Resolution Opposing Attacks on our Health Benefits

Passed: March 2017

WHEREAS, comprehensive health benefits are essential to ensuring working families and retirees can get the health care they need, when they need it;

WHEREAS, health insurance should be affordable for all Americans;

WHEREAS, Medicare is a promise to the American people that must be kept for current and future generations, including the 55 million seniors and people with disabilities enrolled today and the many millions more counting on it for their retirement;

WHEREAS, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was an important step toward providing comprehensive, affordable health care for all;

WHEREAS, repealing the ACA without a replacement will put 30 million people at risk of losing their health benefits entirely and strip away vital protections and benefits from the many millions more with Medicare, Medicaid, and workplace coverage;

WHEREAS, more than 74 million people get health benefits through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP);

WHEREAS, repealing the Affordable Care Act in its entirety will take health benefits away from the approximately 11 million people who gained coverage through that law’s Medicaid expansion.

WHEREAS, cutting federal funding to Washington for Medicaid through block grants or per capita caps will shift health care costs onto our state, force impossible choices between cutting health benefits or even eliminating eligibility for them, take funding away from other essential services, and require state taxpayers to pay more;

WHEREAS, cutting federal funding to Washington for Medicaid will threaten the health care, nursing home care and the long-term supports and the services that allow seniors and people of all ages with disabilities to live independently in their own homes and communities;

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

The 34^th District Democrats oppose any and all attacks on our health benefits;

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT:

We call upon all members of Congress representing the people of Washington to oppose any and all attacks on our health benefits, including legislation that:

• Turns Medicare into a voucher system, increases the Medicare eligibility age beyond 65, or in any other way cuts seniors’ Medicare benefits or shifts additional costs onto them;
• Imposes new taxes on or otherwise threatens the health benefits working people earn on the job;
• Repeals the Affordable Care Act without a replacement plan that ensures that anyone with coverage today is able to afford it and keep it and that maintains key protections for all working families and seniors;
• Repeals the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid benefits to millions of people; or
• Block grants or imposes a per capita cap on federal funding for Medicaid;

AND BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED THAT:

The 34^th LD Democrats call upon all members of Congress representing the people of Washington to support real reforms that bring us closer to the goal of providing comprehensive, affordable health coverage for all by strengthening and expanding health benefits and controlling and lowering health care costs, so that everyone in America can get the care they need, when they need it.  This should include consideration of a public option and single payer system.