Transcript
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the proposed federal health plan would leave 23 million more people uninsured by 2026 and cut US$834 billion dollars in Medicaid funding. Doris Segal Matsunaga works at a community health centre in a Honolulu neighbourhood populated by immigrants. She says she saw people who were heavily reliant on health and medical assistance and said the new plan is divisive.
"At our community health centre, we have many folks who have come from all around the Pacific region, who have moved to Hawaii or else come to Hawaii for medical care. And if this bill were to pass, which we are hoping to stop, it would have a major impact."
Senator Kalani English is the Hawai'i senate majority leader and says the new plan would impact millions of people.
"In Hawaii and across America we are looking at like 23-24 million people losing healthcare and that is not healthy for our population and so we don't support that."
Senator English says Affordable Care Act has had its critics, but the plan has helped many people in Hawaii who wouldn't otherwise qualify for care.
"At least for us in Hawaii we have tried to get universal healthcare as best we could and it has worked for us for the most part. So the issue now becomes if the federal government repeals this, does this repeal our national law as well?"
Doris Segal Matsunaga also helped co-ordinate a protest dubbed "Die In" earlier this week, in Honolulu to voice concern over President Trump's efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
"We were trying to rally in support of people across the country, who senators, or some of the senators will vote for it, and to let some people in Hawaii know that the cuts that will come down from this bill will have disastrous effects on healthcare in Hawaii."
But a former Republican state senator Sam Slom says Obamacare is disastrous and told local media earlier this week what he thought about the protest.
"There was a phony gorilla theatre sit in the state capital called "die in". A couple of dozen people and it was a top news story - must've been a slow news day. And these are the same people you can see them at anti-Trump rallies to do with immigration, healthcare and any issue you pick because they pledged the day after the election when they lost that they'd resist Trump so where is the response? Because most of the things they were protesting about was false and as you know the American Care will go to the Senate and won't be in the same form as it was in the House."
Senate Republicans began this week to craft details in a bill aimed at repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act to present to the Senate for a vote.
