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SALT LAKE CITY — Citing the need to continue a steady drumbeat of opposition to the Better Care Reconciliation Act, activists braved the sizzling weather and staged a daylong sit-in Thursday near the offices of Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee.
The 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. protest outside the Wallace F. Bennett Federal Building comes on the heels of two other demonstrations there last week by many of the same groups. Organizers Thursday came armed with more than 1,500 petition signatures and about 600 testimonials against the bill, adding to the roughly 5,000 signatures and 1,000 testimonials delivered to Hatch's office last week.
The group that organized Thursday's event, Utahns Speak Out, is making demands of both senators for in-person town hall meetings addressing health care.
"Our lives are worth two hours of your time, even if you're uncomfortable," said Utahns Speak Out founder Madalena McNeil, quoting from one of the freshly collected testimonials.
Lee plans to host an online town hall meeting focused on health care Wednesday at 5 p.m.
A steady stream of demonstrators, always numbering about a couple dozen, attended the sit-in throughout the day. By the event's peak late in the afternoon, about 60 people were on hand.
The event was held in conjunction with similar sit-ins around the country, including one at Hatch's Provo office, according to McNeil.
"We want (the senators) to be judicious about how they fix the ACA," she told the Deseret News. "We have hundreds of stories from people about why this is important to them."
Reading the worries of Medicaid users aloud is important, McNeil said, largely because many of them feel marginalized and forgotten in the federal debate surrounding health care, particularly in light of the Better Care Reconciliation Act's projected $772 billion in Medicaid cuts by 2026.
Disabled Rights Action Committee member Psarah Johnson said it is easy for many Americans to overlook the disabled community's reliance on Medicaid in day-to-day life. But for those who are living it, she said, opposition to the Better Care Reconciliation Act amounts to an existential struggle.
"The Affordable Care Act finally made people equal citizens in this country," Johnson said. "Right now this is a civil rights movement for people with disabilities."
Several Utah health advocacy organizations have also taken issue with the bill's reinstatement of lifetime coverage caps, which were eliminated under the Affordable Care Act. They are also upset with stipulations allowing for the narrowing of the current law's definition of "essential health benefits."
On Thursday, Hatch reiterated his support of the health care bill drafted by Senate Republicans and told reporters he wouldn’t be pleased if alternative plans Lee and other conservative GOP senators are proposing derail the current proposal.
“If it blows the opportunity to get it over with, I won’t be very happy,” Hatch said. “But on the other hand, he’s a U.S. senator. His ideas deserve to be looked at and I would be the first to stand up for him to have them looked at.”
Hatch said the Republicans can’t afford to lose two or three senators if they intend to replace the Affordable Care Act. “And right now, there are two or three that feel the same way (Lee) does,” he said.
“He’s sincere. He’s dedicated. But you know there comes a time when you have to do the art of the doable back there or you won’t get anything done,” Hatch said. “In fact, it’ll be the opposite. We’ll lose.”
Regarding projections that the GOP health care proposal would cause people to lose their insurance, Hatch said, “no matter what you do, people are going to claim it isn’t enough. We’ve got a society that is used to having the government do everything for them, at least certain segments of the society.”
Lee has said multiple times in recent weeks that he would be amenable to the idea of repealing the Affordable Care Act entirely before finalizing a replacement law, in order to compel Senate Democrats to come to the negotiating table.
Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union were among the other groups to send representatives to the sit in. Under the Senate plan, Planned Parenthood is expected to lose all federal funding for a year.
Representatives from two groups, Playdates With a Purpose and Moms Rising, did have short meetings with both senators' staff on Thursday. Claire Trapp with Playdates said the message in those meetings was "they need to go back to the drawing board" and that "we can't go back" to how things were before the Affordable Care Act.
Heidi Calder, of Moms Rising, said she felt genuinely heard by the senators' staffs, especially Lee's. And she believes the short meeting was likely more effective than the sit-in, though she was sympathetic to those who participated in it.
However, Stacy Stanford, health policy advocate for the Utah Health Policy Project, said the sit-in is just one of several different avenues activists are using. The organization had an in-depth meeting with Lee's staff on Wednesday.
"We're just bringing these messages to their doorstep in as many ways as we can," Stanford said. "It's not our first choice to sit nine hours in 100 degrees, but we've (also) taken every other option on the table. ... We're trying to keep the drumbeat going."
Lee spokesman Conn Carroll said the meeting with Utah Health Policy Project took about 2 1/2 hours.
"Each of theses stories will be shared with the senator," Caroll said in an email.
Contributing: Dennis Romboy
