WKY members hold Comer accountable on health care

Western Kentucky KFTC members have joined with Four Rivers Indivisible and other local groups to hold U.S Rep. James Comer accountable for his vote to dismantle the Affordable Care Act.

Comer vowed to protect the pre-existing condition clause in the Affordable Care Act “with every last breath I have.”

Then he voted in favor of the House Republican health care bill, which severely weakens protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

“I highly encourage Comer's constituents to hold him accountable for his promise to maintain the mandate for pre-existing condition coverage,” said Andy Wiggins of Paducah, who represents the new western Kentucky chapter on the KFTC Steering Committee.

Leslie McColgin, who heads the Four Rivers group, shared with her members a KFTC graphic about Comer’s promise. “I think this can be very effective if his Twitter account is inundated with lots of people sending the same meme,” McColgin said.

About 100 people showed up at a Comer town hall meeting in Benton to hold his feet to the fire. Most were mad at his backtracking on his promise.

Comer said he did not backtrack, that the Republican bill prevents insurance companies from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions. While technically true, the legislation allows people with dozens of medical conditions to be placed in high-priced pools and charged much higher premiums.“There is no difference between denying someone coverage and pricing them out of coverage,” Wiggins pointed out.

Information for this story came from Berry Craig.