Congressional assault on Affordable Care Act continues within Tax bill

If I had a penny for every time I've been summoned to join the fight against the dismantling of the Affordable Care Act, I'll be ... well, not sure of that outcome but one outcome that's rearing its ugly head again is the GOP-led effort to begin dismantling the ACA.  

This past week, the House of Representatives approved (along party lines) the cleverly-titled Tax Cuts and Jobs Act which contains legislation gutting the mandate for everyone to buy insurance which is the bedrock of the whole thing.  Without that requirement, younger healthier people will either not buy a health plan or simply buy a cheap one that would jeopardize the financial sustainability of the insurance marketplace.

Within the tax plan, there are also various provisions that would affect those with medical expenses for which they pay out-of-pocket.

It's basically what you get when there's no collaboration between the congressional parties.  Next stop for this bill is the U.S. Senate which is expected to vote and pass the bill after Thanksgiving.  For those of us living in California, especially Northern California, there's not a whole lot we can do since California's Democratic U.S. Senators will not be voting for this bill.  However, what we can do is to support and encourage disability advocacy groups to use their lobbying efforts as well as any friends and family members living in states with Republican Senators to launch their efforts to defeat this legislation.  

The American Association of People with Disabilities has developed this neat PAGE that contains everything you need to know about how to make your voices heard.  I know you've heard this before but truly, this is no time to sit idle and do nothing.