UNITE HERE Members Escalate National Campaign to Expose ‘Disastrous’ Trumpcare
Actions Highlight Truth About Trumpcare: Plan Would Cut $500 Billion in Taxes for the Rich, Gut Lifesaving Care, and Saddle Working Families with $300 Billion in New Taxes
WASHINGTON—The members of UNITE HERE are reigniting their campaign to demand Congress protect the health care of millions of hardworking Americans. As the GOP Trumpcare plan speeds toward a vote of the full House, UNITE HERE is escalating efforts to educate voters about the disastrous effects of Trumpcare on costs, coverage, and care for millions of hardworking families.
In particular, UNITE HERE’s campaign highlights the devastating impact on employer-sponsored health care of the “Trumpcare tax,” voted for last week by every Republican member of two key House committees.
“Trumpcare is a disaster for working people,” said UNITE HERE President D. Taylor. “It fulfills none of the promises that Trump and the Republicans ran on. Where’s the better coverage at lower costs? How does this rein in out-of-pocket and prescription drug costs? The truth is Trumpcare isn’t about fixing the ACA with ‘insurance for everybody’ that would be ‘much less expensive and much better,’ as President Trump promised. It’s about destroying it with a half a trillion-dollar tax cut for the rich on the backs of the poor, the sick, and the vast majority of Americans who get coverage through work.”
The “Don’t Tax Our Health Care” campaign escalation includes:
- Union member-led district office actions
- Direct mail targeting tens of thousands of voters in target districts
- Neighborhood canvasses, and
- An online, mobile billboard, and print ad blitz
Target districts include those of Reps. Brady (R-TX8), Buck (R-CO04), Coffman (R-CO06), Costello (R-PA06), Curbelo (R-FL26), Fitzpatrick (R-PA08), Franks (R-AZ08), Hunter (R-CA50), Paulsen (R-MN03), Reichert (R-WA08), Rokita (R-IN04), Roskam (R-IL06), Schweikert (R-AZ06), Walorski (R-IN02), and Walters (R-CA45). Learn more and view ads at http://www.donttaxourhealthcare.com/ads2/.
According to a new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the richest households and corporations will get a $500 billion tax cut under Trumpcare. At the same time, 24 million Americans will lose their coverage over the next 10 years, and a new tax on middle-class health benefits will cost working families $30.5 billion in its first two years alone—and by separate estimates $300 billion by 2035.
The $300-billion “Trumpcare tax” will drive up already skyrocketing out-of-pocket costs and drive down coverage for the 177 million Americans who have employer-sponsored health insurance. To hold down premiums and avoid the same cap under the ACA’s “Cadillac tax,” employers already shifted costs onto working families by offering plans with high deductibles, high copays, and narrow networks. According to Kaiser Family Foundation data, single-coverage deductibles have increased 89% since passage of the Affordable Care Act, six times faster than workers’ earnings over the same period.
“Trumpcare is wealth care, not health care,” said Mike Casey, chair of UNITE HERE’s Health Care Task Force. “While the rich and healthcare corporations get a half-trillion-dollar tax cut, working families will either get their benefits taxed, or their benefits slashed and their paychecks taxed. Trumpcare’s only revenue source is a massive tax on middle-class pay and benefits.”
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UNITE HERE represents 270,000 women and men across North America who work in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, transportation, and airport industries. Learn more at www.unitehere.org.