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Don Lemon brought in two people who would be badly affected by the Senate Republicans’ health care bill on his CNN show and allowed them to tell their stories.
One was Pastor Janice Hill, who recently went viral when a video of her lobbying Sen. Shelly Capito hit the internet. The other was a lifelong Republican and Trump supporter, Bob Riscoe.
Hill told the story of her daughter, who has been battling cancer, a battle that Hill said would not have been possible without Obamacare. Without the care she needed, her daughter would have died.
“She’s hanging in there,” she said. “Every treatment she’s been on since her diagnosis four years ago has been experimental. Things work for a while and they stop working and they get something new. Something new has been added. They’re just learning all the time.”
When Lemon asked Hill if she believed Capito understood her story, she said she was “not sure” but went on, “I think she heard what I had to say and I think she listened to what I had to say. I don’t – that is not something that gives me a lot of comfort. I want her to act on it, because it’s not just my daughter. That’s a face that i hope she will have in her mind when she is voting. Amy is one of thousands and millions of people that this horrible, immoral bill is going to affect.”
Lemon then brought on Riscoe, who admitted that both he and his wife would not have insurance without Obamacare: “We won’t be insured if Obamacare goes away. We won’t be able to afford premiums.”
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Hill also said that she was “desperate” for people to take a hard look at the bill and the people it affects.
“It doesn’t make sense. The very people that have voted for Senator Manchin and Senator Capito are the ones that are going to be so desperately hurt. We are in a very poor state. When they take away Medicaid, it’s not only going to hurt my daughter – who is not on Medicaid now because she’s working full time – but it’s going to hurt the people in my state,” she said.
“It’s going to hurt veterans, which I’m a veteran. Ten percent of the veterans are on Medicaid. We’re a rural state. A pharmacist in one of my churches said this is going to ruin hospitalization because little hospitals in a rural area will go out of business. It’s going to hurt the employment rate. It’s going to hurt people’s access to health coverage. They’re not going to go for any kind of preventive care. It’s going to be critical when they do go. It’s going to cost more money. this bill doesn’t make sense.”
