Health Care

CNN panel: Trump voters say they’re ‘scared’ on healthcare

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Two voters who cast their ballots for President Trump said during a CNN panel discussion Thursday that they are “scared” of the president’s push to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

The voters’ remarks come as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) tries to win enough Republican votes for a Senate repeal-and-replace plan.

“I have bipolar disorder. It’s a pretty severe case and I rely on my doctor and many medications to make me stable and able to function in the community,” Colleen England Byrd, who voted for Trump, told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota.

{mosads}”If he takes that away, Medicaid people, Medicare people, those who are bipolar, no medications, no doctors — it’s going to be like the zombie apocalypse,” she continued. 

Another Trump voter, identified only as Jackie, said she didn’t take seriously Trump’s campaign trail promise to repeal ObamaCare and didn’t think that Congress would work with him to implement such a change anyway.

“I was wrong,” she said. 

“I have loved ones that have chronic conditions that are functioning now because of the medications they’re on and because of the medical care they receive, because I have health insurance,” she added. “I’m scared.”

Both women said that they were attracted to Trump’s vow to introduce a better healthcare law. But so far, they said, they are not impressed by Republican proposals.

“He promised something better,” Byrd said. “And what I’ve seen come off the block is not better. It’s scary to me.”

“He promised he was going to replace it with something better, and I just figured Congress isn’t going to go along with him, so he’s just saying something people want to hear,” Jackie said.

Senate Republicans are locked in a battle to pass a measure designed to overhaul the country’s healthcare system. The House passed their version of a healthcare reform bill in May. 

Trump is pressing Republican senators to rally behind the bill or, if they are unable pass the measure, to simply repeal ObamaCare altogether and replace it at a later date.

Conservatives in the Senate, like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), have declined to support the current bill because they say it does not go far enough to undo ObamaCare. More moderate Republicans have voiced misgivings over the proposal’s deep cuts to Medicaid.

Tags AHCA BCRA Mitch McConnell ObamaCare Rand Paul Senate

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