While supporters cheered the passing of the American Health Care Act by the House of Representatives yesterday, many people who opposed it took to Twitter, where they voiced their outrage over one part of the new plan and made the hashtag #iamapreexistingcondition go crazy viral.
What’s it all about? While the AHCA keeps some Obamacare provisions in place, like allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance plan until age 26, the new bill lets insurers deny coverage or charge higher premiums to individuals with pre-existing conditions. What qualifies as a pre-existing condition will be up to insurers. Epilepsy, heartburn, and celiac disease are just some of the afflictions that could cause your coverage to cost more or keep you from getting any insurance at all, according to a list released by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a healthcare research nonprofit.
Female-specific conditions such as postpartum depression, C-sections, and pregnancy are also on the Kaiser list, prompting many women to join the outcry.
Celebrities also rallied around the hashtag and opened up about their own health history:
The next stop for the AHCA is the Senate, which has to debate and then approve it before it can be signed into law. It’s too early to tell if #iamapreexistingcondition will compel Senators to tweak the preexisting conditions part, but GOP senators have said that they would prefer to draft their own version of the bill.