Thousands of Michigan residents showed up to a healthcare rally to show Republican leaders they don’t want the Affordable Care Act to be repealed.
Senator Bernie Sanders, along Democrats with Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow enthused the crowd at Macomb Community College in Warren about fighting to keep their health coverage.
While the Republicans in Washington D.C. have already begun plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Democratic leaders say without a replacement plan, about 30 million Americans would lose their health coverage.
Senator Sanders said people on both sides of the political spectrum are afraid they will lose their health coverage.
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“Tens of thousands of Americans are saying loudly and clearly: Republicans, you are not going to destroy the Affordable Care Act,” Sanders said.
Sanders made it clear that the strong opposition to the Republican plan to repeal Obamacare isn’t about the bill itself, but about the lack of a comparable replacement plan.
“Very few Americans feel that we should repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement program to make it better,” he said.
Senator Chuck Schumer from New York shares Sanders’ sentiment about repeal and replace.
“We’re willing to look at how to make [the Affordable Care Act] better, but we sure as hell aren’t going to repeal it,” Schumer said, “and we’re certainly not going to repeal it when our friends over there don’t have a plan to replace it with.”
UPDATE: An earlier version of this story referred to Senator Sanders as a Democrat. He is an independent.
