Americans Demand Single-Payer Health Care at GOP Town Hall
Americans Demand Single-Payer Health Care at GOP Town Hall
Tom MacArthur, the Republican responsible for resurrecting the AHCA, was pilloried by constituents Wednesday night
By Tessa Stuart 18 hours ago
Earlier this month, a reporter asked Nancy Pelosi if Democrats should run on a single-payer platform in 2018. Pelosi said no – that the "comfort level" for a government-funded health care system is just "not there yet" among a broad enough base of Americans.
Pelosi might feel differently had she been at Rep. Tom MacArthur's town hall in Willington, New Jersey, Wednesday night. Over four-and-a-half grueling hours, the moderate Republican responsible for resurrecting the American Health Care Act was pilloried by his constituents, who argued forcefully, and repeatedly, in favor of a single-payer system.
More than anything else, the constituents who've made it into the room – and MacArthur's staff checked to make sure they are constituents, even handing out labels identifying them as such – want to talk about single-payer. It's the clear theme from the very start of the night, when a chant of "Single payer! Single payer!" broke out less than ten minutes in, after MacArthur describes the Affordable Care Act as "collapsing."
"These markets are failing," the congressman says over and over again. The insurance companies are losing money and dropping out; this bill, he says, is trying to fix that.
The voters reject that answer on its face. "It shouldn't be a market! My health care shouldn't be market," one yells. "When did we become a society that doesn't care about each other?" another shouts.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/americans-demand-single-payer-health-care-at-gop-town-hall-w481941
