URGENT: Tell Your Member of Congress to Vote No on GOP's "Age Tax" Health Care Plan

The House is scheduled to vote tonight on the Republican leadership health care plan. Make your voice heard! Call your member of Congress now to tell him or her to vote NO on health care repeal at 1-855-980-2231.

Thousands of CWA members joined a town hall call with CWA President Chris Shelton, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), President of CWA Local 1168 Cory Gambini, and CWA Legislative Director Shane Larson to discuss ways to mobilize to defeat the GOP leadership's health care bill. The legislation gives tax breaks to corporations and the top 1% while hiking premiums for seniors and cutting coverage for working families.

"It's absolutely critical that all CWA members get engaged," said CWA President Chris Shelton. "Republican leadership is trying to steamroll this legislation through Congress. This legislation is not about health care – it's about cutting taxes for hedge fund managers, corporate executives, and drug companies."

"With this bill, 24 million Americans, including children and working people, will lose health care coverage," said Schakowsky. "The more we learn about what the Republicans want to do, the more it is clear their plan is to have businesses, families, and individuals pay more and get less. And the damage would be economy-wide. Three million jobs would be lost. In many areas, hospitals are the major employer, and when you cut that, the entire community suffers."

Shelton spoke about the direct harm that CWA members would face under this health care proposal. "It keeps the 'Cadillac tax' in place, which would penalize many CWA members because the costs will be passed on to us. The tax will hit more than 40% of employers. And tens of thousands of CWA members in the public sector and in the health care fields are at great risk of losing their jobs if this bill passes."

"These devastating cuts have hospital officials terrified," said Gambini. "We're very afraid that if this goes through that there will be massive layoffs. We really need to fight this repeal, because this is going to be devastating for all Americans. There's not one person who's not going to be touched by this."

Schakowsky said that CWAers are well-positioned to make a difference. "This is a fight we can win, but it is a fight that is likely to be determined by a handful of votes in the House and a couple of votes in the Senate. One action or 20 phone calls can make the difference. If we win this fight, we will be in a much better position to protect Medicare. We will have shown our power. This moment was made for us, for action, and there's nobody better than CWA to make this happen."

The bill is scheduled to come to a vote tonight – Thursday, March 23 – in the House of Representatives. Call your member of Congress now to tell him or her to vote no on health care repeal at 1-855-980-2231.