Wednesday night, the Senate participated in something called a “vote-a-rama.”
Basically, they spent hours quickly and efficiently voting on a ton of measuresincluding some related to health care.
I don’t blame you.
Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla
The Senate didn’t invent this “vote-a-rama” thing this week.
In fact, it’s something of a tradition.
Senators gatherand stay up super lateto go through a ton of different measures and vote on them.
The senators can’t enact any new laws right now.
But they can approve “budget resolutions.”
(Which, confusingly enough, have nothing to do with the federal budget.)
More on that in the next point!
If budget resolutions aren’t lawsand if they have nothing to do with the federal budgetthen what are they?
Well, they’re basically a way of starting the process of drafting and passing new laws.
To be clear: Obamacare wasn’t repealed while you were sleeping Wednesday night.
(That would take several weeks, at least.)
All the Senate did was pass a budget resolution to start the dismantling process.
Now, House and Senate committees have 2-7 weeks to draft the legislation that will overturn the ACA.
In other words, the Senate just took its first official step toward repealing Obamacare.
But that’s all it wasa step.
If you had any favorite parts of Obamacare, they likely won’t be included in the new plan.
Some senators proposed several amendments trying to preserve elements of the ACAbut all of them were voted down.
One of these amendments would have kept people with pre-existing conditions from losing their insurance.
There was also an amendment that continued requiring insurance companies to cover the cost ofcontraception.
Unfortunately, many of those amendments would have helped women access healthcare services.
Plus, many insurance companies viewpregnancyas a pre-existing condition.
That means pregnant women could be at risk of having much higher premiumsor being denied health insurance entirely.
Remember, these changes aren’t being implemented overnight.
(Note: Not everyone voting to repeal the ACA is a Republican.
The Congress is just Republican-controlled.)
The goal of the ACA was to make health insurance affordable and accessible for everyone.
Obamacare insured more than16 million new people, leaving only10.4 percentof Americans uninsured.
In fact, he said he’d even publicly support such a plan, if presented.
Again, this is just a first step.
And we can only make educated guesses when it comes to what the replacement healthcare plan will be.
SELF’s resources onfinding activist opportunitiesandgetting involved in policy decisionsare great places to start.
Other organizations can help families in need accessaffordable childcare,job training, andmuch-needed foodandhousehold supplies.
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Also:Paul Ryan Says GOP Will Defund Planned Parenthood Along With Obamacare
