Rodney Davis has steadfastly refused to hold an in person town hall with his constituents from IL District 13. His constituents even set up a town hall and paid for it, asking only that he attend during his time in district. He refused. Instead he held a “tele-town hall” without any notice and seemed to randomly contact people to “attend” with only pre-screened questions. Without listening to the concerns of the people who voted him into office, he has stated his support for the Republican plan to replace and weaken the Affordable Care Act (ACA/Obamacare) whose 7th anniversary happens on March 23rd. Under the ACA, his district’s uninsured rate has gone from 9.9% to 4.6%. He apparently views this as a negative because he spoke on the house floor about the importance of repeal and replace and posted his speech on his website.
The new Republican plan would potentially cause the loss of insurance for the 14,300 people in his own district who purchase insurance on the Marketplace. The new plan before Congress allows insurers to charge older policyholders 5 times as much for insurance as younger people (under Obama’s plan it was 3 times as much) and with much lower subsidies from the government to help people afford it. 12,100 people in Davis’ district received subsidies to afford insurance on the Marketplace. That is in serious jeopardy of being greatly reduced with the Republicans’ plan. It would be basically a tax cut for the wealthy and a tax increase for the rest of us.
NBC News reports that it is likely that even those 50% of Americans who get our health insurance from our employers could be negatively impacted with this new plan because it is likely fewer employers will offer insurance. The bill being considered also plans to stop paying for services that Planned Parenthood provides to Medicaid recipients — things like birth control, mammograms, pap smears and prenatal care. AARP, nearly all insurers and the American Medical Association have all come out against this Republican bill. This bill would be terrible for our district, our state and our country but Rodney Davis has apparently made up his mind in support of the bill despite the negative ramifications it would have on his constituents and has refused to listen to our concerns.
Perhaps when you have free healthcare for life as a U.S. Representative you don’t feel the need to worry about the negative impacts on the people who voted you into office. Please call Rep. Davis’ office to let him know your opposition to this bill at 217-403-4690.