Hundreds wary of GOP health care bill attend Doggett town hall meeting

Hundreds of people flooded a downtown Austin church on Sunday for U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett’s town hall meeting with constituents, where they discussed how a proposed Republican health care bill could affect their medical benefits and supplemental programs like Medicaid.

Austin’s lone Democratic congressman was hosting his fifth town hall meeting this year at the First United Methodist Church in anticipation of a Senate vote this month on a bill to replace the Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s signature health care legislation. Replacing “Obamacare” has been a priority for President Donald Trump and the GOP-majority Congress.

The latest version of the Republican bill would repeal the mandate that requires individuals to carry insurance and for businesses to offer it. It also would allow insurers to offer plans without options like maternity and mental health coverage at cheaper rates. Additionally, it would roll back expansion of Medicaid, which the bill’s critics say would mean deep cuts for those enrolled in the program.

“There is not anybody in this room or in this community that is not affected in some way by what is being proposed here,” Doggett said of the legislation. “In all the different versions of this bill, there has been an unrelenting attack on Medicaid.”

Read more: http://www.mystatesman.com/news/national-govt--politics/hundreds-wary-gop-health-care-bill-attend-doggett-town-hall-meeting/0sidpvgo2k97OPXqqUR5DI/