To any person who voted for Republicans trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act and defund Planned Parenthood and to those Republicans actively trying to accomplish those things – you have just signed millions of death certificates, possibly mine included.
Do you understand what this means? Insurance is going to be taken away from millions of hard working people. They are going to be left without any insurance, any way to get healthcare. Without healthcare, these people will die. Approximately 59 million people are at stake here – that’s 59 million people possibly without access to healthcare.
Employers will now be able to drop people left and right, like they were doing before the ACA was implemented. This means if you have preexisting conditions, such as diabetes, cancer, bipolar disorder, depression, asthma, or even if you become pregnant – they can drop you, charge you exorbitant rates, or just flat out deny you. Over 1/3 of American people have preexisting conditions, that’s over 133 million people. People will have to go back to the days where women usually have to pay more for health insurance and seniors having to ration their medications either by cutting them in half or maybe even having to go without completely.
Children over 19 but younger 26 will no longer be able to stay on their parent’s health insurance. This means millions of young adults probably having to forgo healthcare altogether because of the insane costs of college and living standards (you know, buying food and paying for heat to stay alive).
Without the ACA, there will also be no coverage of contraception like birth control pills. You know, women don’t take birth control just to ensure they don’t get pregnant – it also controls their periods so they don’t have 15 day long periods where they bleed out of their vagina. They take birth control to decrease symptoms from PMDD, endometriosis, and other female-related reproductive disorders and issues.
Not providing contraception means that there will be more abortions. However, these abortions will not be done safely since the Republicans plan to defund Planned Parenthood. Republicans are always screaming about the fetus and their pro-life stance, well, when you take away affordable contraception, guess what? There will be an increase in abortions. However, these abortions will not be done in a humane and safe manner for the fetus or the mother because you Republicans will have closed all the Planned Parenthoods and other health clinics that provide contraception and abortions at an affordable rate.
Speaking of Planned Parenthood, closing these affordable health centers means that even less people are going to have access to affordable healthcare. No affordable breast exams, mammograms, pap smears, prostate exams, and just general healthcare. More people will die because of the defunding of Planned Parenthood because they will already have their insurance taken away from the repeal of the ACA.
I may be one of the ones who dies from the repeal of the ACA. Yes, a wee bit dramatic at the moment, possibly. But, I rely on my dad's health insurance while I am in graduate school and working part-time. I'm 23. I have depression, anxiety, asthma, and anaphylaxis if I am exposed to latex. Without the ACA, I will almost definitely be dropped from my health insurance plan and will likely be denied from getting a new plan (which I most likely would not be able to afford). I won't have places like Planned Parenthood to go to for affordable healthcare - that means no pap smears to screen for cervical cancer and no screening for skin cancer (which I am at a high risk of getting). It means I will not be able to pay for my prescriptions of the generic brand of Paxil, my birth control, my albuterol inhaler, or my EpiPens. Not having three of those things may end up killing me. Most likely not having access to my medication which controls my depression is my best bet for what will kill me - me. Without my generic brand of Paxil, I'm likely to pitch myself off a roof or something because my depression will be in no way, shape, or form be controlled. But that’s just me – a white, middle class student with some basic preexisting conditions. Now, think of others who aren't in my position.
Person with diabetes – no insulin for you because you can’t afford it. Woman who becomes pregnant – you are dropped from insurance because that’s a preexisting condition. Person goes into anaphylaxis – die because you couldn’t afford an EpiPen. Children with cancer – no insurance to cover the costs of chemotherapy or radiation so they die. People refusing to go to see a doctor or go the hospital because they can’t afford it – but their condition worsens and they become sicker or they die. This is our future.
With the apparent and imminent repeal of the ACA and the defunding of Planned Parenthood that Republicans are so desperately after, there is a clear ethnic cleansing happening in the United States. If you wanted to kill thousands, if not millions of people, you do what the Republicans are doing. Create a system where our prisons are built to incarcerate the minorities, defund and close affordable hospitals and healthcare facilities like Planned Parenthood, and bar people access to affordable (or even non-affordable) healthcare and insurance. Ta-da! This will result in mass ethnic cleansing. The Republicans are exterminating non-white, straight, middle and lower class people. It doesn’t take gas chambers anymore – just remove assessable and affordable health insurance and health clinics. Any marginalized minority in the United States – people of color, middle or lower class, on the queer spectrum, or anyone that opposes the Republicans really will face this ethnic cleansing that the Republicans are getting ready to initiate and release on the people of the United States.
Farmer, J. R. (2017). What you can expect if the ACA is repealed without a replacement. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/what-you-can-e...
Obama, B. H. (2017). Repealing the ACA without a replacement – the risks to American health care. Retrieved from http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1616577
Truong, K. (2017). This Twitter thread perfectly summarizes why ending the ACA is so dangerous. Retrieved from http://www.refinery29.com/2017/01/136167/affordabl...