Democratic leader advocates for health care

By Cassie Ordonio

Thousands of chants echoed from the steps of City Hall from concerned San Franciscans who oppose the Republican Senate possibly gutting an affordable health insurance.

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi vocalized her dedication on Jan. 15 to preserve the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with her movement called #ourfirststand, while accompanied by local politicians, doctors and advocates.

“(President-elect) Donald Trump and the Republicans in congress want to tear down the ACA. That plan is to make America sick again,” Pelosi said.

Established March 23, 2010, the ACA, also known as Obamacare, was designed to serve people of all financial status.

Though some of the Democratic Senate objected the repeal of the ACA on Jan. 12, the vote resulted a 51 to 48 outcome, according to The New York Times.

“Sadly, we find ourselves in a place we need to worry about whether our lowest income residents will have insurance,” San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said. “The ACA has bettered the lives for too many Americans to be thrown out.”

One by one, some of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, doctors, and advocates took the mic to justify how the ACA is important to Americans and to their personal situation.

A mother, Kathy Forte, gave an example of how the ACA helped her family during a time of crisis, while she clung to a small framed portrait of her 24-year-old son. Forte’s son suffered from a stroke and hospitalized for four days last year in August.

“If the ACA is repealed, my son Tom and thousands of other children who are covered by their parents in the Bay Area will lose these benefits,” Forte tearfully said.

Many in the audience nodded their heads and murmured in agreement while others held signs that read “health care is a human right.”

The ACA houses young adults under their parent’s insurance until the age of 26.

       “If it was repealed, many people who are on their family’s healthcare plans will be cut off, and that puts a lot of younger people in a very vulnerable position,” AFT 2121 President Tim Killikelly said while present at the rally.
       The rally dispersed through a song lead by singer and activist Joan Baez.