LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – A group of activists came together Monday to speak out against the Republican bill to replace the Affordable Care Act.
Progress Michigan held the event, which was planned to urge members of Congress from our state to vote against the current version of the bill.
Speakers at the event talked about how the GOP’s plan to rollback funding for Medicaid and Medicare could be detrimental to some groups.
Chris Tarpoff, a representative with the AARP, said the Republican plan makes the future unsure.
“The fact that the future would be a bigger question mark with these two pieces of legislation enacted in whole or in part,” Tarpoff said.
Executive Director of the Michigan Disability Resource Center, Roanne Chaney, said this could be especially detrimental to those with disabilities, because of the services that funding helps provide services they rely on.
“HOme and community based services to help them stay in their homes and out of nursing homes,” Chaney said. “I don’t see how that amount of cuts could go through without that affecting them.”
6 News also talked to U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg about the current state of the Republican plan.
Walberg said any plan would be better than the Affordable Care Act.
“When we find out that over a third of the counties in the entire nation right now have one or none, as far as providers of health care on the exchanges, that’s not a choice, that’s not an option,” he said.
Walberg was among the Republican lawmakers who voted in favor of the House’s version of this legislation.
However, some people still aren’t buying the GOP plan.
“We keep getting promised it’s affordable,” Chaney said. “But until you live the life of people on limited incomes, I don’t think you have a sense of what is affordable to people.”
