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Town hall meeting gets contentious over health care reform

Another Republican Congressman gets grilled by constituents about the votes he’s taken that will hurt them. In this case, it’s Rep. Randy Hultgren, of Illinois:

CONSTITUENT 1: One more thing about healthcare. I’ve got a daughter and she had a baby about four months ago. She decided that she loves being a mother so much to resign from her position as a teacher. Guess what? She can’t get insurance because she has a preexisting illness. She’s been cancer-free for fifteen years but the cancer also brought on diabetes because it damaged her pancreas. Preexisting illness and the insurance companies tell her to take a hike. [...]

HULTGREN: Well as you think — it’s one of those things, we’re a compassionate nation, we need to take care of people with preexisting conditions. The lady talked about that as well. We can do that. I agree with you too, we’re America, we can figure this out. [...] But then for those who are truly uninsurable with preexisting conditions, we’ve got to have a system in place and I know we can figure that out.

CONSTITUENT 1: This healthcare system if it finally gets adopted, something about if you have a preexisting illness, you can not be turned down for health insurance. That’s what I want.

CONSTITUENT 2: That was passed! He voted to repeal it.

HULTGREN: [...] You know what, some part of the bill. I think this is part of it that’s going to stay, the Senate’s not going to pass repeal.

CONSTITUENT 2: So why did you vote for it?

HULTGREN: Because the immediate next vote was, now let’s fix it. Let’s go in and fix it [...]

CONSTITUENT 2: Which bill was that, which bill was that that you voted for to fix it?

HULTGREN: The very next day.

CONSTITUENT 2: What’s the bill number?

HULTGREN: I’ll get it to you.

ThinkProgress notes that in fact there was no such vote to “fix” the bill. Hultgren voted to repeal health care reform, not to improve it. They also point to the cynicism of Hultgren’s position that his vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act was ok because without the Senate’s vote repeal would never become law.

This sort of thing is where Republican politicians don’t have any good answers on health care reform. They were very successful demonizing the law in broad (often untruthful) strokes, but many of the specifics of what the Affordable Care Act does are popular, for extremely good reasons such as that this woman’s daughter—a teacher who has left work to stay home with her baby—will be able to get insurance despite the fact that she had cancer fifteen years ago. Not enough people know that, but those who do understand that this law could literally be a lifesaver.

Tags: Affordable Care Act, Health Care