Video: Rep. Don Beyer, VA Sen. Barbara Favola, and Arlington Chair Matt de Ferranti Join Protect Our Care and SEIU to Launch “Sick of It” Campaign in Virginia As Republican Health Care Cuts Drive Up Costs and Rip Away Care

From Protect Our Care, which correctly points out that millions of Americans are (literally and figuratively) “sick of Trump and Republicans in Congress gutting our health care.”

Congressman Don Beyer, Senator Barbara Favola, and Chair Matt de Ferranti Join Protect Our Care and SEIU to Launch “Sick of It” Campaign in Virginia As Republican Health Care Cuts Drive Up Costs and Rip Away Care

ARLINGTON, Va. — Congressman Don Beyer (VA-08), Virginia Senate Education and Health Committee Chairwoman Barbara Favola, Chair of the Arlington County Board Matt de Ferranti, and SEIU Virginia State Council today joined Protect Our Care to launch our “Sick of It! Fix Health Care Now” campaign in Virginia, a multi-month effort giving voice to the millions of Americans sick of Trump and Republicans in Congress gutting our health care. Speakers demanded action from lawmakers and called for solutions to lower costs, lower barriers to care, and fix our broken health care system.

Virginians are fed up with the growing health care crisis after Trump and Republicans in Congress slashed more than $1 trillion from Medicaid and gutted Affordable Care Act tax credits to bankroll tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. Since then, more than eight million people have lost their health care — including 100,000 Virginians who have lost their Affordable Care Act plans since Republicans took away key tax credits that lowered the cost of their premiums. Costs have skyrocketed for millions more, while over 1,000 hospitals, nursing homes, maternity wards, and other providers are closing, cutting essential services, or facing the risk of closure or cuts – including at least 13 rural hospitals in Virginia that have been identified as at risk of closure.

“They [Republicans] can remind people that they passed a bill that strips healthcare from millions of Americans and raises costs for millions more, all because they decided it was better to fund tax giveaways for billionaires,” said Congressman Beyer. “To date, the Big Ugly Bill has cost 100,000 Virginians healthcare coverage on the ACA marketplace.”

“President Trump and his Republican allies passed a One Big Ugly bill (HR 1) that will leave thousands of Virginians uninsured and unable to see a doctor when they are sick,” said Senator Favola. “At least 13 hospitals in the rural parts of Virginia are at risk of closing or substantially reducing services and funding for cancer screenings and other life-saving preventive care has been reduced. These cuts are incredibly harmful and they deny individuals the ability to pursue ‘life, liberty and happiness’ — all because money was needed to give billionaires and large corporations tax breaks. Such policy choices are unconscionable and the lawmakers who made these choices should be held accountable.”

“I’m proud to join the ‘Sick of It’ campaign because local leaders — this local leader — and our local leaders in Arlington and across the state are truly sick of the health care mess created by Donald Trump and the Republicans in Congress,” said Chair of the Arlington County Board Matt de Ferranti. “All levels of government —local as well as state and federal — are feeling the impacts. I get to see our neighbors and friends in grocery stores asking, ‘What can you do to help?’ And there are tools that local governments can use, and we are using them. But since the passage of the big, ugly – and I would add inhumane and terrible — law a year ago, this month we’re seeing our safety net strained like never before.”

“I’m here to say that I am sick of it,” said Rena Bumbray-Graves of Woodbridge, a home care worker and member of SEIU Virginia 512 who dropped her Affordable Care Act plan after learning that her family’s premium would spike from $544 to more than $1300 after the loss of the enhanced premium tax credits. “I work so hard to keep people with disabilities alive, and I can’t afford insurance to ensure that I can stay healthy and capable to continue to take care of them. They need to bring those tax credits back so that I can get my health care back. I need to get back on the Affordable Care Act because it’ll be two more years before I’ll be able to qualify for Medicare. So I’m proud to stand with you all today, as we demand Congress reverse these cuts.”

David Broder, executive director of SEIU Virginia State Council, said, “We are sick of having the world’s first trillionaire while millions go hungry. We are sick of corporations paying less in taxes than the workers who power them. And we are sick of a health care system where front-line home care workers like Rena provide life-saving care to others but cannot afford health care for themselves and their families.”

“We’re grateful to all the elected leaders and partners who have joined us today to collectively declare that we are damn sick of Republicans cutting health care in order to fund tax giveaways for the ultra-wealthy,” said Katie Baker, Virginia state director for Protect Our Care. “We look forward to working with a robust coalition of elected leaders, advocates, and impacted families in the coming months as we travel the Commonwealth to sound the alarm on the devastating impacts of these cuts.”

The “Sick of It” campaign was first reported by CNN. You can learn more about the campaign HERE.