ACTION ALERT: 4 More Days

sign saying health care is a human right

On Monday, we watched as hundreds of disabled people lined up to attend Congress’ only hearing on ACA repeal, only to be kept out of the room where the future of our health care was being debated. We watched as people with disabilities were arrested for protesting a bill with the potential to kill or harm millions. And this afternoon, we watched the Senate declare that, as a result of your advocacy, they will not move forward with the latest attempt to repeal the ACA.

We should be proud of what we have achieved this week. Victory does seem closer – but we have seen attempts to repeal the AC come back to life before. This is not over yet. We still need you contacting your Senators and Representatives until September 30th. That is the last day this bill can legally pass.

Here’s what you can do:

  • Call your Members of Congress. You can find phone numbers for your Representative and Senators’ offices at contactingcongress.org. You can make your own scripts when you contact your elected officials, or use ours:
Script for calling your Members of Congress
My name is [your name], and I live in [your town]. I’m [calling/writing] to ask [Senator Name /Representative Name] to oppose any future efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act or cut Medicaid funding, and commit to a bipartisan process to improve the ACA. It’s time for Congress to scrap repeal, leave Medicaid alone, and work together to improve health care for everyone. The people of [your state] are still watching, and our health care is just as important to us now as it was earlier this summer. We’re counting on you to do the right thing and protect our health care–now, and in the future.

If you find it easier to leave an answering machine message than to talk to a staffer on the phone, call after 5 PM. If you don’t speak, you can call using your AAC device, or get a friend to call in and read your message.

  • Email your Members of Congress. Access Living has an email tool you can use.

No matter how sure our victory may seem, we cannot afford to disengage. This bill is too dangerous for us to let our guard down. We have to keep speaking up until this is over for good. So call like your life depends on it – because for many of us, it does.