Contact: Kenza Hadj-Moussa, 612-386-9556, kenza@takeactionminnesota.org
NEWS RELEASE
Citizens and local leaders call attention to impact of proposed Medicaid cuts and ACA repeal on Stearns County residents
St. Cloud, MN – Concerned citizens and local leaders called on Representative Emmer to reject proposals that will end the Affordable Care Act and gut life-saving Medicaid for 74 million people at a rally and news conference this afternoon.
The event was held in St. Cloud by Concerned Citizens of District 6, a grassroots group trying to reach Representative Emmer over the July recess, before the Senate is expected to vote on the GOP repeal bill. The Senate repeal bill closely mirrors the House repeal bill. It takes away coverage from 22 million people, weakens coverage and consumer protections, eliminates the Medicaid expansion, and ends Medicaid as we know it to pay for $541 billion in tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations.
Federal health care proposals have chilling and life-threatening effects for Minnesotans, including over 30,000 residents in Stearns County who are enrolled in Medicaid.
“I recognize that Representative Emmer, like many other Republicans, promised his party and his supporters that he would vote to repeal “Obamacare,” said Jim Read, a professor at the College of St. Benedicts and St. Johns University who spoke at today’s rally and attended a town hall meeting with Congressman Emmer in February. “But he also promised the people of his district that he would vote to replace the Affordable Care Act with something much better. I was there in the room when he made that promise. That is the promise that matters, because he swore his oath of office not to his party, but to all the people of his district.”
At the rally, local residents shared their personal health care stories and experience with Medicaid, which provides health care to 1 in 5 people in the United States.
“It’s clear that the GOP’s health care bills are not only cruel, they are bad policy,” said Kathryn Schwartz Eckhardt, a leader with Concerned Citizens of District 6. “We can’t give up and need to keep fighting these proposals. This is, quite literally, a fight for our lives.” In Minnesota, ending the Medicaid expansion would take away health care for an estimated 241,000 people.
National organizations including AARP, the American Cancer Society, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Hospital Association, the Catholic Council of Bishops, the March of Dimes and many other groups oppose the AHCA. Recent polls confirm that voters also oppose this repeal by a three to one margin and is the single least popular piece of federal legislation in decades.
Concerned Citizens of District 6, a grassroots group based in the 6th Congressional District, has been taking local action. Recently, the group fundraised small donations from community members to place billboard ads related to health care and environmental protections. In the U.S. House of Representatives, the American Health Care Act passed by two votes. All three GOP Members of Congress from Minnesota, including Representative Emmer, voted for the bill.
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Concerned Citizens of District 6 is a grassroots group based in Minnesota’s Sixth Congressional District engaged in local action on federal advocacy.
TakeAction Minnesota is a statewide, multi-racial people’s organization. We advance democracy and equity through organizing, political action, and policy campaigns.
