Menendez, Booker, Voto Latino, Planned Parenthood, APIAHF and NLIRH Highlight Trumpcare's Devastating Effects on Communities of Color

Statement

U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) joined Voto Latino, the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF), Planned Parenthood, and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH) to highlight the effects of the Republican health care bill on communities of color throughout the country, and to call on Senate Republicans to abandon their plan to sabotage and repeal our current health care system and instead work with Democrats to improve it.

"The Republican repeal of the Affordable Care Act is bad news for pretty much everyone except millionaires and health insurance industry executives, but it's especially devastating to communities of color and people living in poverty -- the unfortunate reality being that there is such persistent overlap between the two," said Senator Menendez (D-NJ), the highest-ranking Latino in the U.S. Congress. "We stand united as a coalition of lawmakers, advocates, community leaders and concerned citizens urging Senate Republicans to work with Democrats to find real solutions to our health care system that don't disproportionately punish those whose lives were made drastically better by the ACA's historic protections. The House-passed legislation is nothing short of a full-out assault on low-income families and communities of color, and as a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, I plan to fight this bill tooth and nail. We cannot go back to a time when access to health care was a privilege granted to those who could afford it rather than a right afforded to all Americans."

U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), said "President Trump asked African Americans what we had to lose. With Trumpcare, he's shown us -- it's health care. African Americans and other minority communities made significant gains in health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Trumpcare would reverse these gains, threatening coverage and decreasing access to essential health services for millions of people of color."

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