Local Health Care Advocates Join Protect Our Care to Call for an End to GOP Attacks on Hoosiers’ Health Care
Tonya Prifogle, with her son, Colton, speaks at the Indiana State Capitol.
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – This afternoon, Protect Our Care’s nationwide bus tour arrived in Indianapolis to call attention to the Republicans’ ongoing war on health care. Headlined by State Rep. Ed DeLaney and cancer survivor Laura Packard, the event highlighted the actions Republicans are trying to harm Hoosiers’ care and called on Attorney General Curtis Hill to work instead to protect our care.
“I’m alive because of the Affordable Care Act,” said Packard. “I’m a stage four cancer survivor and I’m on this tour to defend our attacks against the GOP. President Trump may have blocked me on Twitter, but he can’t stop me and the American people from fighting to protect our care.”
Pakard’s remarks were echoed by Rep. DeLaney.
“About 2.7 million Hoosiers have a pre-existing condition, which means that virtually every family has a pre-existing condition that was not able to be insured before the Affordable Care Act,” said State Rep. DeLaney. “In a funny way, birth is a pre-existing condition. We’re all gonna get sick sooner or later, and the only issue is whether we get a single sickness or a chronic sickness, so we need to protect this.”
Packard and Rep. DeLaney were joined at the State Capitol by Indiana AFL-CIO President Brett Voorhees, who praised Sen. Joe Donnelly for his steadfast support for Hoosiers’ health care, and Tonya Prifogle and her son Colton, who was born with a rare genetic disorder, and cancer survivor Jessica Hoag, who spoke of the importance of maintaining protections for Hoosiers with pre-existing conditions.
At today’s event, Indianapolis residents, health care advocates, elected officials, and members of Protect Our Care detailed the numbers ways in which Republicans have attacked health care, and how these actions have cut coverage and increased costs for Hoosiers. Because of the Republican repeal-and-sabotage agenda:
- Hoosiers will see their premiums rise by an average of 5.7 percent next year. It’s expected that 40 year old Hoosiers would face paying an extra $700 for marketplace coverage in 2019 because of sabotage of the ACA.
- Indiana expanded Medicaid under the ACA and the roughly 400,000 Hoosiers who have gained coverage because of this program would find their care at risk if the law were repealed.
- 147,000 Hoosiers who have obtained health insurance through the ACA marketplace could lose their coverage if a judge sides with President Trump and the GOP in their lawsuit; and protections for 2.7 million Hoosiers living with a pre-existing condition would be in jeopardy.
- Hundreds of billions of dollars have been cut from Medicare.
- Dozens of hospitals in rural areas have closed exacerbating the care and coverage gaps that exist for families in America’s rural communities.
- Mike Braun supports a full repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Braun also supports the Trump administration’s lawsuit that could cause as many as 2.7 million Hoosiers with a pre-existing condition to lose their care.
The full event can be seen here. Tomorrow, “Care Force One” will head to Lansing, Michigan. For more information, please visit protectourcarebustour.com.