Kilmer, Key Healthcare Stakeholders Meet in Tacoma to Highlight Negative Impact of Congressional Plan to Dismantle the Affordable Care Act
TACOMA, WA – Representative Derek Kilmer (D-WA) joined key stakeholders at Community Health Care’s Hilltop Regional Health Center in Tacoma to voice opposition to a Congressional plan to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.
Kilmer sat down with healthcare professionals, local hospital officials, patients who have benefited from the law, along with business and labor leaders to highlight how the Act has reduced the uninsured rate and created economic benefits for the region. The group held a roundtable discussion at the health center focused on the need to improve but not dismantle the Affordable Care Act.
“This is about people,” said Kilmer. “People who have been able to get the treatments they need, or stay on their parents’ insurance, or families wrestling with the impact of the opioid crisis. It’s about every staff member and every patient at facilities like Olympic Medical Center and Hilltop Regional Health Center where the number of uninsured patients walking through the doors has dropped. The law isn’t perfect. We can and should look at constructive ways to reduce health care costs for seniors and families, invest in prevention, increase choices for consumers and streamline regulations. But we cannot move backward.”
According to a new study, the proposal to repeal the Affordable Care Act would cost Washington state more than 30,000 jobs overall. The Department of Health and Human Services recently reported that more than 11.5 million people nationwide signed up for coverage through the law by December 24th, 2016.
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