Protesters rally against the AHCA vote in Washington, DC. May 4, 2017.
Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images
On Thursday, the United States House of Representatives narrowly voted to repeal and replace Obamacare with legislation known as the American Health Care Act (AHCA). The bill is deeply unpopular with voters for its $880 billion cut to Medicaid, tax breaks for the extremely wealthy, and for allowing insurance companies to once again deny coverage based on a pre-existing condition. The bill's passage was unprecedented — Republicans did not read the bill or make it public, and a lack of a score from the Congressional Budget Office means no one knows how much it will cost.
The political ceremony can be alienating, whether it's Republicans listening to the Rocky theme before voting to trash the insurance of 24 million Americans, or Democrats putting up no resistance to the bill with the expectation that they'll look better by default (more Americans think the Democratic Party is out of touch than the Republicans). Behind the AHCA are people whose health care will be made worse, remain needlessly lacking, or just cease to exist. Some of them shared their stories on Twitter.
One user shared an important, infuriating account of what it's like to live when you're just not the kind of person who will ever get healthcare.