime. It means that we acknowledge that health care means clean water, clean air, the ability to live without fear, the ability to earn a living wage, and the ability to vote in elections. It means believing that these things and more are basic human rights and working to truly make them a reality — to finally fulfill the promise of our nation for all. It means that none of us have the luxury of being single issue voters or advocates and ignoring tangential issues. It means we must lift up all issues, while having a main focus, and finally realize the nation we can be.

Over the next few months, we will be looking at issues that impact our health care system, and how we can and must lift up those issues and address them as we pursue comprehensive health care reform in the United States. Please join us, participate in the conversation, and let’s work together to realize a comprehensive, universal, accessible, affordable, high quality, and equitable health care system for all.

We believe it's all connected. Get a shirt and show you do, too.

As you may have heard, the U.S. Supreme Court has dismissed California v Texas, the case aiming to overturn the ACA. The Court decided 7-2 that the plaintiffs in the case were not harmed by the zeroing out of the individual mandate penalty, meaning the case cannot stand. Which is a roundabout way to say - THE ACA REMAINS THE LAW.

This is the third time the Court has upheld the ACA as a law.

ACA Consumer Advocacy enthusiastically applauds this decision. From the beginning, the case was deemed spurious by legal scholars on both sides of the aisle.

The health care protections put in place by the passage of the ACA will continue to stand:

• Enrollment in health insurance on the exchanges
• Guaranteed coverage of medical histories (pre-existing conditions)
• Medicaid expansion plans
• Caps on annual and lifetime limits
• Guaranteed wellness coverage, including cancer screenings and annual checkups
• Guaranteed coverage of the essential 10 benefits
• Premium subsidies, and so much more.

Now is a time to celebrate, take a deep breath, and then refocus. There is much to celebrate in the ACA, but there is also much to fix and improve. We are committed to the full realization of comprehensive, universal, affordable, accessible, high-quality, and fully equitable health care for all and look forward to working with you to achieve that.

Remember, if you or someone you know needs health insurance, there is a special enrollment period going on now at www.healthcare.gov. Thanks to the American Rescue Plan, those who did not qualify for premium subsidy assistance before now do, and those who had received subsidies are eligible for more. If you are enrolled on the federal exchange, check www.healthcare.gov, click on 'change of life' and access your new subsidies, or even change your current plan. If you were waiting to enroll because of the court case, now is the time to get covered!

Thank you for all you do to make the world a better place, and let's keep going!

Dear President-Elect Biden,

​Congratulations on your campaign and your successful election. The grace and integrity you modeled during this pivotal election, the humanity you displayed at every turn, and the hope you proffer are sorely needed in our nation today.

Another thing we sorely need is a reexamination of what the health of our nation means. Are we simply referring to a broken health care system that provides different levels of care based on geographic location and economic status? Do we refer to the strangle-hold of restrictive networks that determine who will receive the best care and who will receive mediocre services, if any at all? Do we refer to the finally acknowledged scourge of endemic racism in our health care system? Do we, as a nation, believe in being able to live a life of respect and dignity, or are we okay with too many of our friends, neighbors, and families having to scramble to make a living — working multiple jobs just to maintain a roof over our heads, food on the table, and basic necessities for our family?

The fact is, too many of our neighbors must focus too much of their lives on simply surviving. This precludes many of us from being full participants in our society. If all of one’s energy is focused simply on surviving day to day, what energy is left to pay attention to what is going on all around us? This is not a new phenomenon in our country, nor in human history. Forcing the majority of the country to spend their time merely surviving allows those in power to do as they will. Those who have been called variously lords, robber-barons, the wealthy, the 1%, have free reign to make decisions that will benefit themselves instead of working toward a better society for all.

Throughout history, we have seen that when more people have access to true prosperity — the ability to earn a living wage, to have time left at the end of the day to join in with neighbors and friends in social activities, to spend quality time with family, and to not constantly worry about how far their next paycheck will extend, the happier and more prosperous the society. That means those at the top of the socioeconomic ladder benefit along with the rest of the population.

But we, as a nation, have strayed from that path. One of the reasons people romanticize the 1950’s is that for many — but by no means all — it was a time of prosperity, comfort, and security. Due to social contracts laid down 20 years prior, we saw more people able to work good-paying jobs, have a home, and send their kids to quality schools that taught critical thinking, civics and humanities. People had time and energy to create and maintain relationships with their communities, and people had access to health care that would not put them in the poor house.

