AFT’s Weingarten on Defeat of Efforts to Repeal Obamacare

WASHINGTON—AFT President Randi Weingarten released the following statement on the failure of Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act:

“This bill was a sham and would have hurt millions of Americans. Even a few minutes before the vote, the Congressional Budget Office said the bill would have resulted in a 20 percent increase in premiums and 16 million people losing their healthcare. We are grateful to the Democrats for their efforts to defeat this bill and to Sens. Murkowski, Collins and McCain for the courage they showed to oppose it. Now is the time to turn the page and work together to improve healthcare for all Americans, not to repeal it or take it away. We thank all of the Americans who made it clear through calls, rallies and visits, including thousands of our members, that we need to fix, not take away, healthcare as we know it.”