Local Health Care Advocates Join Protect Our Care to Call for an End to GOP Attacks on Hoosiers’ Health Care
Mayor Pete Buttigieg speaks in front of Care Force One.
SOUTH BEND, INDIANA- This afternoon, Protect Our Care’s nationwide bus tour arrived in South Bend to call attention to the ongoing Republican war on health care care. Headlined by Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Mel Hall, the event highlighted the actions Republicans are taking to harm Hoosiers’ care and called on Attorney General Curtis Hill to work instead to protect our care.
“This isn’t about politics, this is about our lives, our livelihoods, and our well being,” said Mayor Pete Buttigieg. “This is our opportunity to raise our voices and say enough is enough when it comes to baseless attempts to take away the protection of our health care.”
Mayor Buttigieg’s comments were echoed by cancer survivor Laura Packard and Mel Hall.
“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.”
“This is not a regional issue, this is not a South Bend issue, this is a people issue,” said Hall. “We stand firmly with the folks who have a pre-existing condition. We stand firmly for health care. We can make a difference. This is the issue of our time.”
Mayor Buttigieg, Packard, and Hall, who praised Sen. Joe Donnelly for his consistent championing of Hoosiers’ health care, were joined by Jane Phillips, a former oncology nurse who saw firsthand what it was like for patients before the Affordable Care Act; Nicole MacLaughlin and Jennica Liberatore, who discussed their work with Northern Indiana Community Coalition for Health Care; and Sheena Shah of Doctors for America, who spoke about her work in medicine and the importance of protecting those with pre-existing conditions.
At today’s event, South Bend 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
- 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.
Tomorrow, “Care Force One” will head to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Protect Our Care will be joined by Rep. Gwen Moore. For more information, please visit protectourcarebustour.com.