MacArthur Gets Hammered By Constituents Over Health Care At Five-Hour Town Meeting

Rep. Tom MacArthur's efforts to get President Trump's American Health Care Plan approved came back to haunt him at a Town Hall attended by hundreds on Wednesday night.

Pine Beach resident Geoff Gintr, whose wife had cancer, didn't buy MacArthur's explanation that he wanted to fix the system because health care costs are rising and some insurance companies are failing, according to a report in app.com that originally appeared in the Courier News.

"You have been the biggest single threat to my family in the whole world," Gintr told MacArthur. 'You are the reason I can't sleep," the angry medical technician said.

Gintr said his wife worries every day what will happen if he loses his job and his health coverage.

"I would not be eligible for insurance after 63 days and then she would end up in a high-risk pool," Gintr said.

He called MacArthur's bill an "insult to the mental health of the nation."

The John F. Kennedy Center banquet hall was filled to capacity with about 300 people, as hundreds more gathered outside with signs and chants protesting MacArthur's position on healthcare as well as President Trump.

MacArthur, a Republican who voted May 4 for Trump's American Health Care Act that he helped revamp, was often interrupted and sometimes shouted at by the crowd during the five-hour meeting.

"I want every American to be able to afford healthcare. That's been my goal from the very beginning," MacArthur told the crowd."I hear your anger, I hear your frustration."

MacArthur, who helped revise Republican bill to replace the Affordable Care Act, voted earlier this year against the GOP's earlier attempt to repeal Obamacare without offering a replacement. A subsequent GOP proposal was withdrawn because it lacked sufficient enough support.

The House passed the revamped bill by a 217-213 margin. The bill now moves to the Senate, where it is expected to receive substantial scrutiny and revisions.

MacArthur recently negotiated the bill amendment that loosens some health insurance regulations, including for people with pre-existing conditions, in order to gain the support of conservative Freedom Caucus members in the House.

MacArthur said at a March Town Hall meeting in Waretown that rushing the American Health Care was not a solution, that more time was needed.

"It's not fair to put all of the burden on the 21 million most vulnerable in this situation," MacArthur said at the meeting in March. "They're poor. They're working, but they make too much money to be eligible for Medicaid. I have made it crystal clear (to the Republican leadership) that if you try to pull the rug out from 21 million people, I can't support that."

While most of the speakers at the Willingboro meeting focused on healthcare reform, others brought up President Donald Trump and possible Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Edgewater Park resident said he was worried about Trump's other actions also.

"I'm concerned about a president who praises Vladimir Putin and who attacks the press and calls them the 'enemy of the people' and a president who does not know American history," he said.

"I am also concerned there is something mentally wrong with Donald Trump," Ziegler said. "Does anyone else see it?" The crowd shouted "Yes!"

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Image: Karen Wall