Dem lawmakers express concerns about health care
Two Democratic Yuma district legislators — along with a congressional candidate — held a press conference Wednesday to air their concerns about availability of health care and insurance.
Reps. Charlene Fernandez, D-Yuma, and Geraldine Peten, D-Goodyear, held a “Save Our Health Care” appearance at Yuma’s Democratic Party headquarters to publicize what they said are GOP-led threats to the public’s access to health care.
Fernandez said the future of Affordable Care Act programs, also known as Obamacare, is uncertain.
“It’s in jeopardy, obviously. They’ve been trying to dismantle it. They try to look at creative ways to make sure it’s not funded correctly. We’re worried about how it’s going to affect our working-class constituency in Arizona,” she said.
“We’re talking about our senior citizens who very much rely on having quality health care. We have a large population of children who are on KidsCare in this state who need immunizations to be healthy,” she continued.
The Arizona Democratic Party is staging the tour
this week primarily to target the voting record of U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Martha McSally, a Republican from Tucson who has served three terms in the House. It began in Tucson on Tuesday and will continue to Phoenix and Flagstaff.
Peten said the stress of lacking health insurance itself can threaten a person’s well-being as they think about looming “what-if” scenarios.
“I think the vital thing about all insurance, whether it’s health insurance or car insurance, is that it’s a hedge against catastrophes. So we want to protect them from the unknowns, our pre-existing conditions, as well as when our population ages, there’s an increase in health issues,” she said.
Some national Democratic leaders have recently been endorsing Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare-for-All” legislation, and Fernandez said opening up the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System to any interested resident should be explored.
“A bill was proposed, never saw the light of day but will be coming back” when the new session begins in January,” she said.
“We were talking about AHCCCS becoming available to everyone in Arizona, it’s something we’d love to have a debate about. AHCCCS is a wonderful program, we had a testimonial from an individual who had AHCCCS and loved it, would be on it except your income level rises and you get kicked off immediately.”
Democratic congressional candidate Dr. David Brill was also on hand. An M.D. who has worked for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and owned small businesses, he is sekking to unseat Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Prescott.
He said the uncertainty being created by GOP-passed changes to the ACA will hit the insured soon, if they haven’t already.
“Prices are going to rise big-time in the fall because our insurers are confused about what their costs are going to be. Because changes are being made in the system without their understanding,” he said.
McSally voted for Obamacare’s repeal when it passed the House in May 2017, before it failed in the Senate by one vote.
Two months later, a subcommittee she co-chaired for the “Problem Solvers Caucus” unveiled a plan to “stabilize the individual health insurance market and provide relief to individuals, families and small businesses in the wake of inaction from Congress,” according to a press release from her congressional office.
“This is not about saving or killing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or scoring political points. This is about identifying and negotiating real solutions to real urgent problems and helping the people who have been harmed most by the ACA,” McSally said via the press release.