WASHINGTON, D.C. — West Virginia’s three members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of replacing Obamacare on Thursday.
Congressional members David McKinley, Alex Mooney and Evan Jenkins sided with the Republican majority on the 217-213 vote that repealed the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
“This keeps the ball rolling,” McKinley told MetroNews. “With this thing crushing families, we’ve got to keep moving on this.”
Saying he speaks often with West Virginians hurt by rising premiums and deductibles, McKinley said it was time to undo Obamacare.
“They can’t afford it. They simply can’t afford it,” McKinley said. “I haven’t heard anyone whose premiums have gone down, even though that was a promise made seven or eight years ago.”
Criticism of the the new legislation, called the American Health Care Act, was quick and sharp.
“McKinley, Jenkins, and Mooney are all on notice. By voting to take affordable health care away from millions of Americans – including West Virginians – to pay for tax cuts for the rich, they just signed their own pink slip,” said West Virginia Democratic Party chair Belinda Biafore in a news release. “This depraved bill – passed completely with only Republican votes after no amendments, no hearings, and no estimate for how much it will cost – hurts older West Virginians, women, West Virginians with pre-existing conditions, West Virginians with employer-based health care, and even children with disabilities.”
McKinley called those fears “unfounded” and said states will become involved with the waiver process.
“People with pre-existing conditions or health concerns are going to be covered in West Virginia,” McKinley said, adding that thousands of West Virginians who are now part of Medicaid expansion created by Obamacare will be grandfathered in.
Mooney said he was proud to vote for the repeal, something on which he and many Republicans campaigned.
“I pledged to voters in the 2nd District that I would vote to repeal and replace Obamacare and today I fulfilled that pledge,” Mooney said in a statement released by his office. “The American Health Care Act will get government out of the way and put patients back in charge of their healthcare decisions.”
Jenkins, a former executive director of the West Virginia Medical Association, called the bill the first step in restoring the doctor-patient relationship and improving health care quality.
“I strongly support coverage for pre-existing conditions, mental health care, and substance abuse treatment. Each state would have more flexibility to meet their unique needs, and I look forward to working with Governor Justice to protect these vital benefits. Under this legislation, West Virginia would have choices about what will work best for us, and we must make sure the most vulnerable are protected,” Jenkins said in a news release.
Chantal Fields, executive director of West Virginians for Affordable Health Care, said the bill “gives a massive tax cut to the rich and corporations, while devastating Medicaid with the most significant cut in the history of the program.”
Fields warned the House measure “means pulling the rug out from under some of West Virginia most vulnerable people – like children and seniors in nursing homes.”
Fields called on U.S. Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito to “scrap this ill-conceived bill.”
McKinley said he’s looking forward to the Senate working to improve the legislation.
“That’s going to be the more telling answer,” he said, adding that to do nothing was an endorsement of the status quo where “people are getting crushed.”