Governor Rauner, stop Graham Cassidy!

Dear Governor Rauner,

We, your constituents, are deeply concerned about protecting Illinois citizens from losing their access to health care. We ask you to speak out immediately and forcefully against the disastrous Graham Cassidy proposal. If this bill passes, the state of Illinois would lose $1.4 billion in federal Medicaid funding by 2026, rising to $9.26 billion in 2027. It would
• Eliminate the financial assistance that helps low- and moderate-income families purchase health care coverage;
• End expanded Medicaid coverage that helps millions of low-income adults;
• Jeopardize access to the most effective treatments for addiction and weaken states’ efforts to address the current crisis of drug overdose deaths;
• Undermine essential protections for people with pre-existing conditions;
• Resurrect - and worsen - the devastating cuts in coverage and benefits that the American public and the majority of Congress have already rejected.

And to make matters worse, the Kennedy Amendment would tie your hands to address these problems by preventing you from ever setting up a single payer system in Illinois.

Governors have been a powerful force in resisting the efforts in Congress to undermine healthcare for our most vulnerable citizens, but we have not yet heard your voice. You must publicly recognize the Graham Cassidy proposal as the serious threat to Illinois citizens that it is and stand up for them in this national debate.