Bus tour brings stories of support for Affordable Care Act

March 09--GREENSBORO -- Dr. Teresa Bratton watched as a small crowd gathered Wednesday in front of the "Save My Care" tour bus to ask Congress -- and specifically U.S. Sens. Thom Tillis and Richard Burr -- not to gut or rush changes to the Affordable Care Act, which she says would be a setback to the health care of millions of families who need it the most.

Organizers on the bus, parked at this moment at the Beloved Community Center downtown, have been traveling the country for the past two months highlighting what advocates say is a critical need to protect access to quality, affordable health care.

An early analysis of the Republican-led changes to the existing plan that covers large swaths of the uninsured would mean dropping Medicaid coverage for children in some of the poorest families.

That leaves Bratton heartbroken.

"If you don't have health care, you are going to be stuck in the emergency room and so many chronic diseases need long-term care," the pediatrician said as the crowd swelled with people ranging from the unemployed to politicians.

"Sometimes (health care) means the difference between life and death," Bratton said.

The bus tour focuses on local people adding to the collection of stories from some of the more than 30 million Americans that organizers say will lose their health care under the potential repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which passed under the Obama administration. The tour has held 40 rallies in 18 states, covering more than 12,000 miles. The next planned stop after Greensboro was Raleigh.

"The common thread is how easy it is to get people to come out and share how it's saved their life, how critical it is for them to protect their families," tour bus director Anthony Hayes said. "The common thread is they are terrified that the Republicans will continue to rush toward repealing it."

John Thompson was one of them Wednesday.

The Greensboro man lost his job with a nonprofit in 2013. He and his wife later got a bill for $2,200 a month to continue his health insurance under COBRA.

"We just looked at each other," Thompson said, "and laughed."

He also signed up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The subsidies that came with it helped him afford monthly insurance payments.

"I'm not a deadbeat or a freeloader," Thompson said. "For 40 years, I paid my taxes."

It took him a year to find another job and during that time he got cancer.

"(The Affordable Care Act) was our lifeline during my year out of work," Thompson said. "Without it I would have been uninsurable for the rest of my days -- no diagnostic test, no surgery, no rehab, no hope."

That shouldn't be, he added, in one of the richest countries in the world.

That sentiment was echoed by the Rev. Nelson Johnson of the Beloved Community Center. He put out a plea to lawmakers, specifically Tillis, Burr and U.S. Reps. Mark Walker and Ted Budd.

"Take some moral courage here," Johnson said. "There may be flaws in it, but this matter of wholesale repealing and then creating something that's not reflective of the care people really need is a moral abandonment."

Contact Nancy McLaughlin at (336) 373-7049 and follow @nmclaughlinNR on Twitter.

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