The U.S. Senate held votes on Jan. 11 and 12 determining the future of the Affordable Care Act. While the decisions will not repeal President Obama’s act altogether, it’s the first step toward President-elect Donald Trump’s ideal endgame of moving forward without it.

But as these votes commence, one thing must remain in the American people’s minds: the Affordable Care Act has saved lives. Taking it away could leave millions without proper healthcare and does a great injustice to our nation’s poorer citizens.

The Affordable Care Act, since its original implementation during Obama’s presidency, has had a rocky relationship with the American people. But the fact is, it’s in our system now, and there’s   no purpose in repealing it and forcing us to learn an entire new system with an entire new set of rules and distinctions for how people will get their life-saving medication. The fact of the situation is, Trump will not be able to efficiently replace this system. No one could.

The apparent solution to the issue of repealing the ACA is just as impractical as the original recall. First, Trump doesn’t appear to have a plan. President Obama had his idea laid out about a month into his term, and had the ACA framework put in place by the end of 2009. Meanwhile, no one has uttered a word of anything resembling a plan in terms of replacing the system. The American people have reason to fear what the GOP might incite in response to this vote, or rather, what they might not.

While it’s a short point, it should also be said many supporters of the Senate’s vote are asking for the repeal of “both” the ACA and Obamacare. It shouldn’t need addressing that they’re the exact same thing. This sort of clarification belongs in middle school cafeteria debates, not federal politics that have national consequences. And it goes to show the incompetence of the action.

Let it be said, the Act isn’t perfect. Its nearly 20,000 pages (yes, literally) convolute the healthcare system in a tangle with Medicare and Medicaid, which are, contrary to popularity belief, not part of the ACA. However, it’s not going to matter if Trump gets his way, as both are on his chopping block. This means that not only will roughly 28 million American citizens under the poverty line lose their health insurance, they’ll also lose their medical safety net and their only access to any sort of care. To simplify this problem, people will die.

The ACA is quintessential to accessible care for many citizens of this nation. Our government has a responsibility to provide for those who need providing, to look out for the needy when they’re in times of struggle. Healthcare may not be considered a human right, but it should be. And with this vote, the Senate has abandoned the economically disadvantaged America, and left them with a knife in a political gunfight.

But there is still something you can do. If the news of this scares you, or concerns you for a family member or friend, there is still room to take action. Call your representative (for us in Allen, Texas, that’s Ted Cruz and John Cornyn) and let them know you care about this. Let them know you want to fight for the right to affordable health care, and let them know you don’t plan on letting a selfish agenda take precedence over democracy and freedom.