US healthcare Bill: 43 protesters arrested, dozens ripped from wheelchairs
Obamacare protester
As the first draft of the ACA's replacement was released, President Barack Obama criticised it harshly
At least 40 people were arrested for protesting the Trump administration's anticipated cuts to Medicaid. Yesterday, US Senate leaders unveiled a draft of the legislation they want to replace the Afforcable Care Act, informally known as Obamacare.
It proposes to kill a tax on the wealthy that pays for it, and reduces aid to the poor, Reuters reports.
Dozens of disabled men and women were arrested after their pariticpation in a "die-in" protest outside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel's Washington office, the LA Times reports. The demonstration was organised by the national disability group ADAPT in response to the GOP's healthcare plan which proposes to drastically cut Medicaid.
Here is footage of onewoman forciblyremoved from her wheelchair:
President Barack Obama, whose legacy is theAffordable Care Act, weighed in with a Facebook post that has gone viral. He began by appealing to the non-partisan nature of access tohealthcarebefore explicitly calling the Republican's proposed plan: "amassive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest people in America. It hands enormous tax cuts to the rich and to the drug and insurance industries, paid for by cutting health care for everybody else".
The draft is unlikely to succeed: Senator Rand Paul and three other conservative Republicans said they were "not ready" to vote for it. Democrats need only three Republicans to nix the measure in the Republican-led chamber.
The proposal, worked on in secret by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans, was welcomed by Donald Trump, Reuters reports.