Washington, D.C. — A new video documents the personal challenges of Sarah Huckins Young, a Council Bluffs, Iowa, mother of three, who is concerned about losing health care coverage. Young and her three daughters were all diagnosed with pre-existing conditions, and she fears returning to a time when companies could deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. As Young explains, Rep. David Young’s (R-IA-3) vote to repeal health care protections and ongoing efforts to do so puts her family at risk.
As Young states in the video, “Our Congress needs to look at our health care from the human perspective and not from the pharmaceutical perspective or the lobbyist perspective. … It’s easy from someone who doesn’t have to pay for their health care to sit back, make those decisions, and not worry about it, because it won’t affect them. But it shouldn’t matter if you are a senator or a garbageman. Every person in this country should be able to have medical care.”
Watch the video on Twitter.
Watch the video on YouTube.
The video is part of an ongoing effort by the Center for American Progress Action Fund to provide a platform for real Americans who are being negatively affected by the Republican Party’s donor-driven agenda.
Unfortunately, this story is familiar to many Iowans. According to an analysis by CAP, 343,000 people in Iowa‘s 3rd District of working age live with pre-existing conditions. Without the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and protections on pre-existing conditions, many families such as Young’s would be at constant risk of losing their health care under the continued Republican-led sabotage of the ACA.
Rep. Young has long promised to repeal Obamacare and has voted to do so. As part of the Republican tax bill, he also voted to repeal the individual mandate, which will likely cause premiums to be as much as $1,446 higher than they otherwise would be for Iowans. According to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, nearly 146,900 Iowans will lose health care and pre-existing conditions protections if the ACA is repealed in the future.
For more information on this topic or to talk to an expert, please contact Jesse Lee at [email protected] or 202-741-6350.
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The Center for American Progress Action Fund is the sister advocacy organization of the Center for American Progress. The Action Fund transforms progressive ideas into policy through rapid response communications, legislative action, grassroots organizing and advocacy, and partnerships with other progressive leaders throughout the country and the world. The Action Fund is also the home of the Progress Report.