Fear spurs support for health law as Republicans work to repeal it
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump and congressional Republicans appear to have accomplished a feat that President Barack Obama, with all the power at his disposal, could not in the past seven years: They have galvanized outspoken support for the Affordable Care Act.
People who benefit from the law are flooding Congress with testimonials. Angry consumers are confronting Republican lawmakers. And Democrats who saw the law as a political liability in recent elections have suddenly found their voice.
Thousands of people across the country held rallies over the weekend to save the health care law, which Republicans moved last week to repeal with a first but crucial legislative step. A widely circulated video showed Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., eluding constituents who had wanted to meet with him to express their concerns Saturday at a community event in Aurora, Colo.
Rallies on Sunday to save the health law drew robust crowds.
“We are here today — thousands strong in Boston, and at more rallies all across this country — because we will make our voices heard,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., told a crowd outside Faneuil Hall in Boston. “If Republicans try to rip health care out of the hands of millions of Americans, we will fight them every step of the way.”
And progressive groups are planning a two-month cross-country bus tour to fight the repeal effort, starting Tuesday.
With their quick strike on the law in the first days of the new Congress, Republicans had hoped to begin the repeal process before a backlash could develop or opposition could be organized. But congressional Republicans are at risk of losing the message war, especially since they are fighting on two fronts.
‘Fear mongering’
On one side, the president-elect has repeatedly lobbed disruptive demands at them, such as his insistence that they prepare a replacement health bill almost immediately. To that, he added a new promise over the weekend: The Republican version would provide “insurance for everybody” — although incoming press secretary Sean Spicer softened that stance Monday.
On the other front, Democratic lawmakers have taken to quoting grateful constituents to personalize what can be an arcane legislative fight: Bryce in Seattle; Randy in Rhinelander, Wis.; Nicole in Hockessin, Del.; and many more. The focus of public attention appears to be shifting to the plaintive pleas of people terrified of losing insurance if the law is repealed.
“I want to thank President Obama from the bottom of my heart because I would be dead if it weren’t for him,” Jeff Jeans, a small-business man from Sedona, Ariz., who described himself as a lifelong Republican, told House Speaker Paul Ryan on Friday at a town-hallstyle meeting televised on CNN.
Republicans acknowledge their constituents’ concerns, but they say supporters of the health law are manufacturing them. Rep. Rob Woodall, R-Ga., blamed Democrats for “amping up anxiety” with “scare tactics and fear mongering.”
“The anxiety is real,” Woodall said, “but it’s real based on the failures of the president’s health care law.”
Republicans will face a new challenge: maintaining anger at “Obamacare” without Obama in the White House.
Regardless of its provenance, the health law’s support has received scant attention until now. Some Democrats put distance between themselves and the Obama administration after HealthCare.gov crashed on its debut in 2013.
But as Trump and congressional Republicans race to repeal the law, Democrats are taking a more aggressive stance.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., told the story of Sonja L. Podjan, a 55-yearold blueberry farmer in Watervliet, Mich., who was in pain for several years until she got insurance under the Affordable Care Act, which covered the cost of surgery to repair a severe tear in the meniscus of her right knee.
Podjan said she “started freaking out” after the election and sent an email to Stabenow. She said she was “flabbergasted” when she heard back from the senator’s office.
Podjan said that the premium for an insurance policy covering her and her husband was about $1,000 per month, but that they paid just $62 after receiving government subsidies provided under the law.
“I am scared to death we will lose our insurance, and what happens then?” said Podjan, who reported that she and her husband had medical expenses totaling $41,000 in the past two years.
Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., told the story of a constituent, Kevin Kargacin, whose daughter Amber takes drugs costing more than $60,000 per year for multiple sclerosis. “Kevin is scared because the cost of treating Amber’s disease is so high,” Udall said.
Kargacin said he wrote to Udall because “we are terrified that without the Affordable Care Act, Amber could be denied insurance or run into lifetime caps on expenditures for her treatment.”
Opposing views
The differing accounts are not necessarily in contradiction.
Some people have benefited from the law while others have seen their coverage disrupted.
Republicans said the Obama administration had been slow to recognize and acknowledge problems with the Affordable Care Act. Administration officials said insurance rate increases of 25 percent or more were not a significant problem because low-income people could get subsidies to help defray the cost — even though millions of people buying insurance on their own do not receive subsidies.
The administration insisted that insurance markets were “stable and vibrant” even as large insurers pulled out of Affordable Care Act exchanges where they were losing millions of dollars.