Thousands of nuns urge senators to vote against Obamacare repeal
Thousands of American nuns have signed a letter to senators asking them to reject the Republican plan to bring up a health care bill this week that they say is "immoral and contrary to the teachings of our Catholic faith."
The Catholic sisters — led by Sister Simone Campbell who was a vocal advocate for passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 — will deliver their letter Monday and plan to personally visit key Catholic senators to ask them to oppose the health care bill.
The letter, organized by NETWORK, a Catholic social justice lobby and signed by more than 7,000 U.S. sisters, asks senators to vote against any motion to bring up "any bill that would repeal the ACA and cut Medicaid."
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he plans to bring a health care bill to the floor this week, but it is not clear which one. The first hurdle McConnell will face is a procedural vote to bring up the legislation. Democrats are refusing en mass to support any ACA repeal bill, so McConnell will need 50 Republican votes on the procedural motion. Several Republican senators have voiced opposition to various repeal plans, including Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska and Susan Collins, R-Maine, both Catholics.
The most recent draft of a Senate health care bill is "a proposal to cut billions of dollars out of care for those who are most needy" while giving a tax cut to the wealthy, Campbell told USA TODAY. Sisters around the country work in service to poor communities where health care services would be devastated by rolling back federal support for Medicaid. "Once they back away from this foolishness, then we can get down to the business of addressing problems" in the existing health care law, she said.
Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Sunday on ABC News that President Trump remains committed to repealing and replacing Obamacare. "Look, we know that we have a system that is simply not sustainable," Sanders said. "And we are losing coverage and insurers every single day across the country. We've got to lower premiums. We have got to create better care. And we have got to start doing that right now."
Campbell has led several nation "Nuns on the Bus" tours to advocate for social justice issues, but the progressive activism of the American sisters became a point of conflict with church leadership. The Vatican issued a rebuke under then Pope Benedict in 2012 saying the sisters were adopting “radical feminist” themes and focused too much on economic inequality instead of abortion and preservation of marriage.
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With John McCain out, McConnell still plans a Senate health care vote next week