Luján rallies behind supporters of health care act

Jan. 16--U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján said Sunday that a Republican assault on health care is coming soon and he urged New Mexicans to fight back.

"America needs you," he told a packed house of some 400 people during a town hall on Republican efforts to kill President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, which provides health insurance for some 20 million Americans.

"Use your voice ... and take to Twitter. Turns out the president-elect uses that," said Luján, a Democrat who represents Northern New Mexico.

He joined faith and community leaders in the two-hour meeting at the Unitarian Universalist Santa Fe church on West Barcelona Road. The event was one of dozens of rallies Democrats staged across the country to highlight opposition to the GOP effort to repeal the health care law.

Many at the meeting said they're afraid their health insurance would end immediately, leaving them destitute or, in the case of Jenny Amswych, forced to leave the country to go elsewhere to receive free care.

Amswych, who lived in England for more than a decade with her English-born husband, the Rabbi Neil Amswych of Temple Beth Shalom in Santa Fe, fought back tears as she told the crowd about the array of medical problems -- colitis, meningitis and chronic migraines -- that have afflicted her during the past few years.

"I never thought it would be possible that the ACA would be abolished," she said of the law. "Without ACA, we would have to pay ... an unaffordable amount. Remaining here would bankrupt us."

Neil Amswychpainted an even darker picture. Referencing a biblical psalm, he said, "Many people in this country are now walking through the valley of the shadow of death."

Colin Baillio, communications director of Health Action New Mexico, which helps develop policy ideas to improve health care access for New Mexicans, said a repeal of the law could negatively affect up to 260,000 New Mexicans.

President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office Friday, has said he wants to do away with parts of the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare." The law has reduced by millions the number of people without health coverage but is saddled with problems such as rapidly rising premiums and large co-payments.

Republicans in both the Senate and the House of Representatives last week voted to approve preliminary measures that allow them to repeal major portions of that health care plan through a bill that leaves their actions immune from a Democratic filibuster.

Others at the town hall spoke of relatives needing particular medical care that is beyond their means and of their concerns that Trump also will set up a voucher program for Medicare, limiting access and affordability for that program as well.

Luján and others spoke about other negative impacts on the state, from a loss of jobs in the health care field -- at least 5,000, Luján said, though others cited higher figures -- to increasing barriers to health care for New Mexicans who live and work in rural areas.

Luján said that, if Republicans do not come up with a plan that provides more stability and keeps costs low, "We should reject it."

Contact Robert Nott at 505-986-3021 or [email protected].

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