As the disparities among our cubby-holed society began to be more evident — as fully half our country began to demand the same type of life that many envision when we talk about the idyllic suburban life of the 1950s and was portrayed so romantically on the big and small screens, we allowed those who wanted to maintain the status quo — who feared being less than or equal to those we have, from our founding, decided were less than human — to keep dividing and separating our fellow citizens. There were many advances made in the 1960s, but also many missteps and critical errors made. Those who do not take the central teaching of most religious creeds to heart — that we are all made in a deity’s image or that we are all children of Man and none is higher than the other — fought back believing that equity is a pie that is diminished by allowing others a part of it instead of seeing it as a banquet to which all bring more flavor and experience.

We saw communities come together to provide that which they were shut out from — stable housing, access to food, education, reading programs, voter registration, medical care, and even protection from persecution. For too many, this could not stand, and groups like the Black Panthers were vilified and ground down yet again.

We saw the rise once more of those who profit from suffering. A sad remnant of those who profited from the perversity that is slavery gained more and more leverage and power to pursue their goals: profit above all and workers as simply a means to an end for the altar of wealth and power with bigger platforms and more money to influence elected officials.

We saw the institution of for-profit medical care. We saw the monetization of our neighbors’ suffering. We saw articles describing the values of the elements that make up the human body say the total was about $600 seemingly taken as a challenge by those for whom shareholders’ gains rule everything. We began a path forward that exponentially exploited the vagaries of the human body and the things that can go wrong with it to benefit the bottom line of those who saw suffering as potential profit.

As a nation we continued to listen to some elected leaders and influencers and allowed ourselves to believe that instead of us being part of a greater whole, all that matters is what we as individuals could get as quickly as possible. How far we could rise up the corporate ladder no matter who we stepped on to get there. How many shiny objects we could obtain, and if they break, throw them out and get more. We began to believe that the economy really was the Dow Jones report and the stock market and if it was going up, even as wages stagnated and in too many cases began to decline, all was well.

Later we allowed the national tragedy of 9/11 to further erode our rights and allow those who sow dissension in pursuit of their own power to further divide us. They insisted we believe that there were those among us who were ‘others’ and not like us. No more were we the Great Melting Pot that celebrated the different ingredients that those from other countries, cultures, religions brought to our shores and made a more glorious whole. No — we stopped trusting anyone who was different no matter how small the difference. We allowed tribalism to exceed citizenship, stopped actively teaching our children how to think critically because all that mattered was how well they tested and toed the line.

We vilified those who had the audacity to stand up and say this was not right until finally, many of the nation said this is enough, and elected a new leader who reflected that idea. With the new direction of leadership under President Obama, we finally saw changes to move us as a nation forward. Not all the way by any means, but a beginning.

With that administration, we saw the blossoming of the belief that health care is a human right. That people should not go bankrupt trying to overcome illness, or trying to afford medication for chronic conditions. That insurance companies should not be able to use a person’s medical history to determine if they will be covered. That the insurance industry could not charge women more for the same coverage simply because they are women and no longer would pregnancy be labeled a ‘pre-existing condition.’ No longer would insurance companies be able to limit the benefits people have paid for on an annual or lifetime limit. No longer could insurance companies retroactively cancel an insurance plan when one got sick. No longer would the intrinsic value of a human life be subject to the same vagaries, repackaging, and monetary manipulation as the mortgage industry utilized prior to the Great Recession — or so we thought.

That was the goal. Even then, we saw the country divided horrifically. But through perseverance, determination, and yes, compromise, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was finally passed. It was by no means perfect. There was a much more comprehensive bill in the House that would have addressed many of the issues we have discovered over the past 10 years with the final bill. But at last our country as a society and our lawmakers had taken the next step forward to join other nations around the globe in the truth that health care is a human right.

No, it was not perfect. Much of the law was predicated on letting the market determine prices and how competition would prevail. The initial goal of a public option was scrapped. Letting the market determine pricing for premiums, deductibles, hospital and medical fees, and more, saw health care go from being 1/6th of our nation’s economy to 1/5th in the space of 2 years. But it was not meant to be perfect. It was meant to be the next step on the path laid down by President Roosevelt, and later President Johnson. The path toward a more equitable society.

