Folk singer Buddy Mondlock urges Congress: Don’t repeal Obamacare

Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

March 14--WASHINGTON -- Buddy Mondlock wants Congress to remember what's at stake as it considers repealing the healthcare reforms put in place under former President Barack Obama.

"For people like me," the Nashville folk singer and songwriter said, "this is actually life or death."

Under the Republican healthcare bill before Congress, "people will die," Mondlock said.

Mondlock, who contracted hepatitis C from a blood transfusion following a car accident, said he was able to receive medical treatment for the first time in years because of the health insurance he bought under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.

Mondlock and others who say the law enabled them to buy coverage for themselves or their families shared their stories Tuesday at a news conference at the U.S. Capitol. The event was organized by Save My Care, the organization behind a 23-state bus tour and other events intended to pressure Republicans to stop their efforts to repeal law.

Their plea to lawmakers came on the heels of a nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office analysis released late Monday that said 24 million Americans would lose their health insurance by 2026 under the GOP plan to replace Obamacare.

The analysis should be "a knockout blow" for the bill, said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, who spoke at the press briefing along with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.

"We're going to fight it tooth and nail," Schumer said of the GOP plan.

For his part, Mondlock urged lawmakers to see healthcare "as a people issue, not as a political issue."

Mondlock, 57, said his medical problems began when he was seriously injured in a car accident in 1981. He received 27 pints of blood, one of which contained a virus that was eventually identified as hepatitis C.

The transfusion left him with "your classic pre-existing condition," he said. "People like me found it very hard to get insurance because of that."

Under the Affordable Care Act, he was able to buy an insurance policy through Blue Cross Blue Shield for less than $100 a month. The plan had no deductible and cost him just $800 a year in out-of-pocket expenses. A couple of years ago, his insurance even covered a new drug treatment for hepatitis C that cost $80,000.

Just one month into the 12-week regimen, tests revealed that he was virus free. But without the insurance, Mondlock said, he would never have been able to afford the treatment.

"(Political) campaigns have been based on repealing Obamacare, which is supposed to be the worst thing that ever happened," Mondlock said. "I'm here to remind people that this is not a political issue. For people like me and many more, this is actually a life-and death-issue."

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