INSURANCE, MENTAL HEALTH COVERAGE IN PERIL ? TAKE ACTION

The Trump Administration and Congressional Republicans are making an aggressive push to complete a comprehensive tax reform bill before the end of 2017. The House passed the GOP Tax Plan last week.  It is now in the Senate.  There is a provision in the Senate bill that would negatively impact the clients counselors serve in terms of early intervention, preventative care, and costs.

What does this mean? 

The Senate tax reform bill contains a repeal of the “individual mandate” from the Affordable Care Act.  The individual mandate brings more people into the insurance marketplace, resulting in better costs and coverage for early intervention and preventative care.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that this action would result in 4 million people losing health insurance coverage in 2018 and 13 million losing coverage by 2027—as well as premium increases of 10% per year in the individual marketplaces.

What is ACA doing?

We are educating Senators on the disastrous impacts this provision would have and asking they remove this provision from the final version of the bill. We want to use client stories from counselors that clearly show the Senators why this matters to their constituents and their communities.

What can I do?

Sign up for the ACA legislative action email network, Voter Voice. We will help you communicate with your Senator.

Call your Senator’s office and ask them to remove this provision. You can find your Senator’s contact information here.

Send us YOUR STORY:  Personal stories are one of the best ways to demonstrate the impact that proposed legislation would have on the constituents of an elected official. 

• Send an email to Dillon Harp (dharp@counseling.org) sharing your personal story about the impact that a repeal of the individual mandate would have on your livelihood, profession, and the clients you serve. 
• Tell us the number of clients you saw before the Affordable Health Care Act was signed into law and how many additional clients you are now able to serve.
• Telling your Senator how the Affordable Care Act has helped you, as a small business, to help people is extremely important and will highlight how crucial it is for this provision to be removed from the final version of the bill.