Leadership in our government is failing to protect our health care

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) revealed what a health-care system can begin to look like when leaders care about the American people.

The recent budget proposal and the Americans with Disabilities Act (H.R. 620) concedes what happens when politicians care more about profits than their constituents. This is a failure of leadership.

{mosads}During President Obama’s administration, I had the privilege of working as the Director of External Affairs for the Department of Health and Human Services.

Under the leadership of President Obama, it was our job to expand health care, ensuring it was a right for all Americans and not a privilege.  

Since the Affordable Care Act was passed, the Republican Party has taken every opportunity to tear our progress down. They continue to fail as leaders.

So now, health care advocates, like myself, must also become health-care defenders.

President Trump and the GOP have made their priorities clear: People are worth less than personal profit.

After a year of sabotage and attack, the United States ended 2017 with 3.2 million more people uninsured than at the end of 2016. In December, President Trump signed the disastrous tax plan that will force 13 million additional voters to lose their insurance. This is a failure of leadership.

In just the last two weeks, we saw fresh attacks emerging from both the White House, Capitol Hill and HHS. The president announced a budget proposal he claimed would strengthen America.

Instead, the budget furthers Trump’s anti-Healthcare agenda that cuts Medicaid by $250 million over the next decade.

Meanwhile, in the House of Representatives, H.R. 620 gutted the Americans with Disability Act and told people with disabilities that their lives did not matter. 

Let there be no confusion: Our health care is being attacked and it’s a threat to all Americans.

At the Department of Health and Human Services, we worked with individuals and families across the country who faced unnecessary hurdles to affordable health care.

We met patients who were finally able to pursue care, after ignoring pre-existing conditions for years at a time.

We spoke with parents who were able to offer life-saving care to their children. Seniors who saw lifetime caps lifted. Young adults who were able to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans.

The passage of the Affordable Care Act brought effective, and positive change. And even after all of the attacks that the president and the republican-majority GOP have waged, the ACA is still strong. Despite facing an enrollment period that was cut in in half, 11.8 million Americans enrolled in the ACA in 2018.  

Recent polling confirms that only 34 percent of voters support Donald Trump’s health care agenda; the majority of us do not.

Americans have declared health care a top priority, and we are not staying silent. We are going to town halls, attending protests, calling our Senators and Representatives, and making sure our voices continue to be heard. As we near the midterm elections, our drumbeat will only continue to grow.

We deserve leaders who have the backbone to stand up to attacks on our health care, and the decency to recognize their constituents as human beings. We cannot forget that we have the power to hold these elected officials responsible — politicians work for us.

Join me by going to the polls this November. 

Anton Gunn is the former Director of External Affairs for the Department of Health and Human Services, where he played an integral role in the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. He is now is a motivational speaker and leadership coach and Co Chair of Health Care Voter, working with health care organizations to teach leaders how to embrace change, improve engagement and overcome adversity.