Activists keep up pressure to protect Obamacare

May 22--Activists pushing to preserve "Obamacare" kept up the pressure Sunday, looking to return attention to Republicans who would like to rewrite the nation's health care law.

The group NEPA Healthcare Defenders Coalition gathered on Lackawanna County Courthouse Square to mobilize against the Republican replacement to the Affordable Care Act, called the American Health Care Act, or AHCA.

The nation has been distracted by the most recent news from Washington, said Defenders Coalition coordinator Ro Hume.

The hubbub over fired FBI Director James Comey and an investigation into possible collusion between the White House and Russia have turned the country's attention away from pending health care legislation, which carries on with waning public scrutiny.

"It's legislation by ambush, and it's terrifying," Hume said.

As the health care debate got underway, progressive groups like Action Together Northeastern Pennsylvania, Indivisible Lackawanna County and a half-dozen others, sprang up across Northeast Pennsylvania, she explained, so they started the Defenders Coalition to unite them.

"We came together to amplify those voices," she said. "We thought in March we had beaten them (those seeking to repeal Obamacare) off, and then they passed, really, a worse bill. I tell you what, we're not going anywhere."

The U.S. Senate has started on its own version of the law in response to one by the House of Representatives, which members narrowly passed 217-213 May 4.

Republicans, who for the last seven years have railed against the Affordable Care Act, promised to replace it with a new law that lowers premiums and cuts penalties.

Rallygoers, about 80 of them, raised signs that read, "People before profits," and, "No cuts to Medicaid."

Estimates show that Medicaid, government health insurance for poor people, children and the disabled, could get slashed by $840 billion nationwide.

Some used the event to advocate for a single-payer, or government-run, health insurance plan.

"Single payer! Medicare for all!" shouted Andrea Henley Heyn, a Damascus Twp., Wayne County, resident who traveled to Scranton for the rally.

People over 65 and veterans have single-payer health insurance through Medicare and veterans benefits, and Heyn said the model should be expanded for the rest of the country.

Every other advanced economy has a single-payer health care system, said Dr. Jennifer Joyce, a Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine professor.

Other speakers at the two-hour event included state Secretary of Aging Teresa Osborne, state Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, D-121, Wilkes-Barre, and citizens who said the AHCA would strip them of benefits they need for their families.

The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan group that provides financial information to lawmakers, is to release its analysis of the House plan Wednesday, which should include the number of people estimated to lose coverage if it passes.

The CBO's score of an earlier House bill, which failed to get enough votes, showed that 14 million people would lose their coverage.

Contact the writer: joconnell@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9131; @jon_oc on Twitter

___

(c)2017 The Times-Tribune (Scranton, Pa.)

Visit The Times-Tribune (Scranton, Pa.) at thetimes-tribune.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.