Politics

Obamacare supporters plan 'die-in' at Meadows' office

By Lightning Reports, Published: May 3, 2017

Several county branches of the NAACP, Democratic activists and supporters of Obamacare will stage a die-in Thursday afternoon at the district headquarters of U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows in Hendersonville to urge him to oppose a Republican-drafted bill that would replace the Affordable Care Act.

The protest comes as President Trump and Republican leaders in Congress are trying to round up enough votes to push through a bill that would repeal President Obama's signature legislation and replace it with the Republican-designed plan. The plan was teetering on the edge of having enough votes to pass on Wednesday. The Freedom Caucus, an influential group of 30-40 conservatives, had thrown its support behind a new version of health care reform after it helped sink an earlier plan.

"The White House has announced a new rush-through repeal and replace plan for the Affordable Care Act that, if passed, will be disastrous for millions of Americans," Melinda Lowrance, coordinator of the NAACP in Western North Carolina, was expected to say in prepared remarks. Lowrance said that the Republican solution for insuring people with pre-existing conditions — funding high-risk pools that states would manage — would result in "unattainable premiums, effectively making them uninsured." She cites a study that says a woman with breast cancer, insured by the high-risk pool, would pay $45,000 extra. In the 11th Congressional District, she said, "Rep. Meadows is responsible for 280,500 non-elderly people with pre-existing conditions."

The event was scheduled to feature nine people telling stories about how lack of health insurance killed them.

"I ask you, how exactly does this travesty of a fake health insurance act help anyone except insurance companies anf the wealthy?" Lowrance asks.