Trumpcare’s back and worse than ever

Facing extreme pressure from constituents and lack of support from his own party, Sen. Mitch McConnell delayed voting on the disastrous Trumpcare bill last month.

But the worst bill for women in a generation isn’t gone.

Behind closed doors, the Senate Majority Leader and his exclusively-male working group have spent weeks making secret edits to their legislation.

It’s no wonder Republicans re-wrote Trumpcare 2.0 in secret. Here’s what this dastardly bill does:

Discriminates against pre-existing conditions

The latest version of Trumpcare includes the “Cruz amendment.” This proposal would allow insurance companies to sell inadequate plans that do not comply with federal standards — so long as they offer plans that do.

This would result in two systems of insurance: one for healthy people and one for those who are sick, have been sick, or have pre-existing conditions (including pregnancy).

For someone who has a pre-existing condition, Trumpcare 2.0 could mean that your health insurance isn’t just expensive, it’s completely out of reach.

Eliminates birth control coverage

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, employers are required to include contraception coverage with no co-pays in their health insurance plans.

But a little-noticed provision in Trumpcare 2.0 would allow insurance plans to refuse to cover birth control — as well as preventive care, immunizations, and cancer screenings. It would also allow insurance plans to charge women co-pays for those services, when currently they don’t.

As Tara Golshan writes in Vox:

The revised Senate health care bill would scrap the birth control mandate — allowing insurance companies to sell plans that don’t include any of the currently mandated women’s preventive health services, from birth control to HPV testing.

Imposes a nationwide abortion ban

Trumpcare 2.0 would also impose a nationwide ban on private insurance coverage of abortion. This means a safe, legal abortion would become even more difficult to get. Already, the discriminatory Hyde Amendment has blocked federal funding for abortion for more than 40 years.

Guts the Medicaid program

Approximately 1 in 5 women of reproductive age rely on Medicaid to access no-cost, critical reproductive health care, like birth control, cancer screenings, and maternity care.

But Trumpcare would decimate Medicaid. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Senate’s first version of Trumpcare would result in 15 million uninsured folks by the next year, with 22 million uninsured by 2026.

And we don’t expect Trumpcare 2.0 to be any better.

“Defunds” Planned Parenthood

This bill would “defund” Planned Parenthood by denying people with Medicaid coverage from going to Planned Parenthood health centers.

PLUS: The provision to “defund” would go into effect immediately after the bill is signed. That means patients would no longer be able to use Medicaid at Planned Parenthood, even if they had already booked an appointment

We must fight Trumpcare like hell

 Now is the time for every person who cares about women’s health to speak out and join this fight. It’s clear that the American people strongly oppose blocking Planned Parenthood access. We must be louder than ever so that politicians finally start listening to us.