Local health care advocates to protest in DC today

July 19--Five local health care advocates will risk arrest on Capitol Hill Wednesday to voice their opposition to the Republican U.S. Senate plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Members of Hoosier Action, an advocacy group focused on building the political power of working families and individuals in Indiana, will offer local representation to a national effort led by the national advocacy group Center for Popular Democracy to have their voices heard by all 52 Republican senators.

Jesse Myerson, a local organizer with Hoosier Action, said the Bloomington group is planning to demonstrate at Indiana U.S. Sen. Todd Young's office in Room B33 of the Russell Senate Office Building.

Myerson said the importance of the "emergency trip" is only heightened after the Republican-led effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act stalled, as did Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's effort to simply repeal the ACA, which is also known as Obamacare, and start with a clean slate.

"We don't think it'll be dead, really, until the party in control -- in the House, the Senate and in the Oval Office -- is no longer in control," Myerson said Tuesday from the Indianapolis International Airport before departing for Washington, D.C.

Myerson, Jessica Martlage, Wes Cammenga, Tracey Hutchings-Goetz and Jennifer Brooks are expected to join about 500 people on Capitol Hill to chant and share personal health care stories. Then, more than 200 of those individuals have agreed to visit the offices of their state's senators in a display of civil disobedience by occupying hallways and office space, risking arrest.

Myerson said it is important to reach out to Young, a Republican who represents Indiana and who is not up for re-election until 2022, to let him know that he can't take his constituents for granted.

"We won't forget this when he's up for re-election," Myerson said. He noted that while calls and letters to the senator can be screened, "It's another thing to show up and refuse to leave until they arrest us."

Myerson invited both Cammenga and Martlage on the trip on Sunday. They quickly decided to attend. Cammenga's mother is a physician in Bainbridge, Indiana, and knows exactly how many of her patients this would negatively affect, he said.

"But that's not completely why I'm doing this. It's an unconscionable bill, and I'm very excited for this trip," Cammenga said. "This is my first time doing this, so I'm not really worried about getting arrested."

Martlage postponed starting a new job as a health navigator at a local nonprofit so she could make the trip to D.C.

"We live in the richest country in the world. It is unnecessary and unacceptable to cut health care in the richest country in the world," Martlage said.

Martlage has received health care coverage through Indiana's Medicaid expansion program, HIP 2.0, and knows firsthand the importance of Medicaid programs.

"I think it's definitely worth getting arrested to prove a point to the powers that be," she said. "We're representing everyone who can't be here with us, and we're fighting for them."

A spokesman said Young was chairing a committee hearing Tuesday and was unavailable for comment.

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