Take Action: MAKE PUBLIC COMMENTS: Obamacare Rules: Regulations.gov: Your Comments: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Market Stabilization
Comments made by your humble cartoonist: This is just an example. Please feel free to modify to make your own and/or make points in your own words:
Please reject these changes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. As an older person with no medical problems, it would make my healthcare significantly less affordable, discriminating against me based solely upon age.
More importantly, these changes do nothing for affordability in the long run. We cannot have healthcare plans that rise indefinitely at a rate faster than inflation and raises in pay, or eventually no one will be able to afford healthcare.
We need a plan that includes a public option to increase choices. The best plan for your average citizens would be default Medicare For All, which would cover everyone and allow for economies of scale and negotiations for prices, keep administrative costs down and provide a safety net for those who have difficulty navigating the system and/or making decisions, while still allowing supplemental policies that would provide a role for insurance companies.
Members of Congress need to use the same health insurance plan that the rest of us do. When this applies to your ability to access healthcare too, you are almost guaranteed to devise a better plan.
If you prefer to contact your politicians: According to Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda, tackle one issue at a time. The more trouble it takes you to contact your politicians, the more they pay attention. So when you can manage the time and effort, put your body out there. Face-to-face or protest march > calling > faxing if you can’t get through on regular phone > writing letters (because they may arrive too late) > personal email > petition or group email.
But we are in this for the long haul, so pace yourselves. Do whatever level you can do. We will be here at least once a week with the latest.
To see if your legislator is having a Town Hall meeting: Congress just returned from meeting with constituents, but they return regularly. Check out the Town Hall Project’s list of Town Hall Meetings so that you can meet them face to face if you wish.
If your legislators will not have a Town Hall, have one and invite them: Indivisible Guide: Missing Members of Congress Action Plan: Hold a Constituents' Town Hall
To write your letter then fax it for free: FaxZero: Create and send faxes for free to anywhere in the U.S. and Canada (up to five free faxes per day) or GotFreeFax: Send free fax online to the U.S. and Canada (a bit easier to use, but only up to two free faxes per day).
Easy resource to find your politicians’ phone, email, etc: The AARP has an action site, Advocacy - Legislative Action Center - AARP. I know AARP isn’t perfect, but it has a nifty feature for everyone: Look down to the right, where it says “find your state legislators”. Put in your zip code. It returns federal, state AND local politicians, NOT just legislators. Federal, for example, includes contact information for Trump, Pence, your two Senators, and your Congressional representative. If you need more than phone numbers and email addresses, it has clickable links to their web pages, which should have up-to-date contact information including fax numbers, street addresses, appearance schedule, how to schedule appointments, and constituent services.
Please feel free to share and/or reprint this diary in whole or in part with attribution far and wide, other websites or newspapers, I give it freely. Our aim is for millions to take action.
Each week: The week’s cartoon will post after press time at the TeePublic elenacarlena store if you’d like to pick up a shirt, mug, or other items with any cartoon in the series, to help spread the word and support these efforts. If you want it and don’t see it, just Kosmail me to ask!
Thank you for taking action!
References:
House GOP Obamacare Replacement Looks DOA in Senate (we know not to trust them to follow through, but with a little push from us they might)
House Republicans Release Long-Awaited Plan to Replace Obamacare
Urgent: Protect the ACA: Deadline March 7
A closer look at Paul Ratýan:
Purr request, the entire Breaking Pawlitics list. If you haven’t seen them, they're still nooz!:
Breaking Pawlitics: Reject Neil Gorsuchnea Pig for SCOTUS Edition 03/05/2017
Breaking Pawlitics: Protest Private Prison Predation 02/28/2017
Breaking Pawlitics: Keep Fighting For The Environment Edition 02/19/2017
Breaking Pawlitics: Tell Your Senators to Reject Scott Pruitt For The EPA 02/12/2017
Breaking Pawlitics: "Impeach President" Bannboon to Silence the Drums of War 02/04/2017
Breaking Pawlitics: Save Social Security and Medicare. Then Open Medicare For All! 01/28/2017
Breaking Pawlitics Inaugural Edition: Lee Goes to Washington DC: Contact Congress For Obamacare! 01/21/2017
Please consider this an Open Thread for discussion of this and other issues.