Hundreds of people joined Oregon Democratic lawmakers in Portland on Sunday to rally against the potential loss of President Barack Obama's health care law.
U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, and U.S. Reps. Earl Blumenauer, Kurt Schrader and Suzanne Bonamici took part in the event at a gymnasium in support of the Affordable Care Act.
“I am never going to support taking America back to the days when health care was for the healthy and the wealthy and the insurance companies had their ways with anybody that was sick," Sen. Wyden told the crowd.
President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican-led Congress have vowed to repeal the act, but haven’t created a plan to replace it.
"The Republicans have this plan called 'Repeal and Run' to destroy healthcare in America," Sen. Merkley told the crowd Sunday. "Are we going to work together to defeat that plan? Are we going to work together to preserve that healthcare for working Americans? For Americans most in need? For our small businesses? For our children? For our seniors? OK lets get it done."
Oregon's Medicaid expansion gave close to 400,000 people health insurance — for a total of about one in four Oregonians.
But it wasn’t cheap. That expansion cost almost $7 billion a year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Copyright 2017 Oregon Public Broadcasting
