Thank you ThinkProgress for reminding us of this:
In a statement posted to his website, Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) attacks stage 4 cancer survivor Laura Packard as a “Democrat political operative” while falsely claiming he’s “stood up for Nevadans for pre-existing conditions.”
In reality, as ThinkProgress detailed, Heller and every other Senate Republican with the sole exception of Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) voted on Wednesday “against blocking the Trump administration’s expansion of health plans that can deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.” And as The Hill notes, last year Heller co-sponsored a bill that would have allowed states “to get waivers to allow insurers to charge people with pre-existing conditions higher premiums.”
Packard — a self-employed small business owner who had stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma and health insurance through an Affordable Care Act exchange — wasthrown out of a town hall even featuring Heller last December after she tried to ask him why he supports legislation that would strip coverage from people like her. She appears in a new ad for Heller’s Democratic opponent, Jacky Rosen.
“One in four Nevadans has a pre-existing condition, like I do,” Packard says in the ad. “And Dean Heller is lying about helping us.”
Health Care has been a big issue for Rosen to hit Heller on put immigration is also the big one. Here’s a snippet from Rosen’s interview with Vox:
Ella Nilsen
What are the main issues you have you been hearing about from voters?
Jacky Rosen
They’re so upset about the rising cost of health care, and uncertainty about it. They’re afraid they can’t afford the premiums, prescription drugs are going up and up. Do people take their kid to the doctor, or do they pay their rent? That’s not really a choice. And especially now, with Sen. Heller on those provisions, he wants to weaken protections for pre-existing conditions, it has put fear in people’s hearts.
Sen. Heller and I are total opposites on this. He wants to repeal it, he wants to take away all those essential health benefits, and I think that we have to make it stronger and make sure we have good health care, good access. They’re worried about retirement.
Of course, immigration is on the forefront. Whether you are in the Latino community, Muslim community or just in general, when you see those kids that are separated from their parents, nobody wants to see that. It is really cruel.
Ella Nilsen
I know a lot of your Democratic colleagues went to the border soon after the family separation policy was enacted. Did you end up going to the border?
Jacky Rosen
I did go to the border. I went to El Paso [Texas], Juarez, and I went across the border and came back in, talked to Customs and Border Patrol about people who are seeking asylum, how they’re taking care of them.
The thing that really concerned me was that they were only allowed two 10-minute phone calls or contacts a week with the outside world. And those contacts are monitored.
I saw teenagers, but there are still hundreds of children that haven’t been reunited with their parents. How are we going to find their parents? That’s despicable. If you’re going to put in a horrible policy like this, and you don’t know where children’s parents are ... imagine if that was your kid.
We have to make Heller pay big time at the polls. Let’s help Rosen ride the Blue Wave to victory. Click below to donate and get involved with Rosen and her fellow Nevada Democrats campaigns:
Jacky Rosen for U.S. Senate
Steve Sisolak for Governor
Kate Marshall for Lt. Governor
Aaron Ford for Attorney General
Dina Titus for Congress
Susie Lee for Congress
Steven Horsford for Congress
Nelson Araujo for Secretary of State
Zach Conine for Treasurer
Catherine Byrne for Controller