In the News

By Kay Steiger

 

House Republicans voted to repeal what they dub “Obamacare” in a 244-185 vote on Wednesday, even after the Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act last month.

 

“Same crap, different day,” Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) told Raw Story. “They’ve always been against Social Security, against Medicare, Medicaid. This is just a different day in their history of not wanting to expand the social contract for anybody other than those people who are endowed. … The success of the Affordable Care Act will reduce profits to their constituencies.”

 

“When you repeal health care, the disproportionate effect is going to fall on women,” she said. “You can talk about intentions if you want, but the effect is going to harm women.”

 

 

“Misogyny reigns, as usual,” she said. “Of course it will benefit women more than men. Women are twice as likely to be dependents on their husbands, simply because many of us are still employed in the pink collar sector, where there is no health care available.”

 

“The ability to be independent of a man is always going to be a threat in our society,” she said. “Because of our reproductive capacity, there’s an awful lot of care that I’ve fought for; making mammograms mandatory, making contraception mandatory.”

 

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) told Raw Story and other bloggers, “This is a very personal experience for me as a breast cancer survivor.”

 

“Worrying about whether you’re going to be able to get all of the treatment is a real issue,” she said.

 

The legislation, which marks House Republicans’ 31st effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, has little chance of being taken up in the Senate.

 

[Correction: This post originally had the wrong number of times Republicans had voted for repeal.]