The GOP released its long-awaited health care bill on Thursday. And some people are not happy about it. Around 60 protesters organized by a…
The GOP released its long-awaited health care bill on Thursday.
And some people are not happy about it.
Around 60 protesters organized by a disability rights group, ADAPT, gathered to stage what they called a “die-in” outside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office in response to proposed cuts to Medicaid. Some protesters, many of them disabled, were then carried out by police officers. Several will still chanting “No cuts to Medicaid” as they were lifted out of their wheelchairs and dragged out.
Beginning in 2020, the Senate bill would eliminate extra money previously offered to states to expand Medicare coverage and would additionally limit the amount of federal funding states receive annually for Medicaid.
The GOP was already under fire for the lack of information provided to the public while they were crafting their draft to replace the Affordable Care Act. Then McConnell and his colleagues allowed the protest to become a police action, creating a horrifying illustration of how the people crafting the health care bill might propose to treat those with disabilities.
McConnell and his colleagues, or even one of their representatives, could have taken this opportunity to meet these protesters — the very constituents who are most concerned about cuts to health care funding — and hear their concerns. At the very least, news photos of McConnell shaking hands with the protesters could have given the public more faith in both his leadership and his party’s proposed health care plan.
Instead, though, McConnell gave critics of the bill just want they wanted: a debacle immortalized in film that opponents will say exemplifies the lack of care Republican leaders have for those who rely on Medicare and Medicaid.
Furthermore, this optic deepened the widening divide between constituents and the politicians supposedly elected to represent them. The Republicans’ opposition will, no doubt, propagate these images in their attempt to strike down the draft.
No one came to meet with the protesters. No one came to speak to them. No one came to hear them.
They were ignored by our politicians just as they’ve unjustly been ignored by our health care system. Dozens were wheeled or dragged out of the building to be arrested.
This is inhumane. No one is exempt from the law, but all civil protesters, regardless of ability, should be treated with dignity. Being carried out by officers, hanging by their limbs from police hands, is the antithesis of being treated with dignity. Will the GOP health care bill treat them any better?
Danya Issawi is an editorial intern for The Dallas Morning News. Email: dissawi@dallasnews.com
