**MEDIA ADVISORY FOR WEDNESDAY, JULY 19**
Contact: Nijmie Dzurinko, Put People First Campaign Team (484) 619-2306
Put People First! PA joins nationwide effort to defend Medicaid, fight ACA repeal without better replacement and call for universal healthcare!
In wake of healthcare bill collapse, constituents from across the country plan to flood Capitol Hill to protest senators who have not spoken up against ACA repeal and demand universal, quality healthcare as a human right.
People with disabilities and life-threatening chronic illnesses, cancer survivors, Medicaid recipients, Affordable Care Act (ACA) policyholders, registered nurses, doctors, and others directly impacted by the potential repeal of ACA will descend upon Capitol Hill on Wednesday, July 19, to send one clear message: Stop trying to kill the ACA, and instead move towards universal healthcare for all.
The Republican healthcare bill may not have enough votes to go forward, but GOP senators have signaled they will still proceed with a vote to repeal the ACA. Hundreds of people will risk arrest in acts of civil disobedience —
a sign of just how critical it is to them that their Senators hear their pleas not to put their lives and those of people they love at risk by stripping protections for preexisting conditions, essential health benefits, and other key features of the ACA that have allowed 20 million Americans to access coverage since its implementation. The protesters will call for Senators to instead support a single payer, Medicare for All system, that would ensure guaranteed health care to every person living in the United States.
“I’m getting arrested today because healthcare is a human right. Our lives are at stake and we have to go forwards, not backwards. We have to get the profit out of the healthcare system,” remarked Put People First member Nijmie Dzurinko from Philadelphia.
WHAT: National Town Hall Meeting on Health Care, massive civil disobedience in Senate offices
SCHEDULE, Wed, July 19:
1pm National Town Hall on Healthcare, open to the press.
St. Mark’s Church 301 St St SE, Washington DC. Please arrive at 12:30PM
After the town hall, around 2 p.m., hundreds of constituents from almost every state in the country will stepping off to hit the office of EVERY senator who has not come out against repeal, and participating in civil disobedience to demand health care for all.