Right now, the Senate is in session in Washington, DC, working to take health care away from millions of Americans. But next week, your Members of Congress will be back in their home states and districts, holding town halls and office appointments with constituents. This is the perfect time to voice your opinions, hold your representatives accountable, and remind them that they work for you!
Health care is one of the most important topics you can talk about with your Members of Congress. Millions of people with disabilities rely on Medicaid to get the health care they need – and Medicaid is under threat. Yesterday, we received the new CBO score for the House-passed ACA repeal bill, and learned that it still cuts $834 billion from Medicaid. But that’s not all–on Tuesday, we also learned that the President’s proposed budget cuts an additional $610 billion from Medicaid funding. Together, these changes would cut the Medicaid program in half within 10 years, putting millions of Americans’ health care — and lives — at risk.
Here’s what you can do:
- To find out if there’s a town hall meeting coming up near you, visit TownHallProject.com and type in your ZIP code.
- To find your Members of Congress’ local offices, visit contactingcongress.org and type in your ZIP code. Under the contact information for each Representative or Senator, there is a list of their local offices. You should make an appointment with the district office closest to you. You can go by yourself, or go with a group.
We know that advocacy at town halls and office visits really works — but only if you show up. You can learn more about relevant issues in our toolkits about the ACA, Medicaid, and getting through to your elected officials.
Once you’ve had your meeting or gone to a town hall, fill out our form to tell us how it went! We still have a bunch of neurodiversity t-shirts from ThinkGeek to send to people who fill out our form!
Remember: our Senators and Representatives work for us. Their job is to listen to their constituents and promote policies which will help the people they represent – not to take away your health care in order to fund tax cuts off the backs of people with disabilities. If it seems like your Members of Congress have forgotten what their job is, that means it’s more important than ever for you to remind them. Next week, let your Members of Congress know that doing their job means listening when we say: Nothing About Us, Without Us.