June 27, 2017

CNN's Don Lemon brought on two guests whose families will suffer if the Republican health care bill passes. The first is the woman who went viral in a video of her lobbying Sen. Shelly Capito.

Pastor Janice Hill of West Virginia said her daughter, who has been under treatment for a very rare cancer for four years, would have died without Obamacare.

"She's hanging in there," she said. "Every treatment she's been on since her diagnosis four years ago has been experimental. Things work for a while and they stop working and they get something new. Something new has been added. They're just learning all the time."

Lemon asked if she thought Sen. Capito understood her situation.

"I'm not sure," Hill said.

"I think she heard what I had to say and I think she listened to what I had to say. I don't -- that is not something that gives me a lot of comfort. I want her to act on it, because it's not just my daughter. That's a face that i hope she will have in her mind when she is voting. Amy is one of thousands and millions of people that this horrible, immoral bill is going to affect."

Lemon then introduced Bob Riscoe.

"You're a lifelong Republican, yet you and your wife are insured through Obamacare. What will happen to that insurance if Obamacare is repealed?"

"We probably won't be insured," an emotional Riscoe said.

"We won't be insured if Obamacare goes away. We won't be able to afford premiums."

He said coverage would cost about $1000 a month without Obamacare.

Lemon asked Riscoe if he cared whether Obamacare is repealed or replaced, "Or do you just want a better health care system? Do you care what it's called and whose name is on it?"

"That's a good question. I hope there's some kind of health care available to the public. It's important for quality of life. it's just something I hope that evolves that will be long term and we can count on it and not worry about not being covered," he said.

Pastor Hill said she was "desperate" to get people to look at this bill.

"Why was it done in such secret? Why is there such a rush to get it done?" she said.

"It doesn't make sense. The very people that have voted for Senator Manchin and Senator Capito are the ones that are going to be so desperately hurt. We are in a very poor state. When they take away Medicaid, it's not only going to hurt my daughter -- who is not on Medicaid now because she's working full time -- but it's going to hurt the people in my state.

"It's going to hurt veterans, which I'm a veteran. Ten percent of the veterans are on Medicaid. We're a rural state. A pharmacist in one of my churches said this is going to ruin hospitalization because little hospitals in a rural area will go out of business. It's going to hurt the employment rate. It's going to hurt people's access to health coverage. They're not going to go for any kind of preventive care.

"It's going to be critical when they do go. It's going to cost more money. this bill doesn't make sense."

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