Frankel, Fort Pierce woman keep heat on GOP in fight over Obamacare

Feb. 27--Two years ago, Sherry Riggs was a middle-aged woman with a history of heart problems who was losing health insurance because of the looming divorce from her husband, whose policy had provided her with coverage.

Now, the Fort Pierce mother of three is a symbol, one U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel and other Democrats hope will give President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress pause as they consider repealing the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.

Riggs will be Frankel's guest Tuesday when Trump makes his first address to a joint session of Congress. The president is expected to lay out some of his budget priorities, which include a massive increase in defense spending and cuts to environmental and social programs.

Repealing and replacing Obamacare, a staple of GOP politics in recent years and a prominent Trump campaign promise, is likely to get a mention or three as well.

Democrats are locking arms with constituents across the country who have packed town halls to excoriate Republican members of Congress -- including U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Palm City, on Friday -- for backing repeal of a program they argue has reduced their costs and provided them with coverage they wouldn't otherwise be able to afford.

Another of Frankel's colleagues, U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, has invited a constituent, Lauri Major Tillman of Coconut Creek, whose grandson Jackson was born with severe health problems.

Deutch's office released a statement saying the child's family would not have been able to afford the $1 million in care the child needed over the first four months of his life or the $300,000 to $400,000 in ongoing annual care without Obamacare.

"If Republicans have their way and repeal Obamacare, children like Jackson will be the first casualty," Tillman said in the statement.

For her part, Riggs said she accepted Frankel's invitation so her story and the stories of other Obamacare supporters can be told.

She said she'll never forget the round of telephone calls she made to private health insurance companies as she sought to get coverage in the aftermath of her divorce.

"They found out about my preexisting conditions, and they literally laughed at me," Riggs said during a press conference with Frankel at a Palm Beach International Airport parking lot Monday. "They said, 'You couldn't afford this.'"

Obamacare, signed into law in 2010, had prohibited insurers from denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions. But the law didn't say insurance companies couldn't charge them so much they couldn't possible afford coverage.

The law gave Riggs, a barber, an alternative: insurance through Obamacare with a government subsidy to help her afford it.

Months later, Riggs, suffering from chest pains, learned from her cardiologists that one of her arteries was 90 percent blocked.

Doctors treated that blockage with a stent, but, a year later, she had more blockage that required open heart surgery.

On Monday, standing next to Frankel, the top of Riggs' chest scar was just visible above the buttons of the blue shirt she wore.

"If it wasn't for the Affordable Care Act, I would be dead twice," Riggs said.

That's precisely the message Democrats are hoping to sound often and loudly in a battle with Trump and the GOP over a program that, according to recent polling, has become more popular as prospects of its repeal have grown.

What had been a GOP cudgel in political discussions is now one brandished by Democrats backed by frightened and angry constituents.

"Since the president's election, saving the Affordable Care Act has been at the top of our priority list," said Frankel, the former mayor of West Palm Beach. "If we're going to stop it, the repeal, it's going to be organic. The feedback we're getting all over the public is they want to see us work with the Republicans to build on the successes and not repeal it."

Republicans, meanwhile, continue to insist they will repeal a program they argue has hurt businesses and driven up costs.

After initially promising to sweep Obamacare away with a the stroke of his pen, Trump in recent weeks has been more cautious on the topic.

During a meeting with the nation's governors at the White House Monday, the president lamented the complexities of the program.

"It's an unbelievably complex subject," he said. "Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated."

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