Apparently, Being A Woman is a Pre-Existing Condition

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll notice that I retweet more than anything. I retweet others who are more adept at the platform, super knowledgeable on a topic, and/or hilarious.

I have recently been retweeting non-stop about the latest attempt, here in the U.S., to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act.  Even if you don’t use, like, or really even understand Twitter, it has become an essential platform in sharing important information online, especially in regard to legislative rush jobs.

I have only been retweeting because my own original thoughts have been so scrambled and angry that I could not possibly sum them up in 140 characters. Then I remembered I have a blog.

Look, you may come to my blog to read about motherhood and not about politics, but in this case, politics and motherhood intersect. This most recent iteration of evil targets women at large, and mothers in particular, and all you smart, loving moms need to know about it.

But I also get that we need our political info distilled and short, because we’re moms and it’s not like we’re overflowing with free time. So it’s my goal to include what you need to know (if you don’t, yet) about this heinous bill, as summarized in Twitter screen grabs.

As Gavin Newsom, LT Governor of California so perfectly summarized:

Pregnancy. Newborn Care. Birth Control. Mental health services! Prescription drugs! Like, WHAT! Anyone feel like making a baby right now? Are you still sure this is not going to impact you or someone you care about?

Additionally, this bill proposes the harshest defunding of Planned Parenthood and Medicaid, yet. These services cover everything from prenatal care, post natal care, cervical and breast cancer screenings, sex education, birth control and more. Care for WOMEN.

Graham-Cassidy is a legislative maneuver to keep women “in their place”. To keep mothers shackled. That expects us to have, carry, and care for children without even the most basic support.

We have it hard enough in this day and age with the societal pressures that are causing more and more of us to slide into anxiety and depression, but now Graham and Cassidy (did they think by making it sound like a buddy cop movie it would make this shameful shart of a bill any less foul?) expect us to raise your next generation without fucking healthcare?!

Oh, I haven’t even gotten to the best part. This festering turd of a bill targets those with pre-existing conditions AGAIN. A topic we had all thought long behind us in this healthcare conversation. So if you happen to be the (superhero) mother of a child who is sick? Yeah Graham and Cassidy don’t give a fuck about you or your kid.

Time for another well placed re-tweet from beloved author Rainbow Rowell who sums up my thoughts on the matter well:

Under this toxic sludge of a bill, pregnancy is classified as a pre-existing condition. Meaning any woman or couple (and this is where this pregnancy stuff affects you, too, guys) of childbearing years would be forced to pay $17,000 more per year to simply have a baby*!

Here’s more specific numbers and information from Andy Slavitt, who ran Medicaid, Medicare and the ACA under Obama (he’s a great person to follow if you want specific, listed information like this):

This all means that this bill that was forged in the fires of Mordor is, once again, targeting the most vulnerable in our nation. Telling the sick and infirm they don’t matter. That women are inherently sick because we can bear children and thus should pay more for our healthcare. Ultimately, that we don’t matter, our care doesn’t matter, our choices to have or not to have families, are made for us by whether or not we can afford it.

It may not be today, it may not even be you, but somewhere down the line if this rich-man-circle-jerk passes, people will become even more shattered by their illnesses, both physically and financially.

Give us more info on the matter, Senator of my heart California Kamala Harris:

DOCTORS don’t want this bill to pass because it would be doing harm to those who need healthcare the MOST. Y’all, need I say more?

Okay, if all of that doesn’t convince you to speak out, I’m guessing Senator Murphy of Connecticut might:

CALL YOUR SENATORS. We have TEN DAYS to kill this thing:

Join me in showing our government what it means to mess with moms. CALL. SPEAK OUT.

RESIST. 

*The Center for American Progress is a liberal think-tank, but because the human barfbag GOP could never get this slime passed without rushing it through, there is very little bipartisan statistical information out there, given they couldn’t possibly wait for a CBO score. This New Yorker article summarizes this all very well.