It's interesting that the narrative across the board is that it is these TWO Senators who have torpedoed the health care plan, when it is actually FIVE people who have defected. The last two are just the icing on the cake. One one of them was needed. And we got two. But what about the other three? (Ok, we can skip over Rand Paul. He votes no on everything just out of principle. But that still leaves two others who grew a spine LONG before the last two defectors. Why do the last two get the credit, rather than the first two being hailed as the leaders and the last two as followers? Interesting narrative choice.)
Moran grew up out where my grandparents lived. He's maintained his ties out there. It's not super hard to see why he's against this if you've spent much time there: a part of their experience is one of going to the rural hospital only to find out that there are no doctors in the building because the money isn't there. Packed town hall in Palco, Kan., urges Moran to stand firm against GOP health bill “I understand the value of a hospital in your community, a physician in your town, a pharmacy on main street,” Moran said. ...pared with, a bit later in the article... “It would work. … The system’s already in place,” said Zamrzla, who noted that his cousin works in Moran’s Wichita office. Moran said the federal government needs to ensure the stability of Medicaid and Medicare for the programs’ current beneficiaries before expanding the federal health program. Eleanor McMindes, an 86-year-old retired teacher from Hays, said she’s known the Moran family for decades. She said the bill’s impact on rural hospitals, which are already struggling, is a major concern. “In western Kansas we have a lot of hospitals that cannot even afford to have a doctor on duty. Our doctors from Hays go out there like a day at a time,” she said. Or a different article on the same town hall: Constituents urge Moran to maintain opposition to Senate health care bill at packed town hall During the town hall, Cox asked Moran why the U.S. spends resources on military readiness to protect citizens from external threats while leaving health care to “a for-profit system failing to meet some needs.” My favorite quote from the Star article: “They’re salt-of-the-earth-type people and that puts Jerry in a difficult position,” he said. “You know, he’s intelligent. He’s informed. He’s a very nice man and so now, he’s a Republican, which puts him in a difficult position.” Which isn't to say that he doesn't have cognitive dissonance, or that his constituents don't. The same area went handily to Trump. They still want to Repeal and Replace. But they're not willing to shoot their own feet to do it.“I’m elected as a Republican but I’m a member of a minority. And that minority is Kansas. That minority is rural,” said Moran, who grew up in the nearby town of Plainville and won 87 percent of the vote in Rooks County in November’s election.
Jeff Zamrzla, a 59-year-old veteran from Salina, pressed Moran on why Congress does not pursue a “Medicare for All” plan.
Bob Cox, of Hays, was the pediatrician for Moran’s daughters. He drove from nearby Hays to advocate for more spending on health care. Cox said he and his wife, Sheryl, are Republicans, but that they rarely vote for Republicans anymore. Cox said the two voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election and that he supported a single-payer health care system.
Armin Kelly, a 70-year-old retired veterinarian from Plainville, said the GOP bill takes money away from people who need it to pay for a tax cut. Kelly said he knew Moran’s parents well and traced his opposition to the bill partly to his upbringing.
The best (read: most ironic) part about all of this is that the vote was delayed because of McCain's health complications. His surgical procedure, a craniotomy, costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $70,000 (said Google). There's no way an uninsured retiree at his age would have been able to afford such a procedure.