Tensions grow as protests disrupt Obamacare repeal hearing
WASHINGTON: Police forcibly removed disabled protesters Monday at a US Senate hearing on Republican efforts to replace Obamacare, pulling some disruptors from their wheelchairs as the health bill stood on the brink of failure.
"No cuts to Medicaid! Save our liberty!" protesters shouted for several minutes, forcing the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Orrin Hatch, to suspend the hearing shortly after calling it to order.
With lawmakers facing a September 30 deadline to pass the legislation along a simple majority vote, and with insurance companies and several health, doctor and patient groups opposed to the plan, tensions burst into the open in what is scheduled as the only public hearing on the contentious bill.
A dozen members of the public were expelled from the hearing, including at least one who was pulled from his wheelchair and carried out by officers after refusing to leave.
Several dozen protesters lined the halls, chanting "Kill the bill, don't kill us!" At least 50 US Capitol Police were on hand to maintain order, a rare scene in Congress.
Republicans, who control 52 seats in the 100-member Senate, can afford just two defectors.
Rand Paul and John McCain have already signaled their opposition, and a third Republican, Susan Collins, said Monday it would be "very difficult" for her to support the bill.
After a suspension of more than 15 minutes, and with the hearing room finally clear of vocal protesters, Hatch returned.
"If you can't be in order, then get the heck out of here," warned Hatch, the longest-serving Republican currently in the Senate.
The bill's authors, Senators Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy, defended their legislation, which preserves some of the federal funding of Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act but converts the ACA to a system of block grants to the US states.
"This is not the last chance, this is the best chance" to preserve health care for millions, Graham said.
"If you don't find a way to stop the bleeding, then it's going to basically collapse before our eyes."
Democrats stand united against the measure.
"What you're talking about is a disaster," Democratic Senator Ron Wyden said.
"Health care is a right, not a privilege for those who can afford it," Senate Democrat Mazie Hirono, who was invited to testify, said as she described being diagnosed earlier this year with stage four kidney cancer.
"Millions of lives are at stake."
While an Arkansas health department official who testified praised the bill as an improvement over Obamacare, several witnesses slammed the measure, including Teresa Miller, Pennsylvania's acting secretary of the department of human services.
The bill would lead to a "staggering cut to federal funding," said Miller.
Critics say the plan would dramatically slash funding of Medicaid, the federal health program for the poor and disabled, and allow states to decide whether insurance companies can hike insurance rates for people with expensive medical conditions.