Health care vote delay: No surprise
Rick Rogers of La Honda was listening to conservative talk radio inside his truck on Thursday when he heard about the House Republicans’ decision to delay their vote on the controversial GOP health care bill that would replace the Affordable Care Act.
In Santa Clara, independent voter Kari Medina saw the news flash on MSNBC.
And over in Fremont, registered Democrat Moina Shaiq received word through Facebook.
Yet no matter where they got the news, and regardless of their political leaning, several people on the Bay Area News Group’s 25-member voters’ panel — assembled to evaluate President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office — said they weren’t surprised that the dismantling of “Obamacare” had gotten so gummed up in the nation’s capital that the GOP plan appeared to be going nowhere for now.
“They are playing games with the American public,’’ said Shaiq, 57. “They are trying to repeal the whole thing and come up with one plan that would give so much less coverage to the people who need it most.’’
Rogers said, however, that he hopes the GOP can get its act together — and expressed his frustration that the bill was being pushed through the House so quickly.
“Why don’t they just get it right?” the 60-yearold Rogers asked. “What’s the rush?”
Added the construction equipment company owner: “Everything going on in the government right now is being delayed because everyone is so anti-Trump. Americans are fighting him at every turn.”
But if the GOP bill goes down in flames, that would be just fine for Medina, a preschool teacher whose husband is a cancer survivor on partial disability. She fears his health insurance is at risk if the Affordable Care Act is repealed.
“From what I’ve seen, they wanted to keep some of the Obamacare stuff,’’ Medina, 53, said of the House Republicans. But as the days have gone by, she’s grown increasingly concerned as she’s watched the GOP “gutting the law,’’ she said.
If that happens, her husband will have trouble getting insurance and paying for the important annual exams he needs to determine whether he is cancer-free, she said.
Medina believes the cuts — new estimates released Thursday by the Congressional Budget Office show that amendments to the GOP’s American Health Care Act would still leave 24 million people uninsured by 2027 than if Obamacare stays in place — are unnerving the American public.
A Quinnipiac University national poll released Thursday appears to support that view: The survey shows American voters oppose the GOP health plan 3-1.
Said panel member Lori Drake, a 52-year-old real estate agent and past chairwoman of the Alameda County GOP: “It doesn’t look good for that bill right now.”