There are many things that need to be improved, which have come to light the past 10 years. Things like the family glitch — if a family member has access to health care through their employer, their family must use that insurance and not the exchanges, regardless of whether it is affordable for the family. The ‘fiscal cliff’ which is the cut off for federal subsidies for those enrolling on the exchange, which has priced many Americans, especially older ones and those within tens of dollars of the cut-off limit, out of the exchanges and access to health care. The lack of choice of insurance carriers in some counties across the country has limited the loudly championed idea of competition. It is hard to trumpet the benefits of market competition when there is no competition to bring down prices.

The continued purchase and consolidation of medical providers — especially the influx of private equity firms who see health care as an easy profit market and have no care for the people seeking treatment and help — have led to persistent decline in affordability and accessibility in health care. The purchase and closing of hospitals, especially rural hospitals and those in low-income communities of color, have reduced the availability of care to too many across the nation. The continued idea that health care is not a right, but a commodity to be exploited is further dooming our population. The ACA’s passage saw a decline in medical bankruptcy, but those numbers are climbing again. The implementation of PBMs (Pharmacy Benefit Managers), initially touted as a way to reduce the cost of prescription drugs, has led to further layers of bureaucracy and less ability of physicians to ensure their patients can receive the medications that have been prescribed.

When the ACA was passed, you famously said this was a “Big F-ing Deal.” You were oh so right. Now is the time — past time frankly — for the next step. Too much of the law’s implementation is dependent on who the administration is and who is put in place as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Many fixes have been passed by the House, yet blocked by the Senate. Executive Actions have been used by the current administration to whittle away what could not pass Congress. Civil rights protections for the LGBTQ+ community, immigrants, women, and other minorities have been curtailed. Advertising for Open Enrollment and educational services to help people get covered have been slashed. Too many in this country live in states whose lawmakers chose spite over the well-being of their residents and refused to expand Medicaid.

But the health care of the nation cannot be seen as a piecemeal issue. We cannot afford as a nation to continue to compartmentalize what constitutes equitable health. Just as our medical system has become more and more focused on specialities of different systems in the human body — essentially ignoring the whole for the sum of its parts — so has our society and government compartmentalized what a healthy member of our society needs.

It is more than access to an affordable health insurance plan, it is more the metal levels on the exchanges. It must include access for all residents to affordable, comprehensive, quality health care as needed and available locally. It must also include food security, affordable quality housing, real education for all, family leave protections, living wages, affordable comprehensive childcare, and affordable higher education. It means severing insurance from employment and making it available to all — regardless of whether they work for a large employer or have their own start-up. This need not mean an attack on unions and what they have striven for — their very successes could serve as a baseline going forward. It must mean that those in rural areas and those without access to transportation are as equitably served as those in wealthy urban areas. It must mean that medical professionals are permitted to treat their patients and not have to beg an insurer who has never met the patient to approve the care needed. It means insurers cannot require the prescription of medications that do not meet the need simply because of cost. And it must include the Congress passing an expansion of medical residency openings at hospitals across our country, especially in a time of an international pandemic.

Further it means a review of our patent law system, and a review and modification of our monopoly laws. It means making broadband access available across the country, and it means making the COVID-19 vaccines — all of them — available free of charge and taking the vaccines to the populations who may not be able to travel to receive them. It means an embrasure of the idea that #OurHealthIsNoOnesCommodity.

It means the demilitarization of our police system, the end of the idea that people in power — be it law enforcement, corporations, or everyday citizens — have the right to take or endanger the lives of fellow citizens with impunity. It means that workers’ rights are more important than shareholders’ stakes and corporate compensation plans. It means embracing the idea that melanin is not a determinant of the worth or value of a life. It means taking to heart that faith, national origin, primary language, and ancestry do not determine one’s predetermined place in society. It means addressing the institutional racism of our justice system, and ending the idea of for-profit prisons and the inherent oppression this process engenders and promotes.

No one person can achieve all of this. Indeed no one leader should. But a strong, successful leader can start us back down the path to an equitable nation. There are millions of Americans waiting to help, both at the legislative and grassroots level. Guide us, let us know what you need. Listen to us who have been in the trenches and have lived with the positives and negatives of the original ACA. We know perfection is rarely obtained. We know that real solid compromise means that while all sides are somewhat unhappy, progress has been made. Together, we can move our country forward toward a more perfect union and improve the physical, emotional, and societal health of our nation.

Originally posted on Medium