The health care bill being debated in the Senate could have a devastating effect on millions of Americans, not least of all the country’s legal sex workers.
A few of them have refused to take that lying down ― politically speaking that is.
Instead, they’ve formed a group called Hookers for Healthcare to raise awareness about how the bill could harm their lives and careers.
Alice Little, who works at the Sagebrush Ranch brothel near Carson City, Nevada, wrote a blog post on BunnyRanch.com. In it, the 25-year-old explains how reducing access to Medicaid can make it that much harder for women like herself to become financially independent.
“A young woman entering our business who in some cases may also be a single mother with limited financial means will also need time to build her customer base,” Little wrote. “Expanded access to Medicaid for her or her child may be the only way that she is able to know that they will be covered for health care until she can increase her income.”
Sex workers aren’t the only brothel employees who could be hurt by Trumpcare. Little said that cashiers, bartenders, housekeepers and drivers could also lose access to health care if the law no longer required many employers to provide insurance.
“If Obamacare were repealed, that mandate would be lifted, and these hard working parents and grandparents would lose access to coverage for themselves and their families,” she said.
Little told CNN that about a hundred women working in seven legal brothels in Nevada have signed up to be part of Hookers for Healthcare.
“These ladies are often stereotyped and I want to bring some humanity to their stories,” Little told the network. “We are people. We have families. We have the same health concerns as other Americans.”
