mobanmarketRep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.), one of the chief architects of the GOP’s healthcare plan, faced five hours of questions and booing from hundreds of constituents at a forum Wednesday night in his hometown of Willingboro as “Payback Recess” continued.
MacArthur, who helped craft the amendment to the American Healthcare Act (AHCA) that gutted protections for preexisting conditions—appeasing enough hard-line conservative lawmakers to get the bill passed in the House of Representatives—became a prime target of the resistance movement, with more than 300 people in the crowd at the John F. Kennedy Community Center and more protesting outside.
“This is your healthcare bill. It was dead in the water and could have stayed dead in the water. It was done,” said Derek Reichenbecher, a teacher from Point Pleasant who told MacArthur he had a heart condition and fears facing the insurance marketplace if he loses his job. “You brought it back from the dead. It’s yours. You own it.”
Geoff Ginter of Point Beach, whose wife survived a cancer battle, told MacArthur, “You are the reason I can’t sleep at night.”
Outside, many protesters lay down in the parking lot with fake headstones. Above them, a plane circled trailing an anti-MacArthur message.
Many took the opportunity to grill MacArthur about the need for single payer healthcare, an issue which has gained significant traction in recent years—and especially over the last few months. (Indeed, a record 104 House Democrats signed on to co-sponsor a “Medicare-for-All” bill introduced in April.)
As MacArthur attempted to say that the insurance market was “collapsing,” an audience member shouted, “Because you drilled holes in it!” and a spontaneous chant began: “Single payer! Single payer! Single payer! Single payer!”
Watch the moment at 19:58 below:
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