Friday, March 23 marks the 8th anniversary of the day President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law. The landmark bill allowed huge numbers of people to get affordable and desperately needed health insurance coverage. In 2018, almost half a million Virginians (400,015) signed up to get coverage through Virginia’s healthcare exchange.

Without the ACA, many of those people would not be able to see a doctor when they get sick. Not only did the ACA allow more people to get coverage, but it allowed parents to keep their kids on insurance plans until they turned 26, ensured that being a woman with the ability to get pregnant is no longer classified as a pre-existing condition, and removed lifetime caps on health care spending so that people with serious illnesses or catastrophic accidents don’t get kicked off their plans because their medical care is too expensive.

But despite its popularity and success, Republicans never supported the ACA. As a matter of fact, Republicans have voted more than 70 times to repeal it.

Scott Taylor (Rep. 2nd District) Doesn’t Want You to Have Affordable Healthcare

The video below shows how Heather (a mom of two girls) depends on the ACA to provide life-saving insulin to manage her daughters’ diabetes. There are many people like Heather in Scott Taylor’s district—people who wouldn’t be able to get treatment for life-threatening illnesses without the ACA. To repeal the ACA is to repeal their ability to live with their medical condition. And yet, this is what Scott Taylor has repeatedly done—voting against the best interests of his own constituents.

Rep. Taylor has voted to both repeal the ACA and to support the disastrous Republican alternative, the American Health Care Act (AHCA), which was estimated to leave 51 million non-elderly people without health insurance by 2026.

But Scott Taylor isn’t the only one who would rather give tax cuts to the rich than allow hardworking families to have access to affordable health care. His cohorts, including Republican State Senators Bill DeSteph and Frank Wagner, spent the recent the General Assembly session refusing to expand Medicaid.

Medicaid expansion would not only ensure that 400,000 more Virginians can see a doctor when they get sick, but it would also allow Virginia to take advantage of huge cost savings from the federal government. Instead of taking advantage of a win-win for everyone, Senators Wagner and DeSteph voted for a budget prevents our friends and neighbors from getting health insurance—while also slashing funding for higher education and financial aid, and eliminating pay raises for teachers to make up for the Medicaid cost-savings they refuse to take.

On Friday, March 23, the ACA’s 8th birthday, we’re calling out Rep. Taylor, Sen. DeSteph and Sen. Wagner for selling out their constituents on health care.

We’re gathering Fountain Plaza in Virginia Beach to share stories about how the ACA has improved our lives and how Medicaid expansion would make a difference for 400,000 more people. Sign up today to join us at the event, and if you have a story to share about either the ACA or Medicaid expansion, share it on our Facebook page and we’ll read it aloud live at the event!