Faith leaders to U.S. Rep. Brian Mast: Don’t vote for Obamacare repeal

July 06--PORT ST. LUCIE -- Opponents of the Republican plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act are hoping faith and religious principles will persuade their local congressman to vote against the bill.

Faith leaders and residents rallied outside U.S. Rep. Brian Mast's City Hall office Thursday to ask him to oppose a Senate health care overhaul bill if it moves to the House. Two dozen people, many of them Democrats, also asked U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio to oppose the legislation that has yet to come up for a Senate vote.

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Leaders from the Episcopal Church of the Nativity and St. Julian of Norwich, both in Port St. Lucie, and a retired interfaith minister invoked Christian and moral values of protecting the most vulnerable. They said they are concerned about the legislation's impact on older and low-income Americans as well as the 22 million more people who would be uninsured by 2026, as estimated by the Congressional Budget Office.

"I know the current health care act is not perfect -- nothing is," said Church of the Nativity Rev. Mary Rosendahl. "But this new proposed one is going to hurt more and more people."

The event was organized by Faith in Public Life, a Washington, D.C.-based group that promotes "faith in the public square as a powerful force for justice, compassion and the common good," according to its website. The group also helped organize a prayer vigil on Capitol Hill last week to preserve Medicaid under the overhaul.

Citizens speak up

Also present at the Port St. Lucie rally, which took place on a lawn outside City Hall on Port St. Lucie Boulevard, were residents concerned about losing coverage they acquired under Obamacare.

Heather Merson, her husband and children, ages 4 and 7, have been buying insurance through the Affordable Care Act's exchanges. The small-business owner from Fort Pierce held back tears as she talked about her fear of not being able to buy insurance anymore.

"We have benefited from the Affordable Care Act, and so many of my friends have too, and I'm here to tell Brian Mast and Sen. Marco Rubio to please vote no on this," said Merson, the daughter of St. Lucie County Democratic Executive Committee Chairwoman Celeste Bush.

Richard Silvestri, a retired paramedic, doesn't buy health insurance because he's on Medicare. Yet he's concerned caps on Medicaid spending under the bill could affect the program's payments to nursing homes for the elderly. He also worries more uninsured people would burden emergency rooms, which are required to accept people without insurance.

"We're talking about going to Mars and you have people without health insurance," said Silvestri, of Fort Pierce.

The bill

The Senate bill is estimated to cause the number of uninsured people to climb in the first years primarily by eliminating Obamacare's penalties on those who don't buy insurance, the Congressional Budget Office found in a report released in June. More people would be uninsured in subsequent years because of caps on Medicaid spending and substantially smaller tax credits for people to buy insurance. Older, lower-income people would be at greater risk of not having insurance, according to the report.

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The bill would reduce the federal deficit by $321 billion by 2026 largely by reducing Medicaid spending. By 2026, average premiums would be about 20 percent lower, but could cover fewer services and have higher out-of-pocket costs, according to the report.

Mast, R-Palm City, has faced angry constituents and liberal activists at his town hall meetings who are unhappy with his vote for the House bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act in May. He's clashed with such progressive grass-roots groups as Indivisible Martin.

He said he's happy the bill maintains an Obamacare provision that prohibits insurers from denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions. He also has said Obamacare is in crisis as the number of insurers in the system continues to drop.

Rubio, a West Miami Republican, hasn't said how he would vote on the Senate version, but said in a statement last month the bill wouldn't kick people off Medicaid, even though the Congressional Budget Office estimated lower spending would force states to reduce enrollment and benefits.

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