Protesters upset with health bill hold vigil outside Toomey’s office

June 23--WILKES-BARRE -- Members of several action groups began a 24-hour vigil outside Sen. Pat Toomey's district office at the Stegmaier Building on Thursday to protest provisions in Senate Republicans' draft health care bill released earlier in the day.

Dallas resident Aaron Troisi, a vigil organizer, said people from Luzerne, Lackawanna, and five other counties were in attendance, representing several community groups and labor unions.

"We're holding a 24-hour vigil ... because what's happening in the Senate with the health care bill, the reality is it's going to affect more than 800,000 Pennsylvanians, especially the Medicaid changes, and that affects the most vulnerable people in our community," Troisi said.

"Part of this is a protest of the secrecy with which all of this has been happening," Troisi added. "When ('Obamacare') came out, it took a year-and-a-half and they took amendments from Republicans at that time. They had many public hearings. We don't see Republicans, including Sen. Toomey, doing that. We're calling on the Senator, who is on the committee who is deciding these things, to make the right choice and put people first, no caps to Medicaid, no cuts to Medicaid and not to take health care away from millions of Americans."

Missy Welshko-Williams, 52, of Madison Township, Lackawanna County, is worried changes to Medicaid will hurt her family's ability to obtain services for her 20-year-old autistic son, who is covered under her husband's primary insurance that Medicaid supplements.

Welshko-Williams said when she met with Toomey in Scranton during the April recess, he was not familiar with the Medicaid waiver that allowed her son to obtain services the family couldn't otherwise afford. It also allows the family to pay $30 every three months for one of her son's medications instead of $1,500. "And that's generic," she added.

"Sen. Toomey said, 'Nothing prevents the state from increasing their contribution.' That is so wrong because the state's just as broke as the feds are," Welshko-Williams said. "And a lot of these services (for children with disabilities) are mandated. If the state doesn't have the money, school taxes are going to skyrocket."

Audrey Serniak, 62, Plains Township, said she's a member of Tuesdays with Toomey, a group that visits Toomey's office every Tuesday and meets with an aide to discuss their concerns on various issues. While she has a 401-k and a pension, she's worried about how much of her savings will be eaten up by health care costs, and she's concerned for others who aren't as well off.

The Senate proposal "is not only going to give tax breaks to the rich, this is morally bankrupt and will hurt the economy. ... I could put money into my house, put money into the local economy more, but I can't do that until I know what's happening with health care. And if the wrong things happen, I won't be spending it, and I'm not alone," she said.

In a news release, Toomey said that "as taxes, premiums and deductibles continue to skyrocket," with Obamacare, "choices and access to care have dwindled. The draft bill unveiled in the Senate ... strikes me as an important and constructive first step in repealing Obamacare and replacing it with a better, stable, consumer-driven health care system for all Pennsylvanians."

Toomey said the bill "works to ensure Medicaid is sustainable for future generations by modestly reducing, seven-and-a-half years from now, the rate at which federal spending on the program will grow. I will thoroughly examine this draft and welcome all feedback from my fellow Pennsylvanians in the coming days."

Later Thursday, Toomey's office also released a "Myth vs. Fact" explanation of the Senate proposal regarding Medicaid.

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