Rep. Mo Brooks to CNN's Jake Tapper (via Vox): The AHCA "will allow insurance companies to require people who have higher healthcare costs to contribute more to the insurance pool that helps offset all these costs, thereby reducing the cost to those people who lead good lives."
And so we've heard Labrador's comment on people dying. There was a comment earlier by another representative that people who live "good lives" aren't going to have to worry about pre-existing conditions. And it certainly does make you wonder who is it that these folks in Congress associate with, what is their social circle, what kind of communities do they live in, that they don't know any seniors that are struggling on a limited income and need Medicaid for their in-home care? They don't know anybody whose kid was born with a heart defect or with a disability? And I think it certainly does speak to how out of touch they are with their own constituents, that they would vote for a piece of legislation that really does harm to their own people, the people that their job is to actually represent and protect.
JJ: Well, and that's, of course, why so many are trying to dodge those very constituents, and not address them and not address their concerns.
MJ: Uh-huh.
JJ: Now, I've heard you say that it's really only because of constituent anger and activism that we were able to learn what we were able to learn, because certainly the congressmembers were not very forthcoming with information, in part because they didn't have it.
MJ: That's right, yeah. And, frankly, they continue to be very cagey. I was talking to a colleague this morning in New Jersey, who went to the MacArthur event there yesterday. Her sister went and asked a question; the woman had a story about being in recovery from substance addiction, mental illness, and the representative told her, "I guarantee you no one will lose Medicaid coverage under this bill." Now, that's an outrageous claim. If this bill became law, millions of people would lose coverage under Medicaid, because the bill repeals the Affordable Care Act; that rolls back the Medicaid expansion by 2020, so 11 million people will lose Medicaid. And then, going after the additional Medicaid program ensures that for many generations to come, fewer and fewer and fewer people will be able to get Medicaid, because of the shrinkage of money coming from the feds to the states to provide those services.
And so I really, I think like constituents out there that continue to be outraged, I continue to be outraged that representatives are making these outrageous claims. And it certainly does confirm the suspicion that we've all had, that many of these representatives didn't even read the bill.
JJ: Right. Let me just ask you, finally, the bill that the House passed, it was disapproved of by not just constituents, but virtually every medical group, by doctors, by hospitals. Its future, as we record, in the Senate is unclear, but it did happen. And it seems like it's illuminating something about the political process that's not at all pretty. But I wonder, how does it shape your activism, and what are folks doing to get involved in this fight? What can they do?
MJ: Well, sometimes I say to my allies, and to the state grassroots groups that we work with, that what happened is that President Trump and the Republicans have become the best organizers amongst us. It is absolutely because of their dishonesty, because of their caginess, that so many people are getting involved and asking questions, including many, many people that never thought of themselves as activists, that never would have gone to a town hall meeting. But these outrageous proposals are causing a level of anxiety and worry that is making regular people want to go to a town hall meeting, want to seek out their representative, want to call the congressman's office and ask those questions.
And really, that is what democracy is all about, and so in many ways, we are in a fortunate position that so many folks are willing to take action. And I'm really confident that if we continue to mobilize people to take action; that if regular folks continue to watch the news and to say, well, that doesn't sound right, and call their members of Congress; if people step forward and talk about their own healthcare story; that we are going to be able to win this fight, and help people save their healthcare.
JJ: We've been speaking with Margarida Jorge of Health Care for America Now. They're online at HealthCareForAmericaNow.org. Margarida Jorge, thank you so much for joining us this week on CounterSpin.
MJ: Thank you so much.
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