In the wake of a viral clip of him calling into question House Speaker Paul Ryan‘s Catholic faith in light of the GOP plan to repeal Obamacare, Joe Kennedy III (D-MA) appeared on MSNBC this Tuesday to build on that message, this time relaying a story about an intern who was saved by the Affordable Care Act “twice.”
Kennedy referred to the hearing last week where he made his initial comments and remembered how he heard various Republicans talk about how “disastrous” Obamacare is.
“In that hearing for 28 hours I was in last week, while you heard story after story from my Republican colleagues saying how disastrous [Obamacare] was, there was also an intern in there — from my office — whose life was saved twice by the Affordable Care Act.”
“She’s twenty-five years old and has had cancer now Twice,” Kennedy said, his voice seemingly cracking with emotion. “And because of the ACA, not only did she get the access to the treatment that she needed, but her family could afford it, she could get insurance, and she’s covered now going forward.”
“You cannot deny that this law has done some really good things to some people in need,” he continued. “And that at its heart is what healthcare is supposed to be all about. It’s about how we treat each other at a time of need — and the idea that the answer to that question for some of my Republican colleagues is stripping people from healthcare, saying ‘you’re on your own,’ giving them so-called ‘choice’ to choose between paying their mortgage and paying their health insurance and their medication, and saying that that’s good for our country, it’s just mind-boggling.”
Watch the video below:
Emotional moment—Rep. Joe Kennedy tells @Morning_Joe how Obamacare saved the life of his intern *twice* https://t.co/IZG6W20qXd pic.twitter.com/9jwAqdOM5I
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 14, 2017
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