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Baldwin promotes affordable health care

U.S. senator visits New London

By Scott Bellile


Many Wisconsinites are nervous about their health care coverage, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin says.

“Things that dictate your quality of life or even how long you live are always worries, and if we can’t have a health system that you can afford, it’s scary for people,” she said during a visit to New London Friday, Aug. 10.

Baldwin’s “In Your Corner Tour” brought Wisconsin’s Democratic senator to Familiar Grounds Coffee Shop to speak with local residents about affordable health care and prescription drug prices. She spent last week’s Senate recess in the state traversing 18 counties for listening sessions on various topics.

She said the Affordable Care Act – passed by Congress under the Obama administration in 2010 – mandates insurance companies provide coverage to people regardless of pre-existing health conditions. She explained why she personally cares about this.

At age 9, when her grandparents were raising her, Baldwin experienced an illness similar to spinal meningitis. She spent three months hospitalized.

“Fortunately I recovered, but in the course of all of that, my grandparents had struggles with the insurance coverage because I was a granddaughter and not their child,” Baldwin said. “And then when they tried to remedy that by saying, ‘Well, let’s get her her own policy so there’s not a fight about the family policy,’ I was labeled as a child with a pre-existing health condition despite the fact that I had fully recovered.”

Baldwin spent much of her youth uninsured because her grandparents could not find her coverage.

“No parent, grandparent, foster parent should have to worry about these costs,” Baldwin said. “And during these last couple years, I have heard from so many – in particular, parents – who are terrified about what will happen if we go back to those days. Back to those days where half of all bankruptcies were health-related.”

She said when she returns to Capitol Hill this week, she will lead a fight against “another effort to undermine people’s health care, especially their coverage if they have a preexisting health condition.”

She accused the Trump administration of working to undermine the ACA by trying to approve “junk” insurance plans that would be offered outside the ACA marketplace and discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions.

The GOP-controlled Congress attempted to repeal parts of the ACA through passage of the American Health Care Act last year. Although the House of Representatives narrowly passed the AHCA by 217-213, the bill sank in the Senate 49-51. Republican Sens. John McCain, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski joined Democrats in voting against it.

Deborah Silvers of New London, a member of the Waupaca County Democrats, spoke about how health insurance keeps her alive.

Silvers suffers from Familial Hypercholesterolemia, a genetic disorder in which people are born without enzymes in their livers that break down cholesterol. Many develop cardiovascular disease. Silvers said she has survived four “heart events.”

A $36,000-per-year injection has lowered Silvers’s cholesterol levels by 57 percent. She said she pays for her FH medication through her husband’s “wonderful” health insurance plan, but she spends at least 20 hours per month negotiating with her insurance company to get the meds covered.

“We have almost the Cadillac of insurance, and I still have to fight them and go through an incredible amount of work just to receive my medications, to hopefully allow me to stay [alive long] enough to see my grandchildren raised,” Silvers said.

Baldwin said the government needs to hold accountable the pharmaceutical companies that charge “outrageous” prices for prescription drugs. She and McCain introduced a bipartisan bill in 2017, the FAIR Drug Pricing Act, which would require companies to disclose information such as research and development costs before they increase drug prices.
Health care has been a “constant battle” since the 2016 election, Baldwin said. She urged attendees to vote for health care “champions” this November.

Polls conducted by Marquette University Law School, Marist Institute for Public Opinion and Boston’s Emerson College show freshman senator Baldwin ahead of two Republican frontrunners vying for her seat, Leah Vukmir and Kevin Nicholson. The winner of a GOP primary Tuesday, Aug. 14 will face Baldwin this fall.

The Press Star contacted Waupaca County Republican Party Chairman Andy Herro for comment on Baldwin’s visit.

“I encourage voters to look beyond the words and look at the reality,” Herro stated in an email. “As we all have experienced, the Affordable Health Care Act resulted in increased health care costs and many of us were forced to change our plans and change our doctors. The answers to the health care dilemma do not rely on more government intervention, more government control and more government bureaucracy. Through free markets and competition, this great country has grown to be the nation we love. We must trust in the people, the entrepreneurs, and the innovators who continue to build and strengthen our country.”

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