Angry constituents and lawmakers reacting to the latest Republican effort to dismantle Obamacare assembled Monday outside the offices of elected officials, staging a sit-in, a die-in, and livestreaming an impromptu rally on the steps of the United States Capitol.
The protests came as the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office released its analysis of the Senate's Better Care and Reconciliation Act, estimating that 22 million people would lose their insurance over the next decade.
Among the hardest hit, the report shows, would be people who use Medicaid, the government-run health care program for poor, disabled and elderly people, among others.
In West Virginia, a few dozen protesters gathered outside the Charleston office of Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, who has said she wants the expansion of Medicaid that occurred under Obamacare preserved — but who has been non-committal on the Better Care Act.
“I want her to do the right thing,” one of the protesters, pastor Janice Hill, told NBC affiliate WSAZ, adding: “I will go to Timbuktu to stop it.”
Six of the protesters were detained after they entered Capito’s office and refused to leave, the station reported. It was unclear what charges they might face.
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| Local concerned citizens gather to protest the current health care bill being considered in the Senate with a "Die-in" at the Monroe County Courthouse on June 26, 2017 in Bloomington, Ind. Chris Howell / The Herald-Times via AP |
In Doral, outside Miami, they lined up outside the office of Sen. Marco Rubio urging him to vote no “on wealthcare,” as one sign put it. During a so-called die-in, people sprawled out on the grass chanting, “Marco, polio.”
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