One of the many harms done by the awful budget bill passed by the Republicans earlier this year was to take away the federal government subsidies that made health insurance affordable for hundreds of thousands of Californians.

As part of the current budget negotiations in Washington, the Democrats are trying to get those federal subsidies restored. Without those subsidies, not only will thousands of Californians lose their insurance completely because it will become too expensive, but in addition, health insurance costs will go up for all of us, because fewer healthy people will be paying into the insurance pool. Health insurance only works across society when there is a mix of healthy and less healthy people under coverage. Healthier people are more likely to cancel their insurance if their premiums go too high, which means the cost of heathcare is spread across a smaller pool of people, and everyone’s premiums go up. Canceling these subsidies has both direct impacts on those with fewer financial resources, and indirect impacts on everyone.

If you support the current Democratic effort to fight back on restoring these critical benefits that have been in place for years, please call your U.S. Senators!

Hello, [Senator or Representative’s name]! My name is [name], and I live in [city name]. I’m calling you to communicate how important it is to me that health care subsidies under the Affordable Care Act be restored, to protect lower income and working class people from exorbitant price increases in their health insurance premiums. Please fight back against the Republican Party’s cruel policies that are burdening our citizens who can least afford it with higher and higher prices for essential health care.

Call Senators Padilla and Schiff and Representative Huffman today!