MONTICELLO – An early top priority of the month-old Trump administration is replacing Obamacare. That continues to evoke concern among many who say despite its problems, the Affordable Care Act is working.
During a Thursday rally outside Monticello Village Hall, organized by
the Hudson Valley Central Labor Council AFL-CIO, several speakers said
dismantling the ACA without a better replacement would hit this region
hard.
Monticello Mayor Douglas Solomon said that includes his village.
“Monticello is a difficult community,” the mayor said. “We are on difficult economic times. We’ve got a lot of people who are living below the poverty line here and who rely on this type of assistance.”
Solomon called for elected officials to come together and “figure out how to make this work.”
Central Labor Council President Sparrow Tobin said they are seriously concerned about what is happening in Washington.
Tobin talks to about a dozen people attending the rally
“The plans they already have on the shelf in the [House Speaker] Paul Ryan budget, they talk about gutting Medicare, Medicaid, and use that for their plan, so we want to make sure they are not trying to shift the cost of healthcare to the states or the individual,” Tobin said. “We want affordable healthcare for everybody.”
The AFL-CIO is calling on newly elected Congressman John Faso to recognize that, according to their figures, almost 118,000 of his constituents are at risk of losing healthcare coverage.
