Thread by @VABVOX

I have been battling a new health crisis since my surgery was postponed June 15.

There is no way to adequately articulate--even as a writer--the breadth of hardship inflicted on sick Americans by the Trump presidency & Trump-led #GOP, like lame-duck @SpeakerRyan.
#healthcare
1/

The @CDCgov cites 133M as the number of chronically-ill Americans who have #cancer, like I do, or another illness that impedes their daily lives.

The majority of that 40% of the US population still have to work despite often disabling illness because we cannot afford not to.
2/

I've been writing about #healthcare in America since I was a cub reporter and put on a small story in the mid-80s that turned into a much bigger story: #AIDS.

When you're in your 20s writing about other 20somethings dying, it changes you.

Then I got #breastcancer at 26.
3/

Once you get #cancer you become a liability to the #healthcare industry. For decades before the #ACA I was living in a constant state of fear that I would lose my health insurance.

Trump has catapulted me--and millions of others--back there.

It's legit terrifying.
4/

#GOP--at Trump's urging--gutted the #ACA mandate in a backdoor repeal effort days before Christmas.

In January, health insurance companies went after sick people like me with a vengeance. My monthly premium at Blue Cross skyrocketed to $1,978.10.
Because I have #cancer.
5/

The Wife and I have the exact same plan. Hers costs $239 a month, mine now costs $1,978.10.

We are only a month apart in age, but she's perfectly healthy & I am sick.

Trump is doing this to people all over America. The Wife took out a loan to pay my #healthcare for 2018.
6/

What will we (and millions of others) do for 2019?
I have no idea. I can't think that far ahead.

The CBO--which is non-partisan--predicted 23M would lose their #healthcare by 2019 because of ballooning premiums that were unaffordable.

That seems a low number to me.
7/

This week, while empathetic Americans were focused on the travesty at our border, @SpeakerRyan--who is leaving in January--pushed through a bill cutting #SNAP that will force sick abd #disabled people and/or their caregivers who get food stamps into workfare programs.
8/

This war on sick Americans is ongoing.

@SpeakerRyan has announced his plans to cut back not just more provisions of the #ACA, but also #Medicaid #Medicare and #SocialSecurity. He already cut #CHIP.

It is not hyperbole to say this will kill people. Including children.
9/

I understand that there are many things to focus on right now & we have trouble keeping more than one story in the news cycle at a time in this political climate.

But the fact is, evisceration of #healthcare is happening under the radar and it WILL affect you & your family.
10/

I worry that if people don't prioritize #healthcare, before midterms--@SpeakerRyan's plan--we will lose our main protections like we lost #SNAP this week and it wasn't even a headline.

We on the left can and MUST focus on more than one thing at a time because the #GOP does.
11/

If my wife hadn't been willing & able to take on a THIRD teaching job in another state, if I hadn't been brave enough to be home alone & paralyzed for nearly 12hrs a day, I'd have lost my health insurance in January.
Why are we doing this to sick Americans & their families?
12/

The #GOP is depending on us being so horrified by #ZeroTolerance, which not one of them cares enough about to be willing to sign @SenFeinstein's bill, that we will miss all the other things they are doing.

As with their #SNAP bill this week which destroyed lives in one vote.
13/

We have to do better.
We have to be as good as the #GOP is at doing two things at once--and right now, as the #SNAP bill proved--we are not.

This worries me. Not just for myself, but for the other 133M sick Americans, the 81M #disabled Americans.

We are your family.
14/

Last week the UN said the US needs to prioritize poverty and Trump's policies are making people more poor.
@nikkihaley pushed back angrily,saying African nations are worse.

We are among the wealthiest countries in the world: Why do we have ANY poor people, let alone 1 in 6?
15/

#Healthcare remains the single most common reason for bankruptcy in America. More than half of all crowdfunding is now for medical bills.
But people struggle to get others to donate to them because there are so many.

We can't cede more ground to the #GOP--people will die.
16/

It's vital that we prioritize #healthcare--and #Medicaid & #Medicare. We are easily distracted by the latest horrors of the Trump presidency.

At the very moment we were meme-ing Melania's jacket, @SpeakerRyan was gathering the last votes for his #SNAP bill.

So, be vigilant.
17/

I can fight for myself.
I have a platform to fight for others.

But my poor black neighborhood is filled with sick poor people & sick poor kids who have neither the data nor energy to fight for services they need & deserve & they just lost #SNAP which they desperately need.
18/

So this weekend, make a list of what you'll do this coming week to help people Trump, @SpeakerRyan & @nikkihaley don't care about: millions of kids with #cancer & #asthma & other life-threatening illnesses & their families. Mothers caring for #disabled kids.

Please.💜🌿
19/