Bernie Plans Nationwide Rallies to Save Health Care

Bernie Sanders released more information this week on his plan to save health care. As promised, Bernie is planning nationwide rallies to #ProtectOurCare.

The official announcement from Bernie includes a full list of rallies and materials you can share on social media to mobilize your friends and family. Rallies are to be held on Sunday, January 15th. Don’t forget to RSVP .

Republicans plan to repeal Obamacare without a replacement, a move that would leave more than 20 million Americans without health insurance.

Obamacare is not perfect, but many of its provisions are extremely popular and important. Obamacare prevents insurers from rejecting coverage on the basis of pre-existing conditions. It allows students and young people to stay on their parents’ plans until they are 26 years old. And it expands Medicaid to low-income families . In fact, polls show Obamacare is much more popular when called the Affordable Care Act . People like Obamacare, they just don’t know it.

Obamacare has been criticized for recent increases in the cost of premiums. And while it is true that Obamacare premiums have increased, they still cost 10% less than employer-sponsored plans. It’s also worth remembering that Obamacare premiums cost less than individual market premiums before Obamacare was passed . Even with the increases, Obamacare is still a good deal.

Republicans claim they can repeal Obamacare while keeping the parts that work, like coverage for people with preexisting conditions. As the New York Times explains , that won’t work. Coverage for people with pre-existing conditions is only affordable because Obamacare incentivizes other, healthy people to sign up and offset the cost. If you repeal the individual mandate but keep coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, prices go up and enrollment goes down. Republicans also like to tout their voucher plan, but there are a lot of reasons to think vouchers will face the same problem of higher costs and fewer insured.

We can make Obamacare better, but we can’t repeal it, and we can’t let Republicans pick and choose which Americans they think deserve coverage. All Americans deserve health care as a right.

Stand with Bernie and save our health care .