Dozens gathered Sunday at the state Capitol to protest the Republican health care bill passed by the House last month that is meant to replace Obamacare.
Protesters carried signs shaped like tombstones and lay down on the Capitol grounds, demonstrating the deaths that they said would result if the House bill known as the American Health Care Act becomes law. The Senate must also pass the bill before it can head to the president for his signature.
The protest in Honolulu was held the same day as “die-ins” in other cities around the country. Before the protest, the participants made cardboard tombstones with a slew of slogans; then they lay down and placed them on their chests.
Arcelita Imasa, a medical student at the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, said she helped organize the Honolulu rally because of her experience in medical school. She said despite learning how to provide medical care for patients, she continues to see patients suffering because of a lack or dearth of insurance.
“It’s very sad,” she said. “We’ve got to prioritize health care so that people don’t have to suffer based on their economic status.
“Health care is a basic human right,” she added. “It’s not a privilege.”
The American Health Care Act would reduce federal deficits by $119 billion over the next decade but also increase the number of uninsured people by 23 million in about 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
According to AARP, the nonprofit social welfare organization for people 50 and older, the health care act passed by the House would eliminate protection for people with pre-existing conditions and slash hundreds of billions from Medicaid, the health care program for low-income Americans. AARP said 11 million poor seniors and people with disabilities receive Medicare and are also eligible for Medicaid.
At the demonstration, self-employed Desi McKenzie said she was paying more than $600 a month for health insurance but was able to reduce her insurance costs to about $100 a month through Obamacare. If the House bill becomes law, she estimated she, as a senior citizen, would have to pay about five times more than a younger person for health insurance, or about $1,500 a month.
“I want them to realize what’s at stake, that this is a wreck,” she said.
Dr. Seiji Yamada, a family physician on Oahu who attended the gathering, said he provides health care for the poor, many of whom are covered by Medicaid and Obamacare.
“Even with those programs in place, I take care of uninsured patients, some of whom I’ve watched die because of a lack of insurance,” he said. He said in the U.S. the wealthy can jump to the front of the line for health care while the poor die unnecessarily of preventable causes.
He said it was unconscionable to deny insurance to people for the purpose of “giving tax cuts to the uber-wealthy.”
