Residents Hold Two-Day Health Care Rally and Vigil

A group of Centre County residents spent the better part of 24 hours across the street from Sen. Bob Casey’s regional office on Bishop Street in Bellefonte, expressing their support for Casey and his opposition to the proposed U.S. Senate health care bill.

They began gathering at noon on Wednesday and after a five-hour break starting at midnight returned to the site until noon on Thursday.

‘The message here mainly is us as constituents thanking Sen. Casey for opposing the health care bill being proposed,’ said State College resident Larissa Sweitzer, a co-organizer of the event. ‘We want to show our appreciation that he understands the implication of it to communities like Bellefonte, State College and rural Centre County areas.’

Senate Republicans on Tuesday decided to delay a vote on the bill, after the Congressional Budget Office returned a score that estimated 22 million fewer people would have health care by 2026 than under the current Affordable Care Act.

The bill slows spending for and cuts the number of people who would be eligible for Medicaid. While it preserves pre-existing condition protections of the ACA, it also allows state’s to ask for waivers from some regulations, which in turn could allow insurers not to cover some costs.

‘My major concerns with the bill are not only as someone who may be affected in the coming years and losing my health care, but I also have many friends with pre-existing conditions who would be affected,’ Sweitzer said. ‘Also I’m concerned about my grandmother, whose health care costs would go up enormously.’

The senate bill would allow insurers to charge older people up to five times as much for the same policy as a younger person. Under the ACA they can charge up to three times as much.

‘Most of the people driving past here that are showing their support and honking their horns are older,’ Sweitzer said. ‘These people are going to be so tremendously affected by this bill. All of it is scary, and all of it is real, but older community members like those in Bellefonte are really going to be affected and that’s what scares me.’

A group of residents expressed their support for Sen. Bob Casey’s opposition to the Senate health care bill. Photo by Geoff Rushton/StateCollege.com

Co-organizer Jared Deloof said he has serious concerns about how Medicaid will be affected. 

Last year, at the age of 27, he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. He didn’t have insurance at the time, and he said that without the Medicaid expansion under the ACA, the hospital visit alone would have cost him $1,500 and the insulin he needs to survive would have cost him thousands of dollars.

‘Because of Medicaid and Medicaid expansion the hospital bill was picked up,’ he said. ‘They covered a large part of my insulin. I was able to start treatment and get healthy. It was life-changing. I couldn’t imagine a situation where I was in the hospital and diagnosed with type 1 diabetes then went to the pharmacist and they said ‘Sorry it’s $2,500 to get this medicine.’’

Throughout the two days, more than 50 people stopped by to make and hold signs as well as bring food and supplies. 

On Wednesday afternoon, attendees wrote letters to Pennsylvania’s other senator, Pat Toomey, who has been a vocal supporter of the bill and contended that it does not roll back Medicaid expansion.

‘When he’s on TV explaining this bill he is a representation of Pennsylvania,’ Sweitzer said. ‘When he’s representing rural Pennsylvania and communities like Bellefonte, we need him to understand what he’s actually talking about.’

Later on Wednesday the group held a potluck dinner and rally and after dark lit candles along the sidewalk. At noon on Thursday, the group took a thank you message to Casey’s office.

Betsy Whitman holds a sign supporting the preservation of the Affordable Care Act. She said a group of 3-, 4- and 5-year olds helped to make it. Photo by Geoff Rushton/StateCollege.com