Sanders Rallies Against GOP Health Care Plan at Town Hall

Following a Town Hall meeting in one of West Virginia's poorest counties Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders says the Senate can defeat the House Republican proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act.

March 12, 2017, at 10:21 p.m.


[font color="gray"]U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders talks to some of the 250 people who turned out for a Town Hall meeting about rural poverty in Welch, W.Va., Sunday, March 12, 2017. Following the Town Hall meeting in one of West Virginia's poorest counties Vermont U.S. Sen. Sanders says the Senate can defeat the House Republican proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act with a version he says would provide enormous tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans. (AP Photo/S.M. Christman) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS[/font]

Excerpt:

WELCH, W.Va. (AP) — Following a Town Hall meeting in one of West Virginia's poorest counties U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders said Sunday that the Senate can defeat the House Republican proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act with a version he said would provide enormous tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans.

The former Democratic presidential candidate from Vermont received a standing ovation immediately from about 250 people in a high school auditorium in McDowell County, and his call for universal health care as a right for all Americans was greeted with loud applause.

The Republican proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act, which added health care coverage to 20 million people, would throw five to 10 million people off coverage including thousands of West Virginians, Sanders said. At the same time, it would provide an estimated $275 billion in tax breaks for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans over a decade, he said.

"Instead of giving tax breaks to billionaires, I think we need to ask them to pay their fair share," Sanders said. The Republican-controlled Congress doesn't want any scrutiny or hearings on the House proposal, which the American Medical Association, American Hospital Association and AARP all oppose, he said.

He told The Associated Press afterward that West Virginia's Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin will join the vote against the substitute, adding they need Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, who has raised concerns about the House plan's effect on expanded Medicaid, which her state has, to join them.

"She can be the key vote," he said. "I think what we've got to do now is defeat it in the Senate and then sit down and determine how we improve the Affordable Care Act and not simply repeal it and make it worse."

Sanders said rural areas all over the U.S have similar issues, have been neglected and need good cell service, broadband internet access and roads and bridges. He advocated a $1 trillion infrastructure program he said would create many jobs.

The meeting hosted by MSNBC to examine the needs of rural America will be broadcast Monday evening.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/west-virginia/articles/2017-03-12/sanders-rallies-against-gop-health-care-plan-at-town-hall