Ex-congressman Tom Perriello criticizes Ben Cline on healthcare

Tom Perriello, who previously represented Virginia's 5th District in the House of Representatives, met with healthcare providers and other community members from the Shenandoah Valley on Tuesday to learn more about how the Trump administration's health insurance reductions are making it more difficult to get life-saving care.

At Sage Bird Ciderworks in Harrisonburg, Perriello met with five local community members who all had extensive experience navigating the healthcare system, either through their work or personal experience. All told Perriello that, due to rising premiums, medications that people need to live or function are becoming harder and harder to access.

Michaela Blosser told Perriello of her journey living with cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that affects her lungs and pancreas. Although Blosser was able to get into trials for new medications that helped bring her overall lung function up from 40 to 60%, the cost for her treatments greatly increased until her health insurance, which she got through her husband's work, could no longer cover the care she needed.

"My husband's employer told me I should get my own insurance because they can't afford to pay for the treatment I need, essentially," Blosser said. "So I got insurance through the ACA, and then Republicans moved to strip it. My husband luckily switched jobs, so I moved to his insurance. Now he's stuck in this job. We're stuck in this, and it's essentially my fault."

Blosser said she was on a trial for the medication Trikafta, which worked well for her, but cost tens of thousands of dollars. She added that drugs already proven to be effective for cystic fibrosis are also getting harder to access.

Jena Crisler, a doctor of osteopathic medicine and former hospitalist at Sentara RMH Medical Center, said that, under the Trump administration, more and more people have grown distrustful of medicine, especially preventative treatments like vaccines.

"Without adequate vaccination, we're going to see diseases that we should never see with children," Crisler said. "Mumps, you ever heard of this one? It's in the measles-mumps-rubella shot. Mumps was the primary cause of male sterility in the 60s. When the MMR vaccine came out, we stopped seeing it."

Mikayla Venable, a phlebotomist at Augusta Health, said she often saw patients struggle to make their payments and lose precious time with their families in the process. Venable, who worked as a nurse earlier in her career, criticized lawmakers for making life even harder for their most vulnerable constituents.

"A lot of times I was a shoulder [to lean on] for some people," Venable said. "I've heard people call their jobs asking, 'Hey, can I get an advance? I really just want to bring my mom or whoever home.' Sometimes I feel like it's easy to make these cuts or to pass these bills that hurt people if you're not the person that's been in that room to listen to those types of phone calls."

Through it all, Perriello, who said he gets his insurance through the Affordable Care Act, criticized Congressman Ben Cline, R-Botetourt, for not meeting with his constituents and not listening to advisors who said the Trump administration's policies would make healthcare harder to access for Virginians.

"This pain in the community was completely preventable," Perriello said. "It is the minimum of Ben Cline's job to show up and listen to the people that are impacted before he casts a vote."

Perriello is currently running for election in the 5th District, but if a redistricting amendment on the special April 21st ballot passes, he has said he would run in the 6th District, which Cline currently represents. Perriello said he believes voters are frustrated with Cline's trend of voting against programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and the ACA.

"I think Ben Cline's been avoiding voters for an understandable reason," Perriello said. "In the middle of really difficult economic times, he has voted again and again to make food prices go up, electric bills go up, and healthcare costs go up. I think people are really frustrated about that. Now, with the redistricting amendment, he may actually have to face an even fight for the first time."