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Our Revolution St. Joseph, a progressive political organization, hosted a rally in front of the Buchanan County Courthouse on Thursday against the scheduled GOP vote on the American Health Care Act.

About 20 community members were in attendance at the impromptu protest, and Derek Evans, the co-founder of Our Revolution St. Joseph, said one of their main concerns with the new health care bill is that it would leave 24 million Americans uninsured by 2026 if it replaced the Affordable Care Act (according to the Congressional Budget Office).

The figure of how that is going to affect the 6th congressional district, Sam Graves district, is almost 40,000 people who will be at risk of losing their health insurance, he said. You know, I dont know if Sam Graves is wavering, but an article said that he was uncommitted. He didnt come out and say unequivocally yes or no.

Evans said the group has a three-fold mission: Push policies and ballot initiates that fall in line with the Our Revolution platform; field, support and endorse progressive candidates at every level of government; and get more people involved in the political process.

Whether its protests or whether its those town halls, those sort of direct-action things are working, he said. There are multiple Republicans who have come out and said, I dont think we are going to get this passed because we have a number of legislators whose constituents are angry. Their constituents have made their voice known that they do not want the American Health Care Act. They do want to keep ACA.

House Speaker Paul Ryan met with President Donald Trump before the anticipated health care vote Friday to inform him that they did not have the votes, and around 3 p.m. EDT, the President accepted his recommendation that Republicans pull the health care bill.

Speaker Ryan said the GOP majority is planning to move on from health care to focus on other priorities, and that they will be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future.

Catherine Edwards, the Executive Director of the Missouri Association of Area Agencies of Aging, said she believes in what Obamacare is trying to do.

Weve worked very hard with the Affordable Care Act, she said. And in the past couple of years, weve seen the uninsured rate in Missouri drop by about 250,000 people, which is significant. Because Missouri did not expand Medicaid, were finding a large pool of people who fall in what we call the Medicaid gap. If we had expanded Medicaid, wed be able to cover those as well, and wed see another drop.

Excerpt from:
Local progressives protest American Health Care Act - News-Press Now