One million Ohio stories: Keep the Care in the Affordable Care Act

As Republican U.S. Senator Rob Portman of Ohio considers repealing the Accountable Care Act, I hope he keeps two Ohioans in mind.   Natoma Canfield is a middle-aged cancer survivor, a cleaning lady from Medina, Ohio.  Starla Darling is a young mother working in northern Ohio.  She had induced her labor early, just before her employer went bankrupt.

Both these women rely on a strong safety net.  

About one million Ohioans would lose health coverage under the bill recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, which is substantially similar to the Senate bill now in process.  About 700,000 would lose Medicaid and an estimated 293,000 would lose their coverage through the private health-care exchanges, the office of Ohio’s Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown said.  Republican Senate Rob Portman indicated in May that he doesn’t support the House bill because it doesn’t do enough to protect Ohio’s Medicaid expansion population, especially those being treated for opioid abuse.  The Senate bill is now being prettied up with lipstick to attract fence-sitting Republican senators.  

Advice: Share this with your friends in Ohio, urging them to call Sen. Portman’s office at 202-224-3353  with these stories and yours, to ensure he stands firm.  Also, you can enter your story on his website.

Thanks for the source article by Jessica Wehrman in the Columbus Dispatch of May 25, 2017, which quantified the harm to Ohioans.