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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; For Amy Zemek, the numbers are staggering.</p><p>Her daughter, Alexa, suffered a traumatic injury at birth 16 years ago, and lives with debilitating conditions including cerebral palsy, scoliosis, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, and blindness in one eye. She is non-verbal and developmentally delayed, and has undergone numerous surgeries.</p><p>In January, a common virus caused serious health issues for Alexa, who had to be life-flighted from Scranton to a hospital in Philadelphia, where she was treated for four days.</p><p>&#8220;Between the helicopter ride, her emergency room visits and hospital stay, the bill totalled close to $180,000,&#8221; Zemek told an audience gathered on Public Square Saturday morning.</p><p>&#8220;The hospital stay alone was over $11,000. For one of her medications, the cost of one pill was $24,&#8221; the Lackawanna County resident added.</p><p>&#8220;How on Earth would anyone be able to pay that bill without insurance,&#8221; Zemek asked.</p><p>The answer, for most Americans, is simple: They wouldn&#8217;t.</p><p>That&#8217;s why Zemek and others turned out to hear from and support U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Moosic, who came to speak in support of legislation recently passed by the House of Representatives to strengthen insurance protections for Americans with pre-existing conditions, to lower prescription drug prices and to outlaw what Cartwright calls &#8220;junk&#8221; insurance plans that are cheap and cover few of consumers&#8217; core requirements.</p><p>Despite approval from the Democrat-controlled House last month, it appears HR 987 faces a rough ride in the Republican-controlled Senate &#8212; if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell doesn&#8217;t block it, as he bragged about doing with numerous House measures last week, calling himself &#8220;The Grim Reaper.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;The will of the people is what works in this country, and if we raise our voices like we did here this morning, there&#8217;s a better chance&#8221; of HR 987 going to a vote in the Senate, Cartwright said Saturday following the &#8220;call to action&#8221; on Public Square, attended by several dozen people.</p><p>He was supported and echoed by state Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, D-Wilkes-Barre, as well as Zemek and other speakers who discussed the challenges their families have faced due to costs of care and efforts by insurance companies to limit coverage.</p><p>Cartwright noted that The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 &#8212; often dubbed the ACA or Obamacare &#8212; provided safeguards so insurers could not refuse to cover Americans with pre-existing conditions, but that the Executive Branch has in recent years &#8220;worked to whittle away protections.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;H.R. 987 shores them up,&#8221; he said. &#8220;That&#8217;s why we want it to come up for a vote in the senate.&#8221;</p><p>Marlee Stefanelli, a licensed professional counselor in Lackawanna County, is a small business owner with a private practice. She purchases coverage for her family from the health insurance marketplace, another outgrowth of the ACA.</p><p>That includes coverage for son Matthew, 7, who has type 1 diabetes, diagnosed when he was 2. Stefanelli worries what would happen to Matthew once he becomes an adult if ADA protections were not safeguarded.</p><p>&#8220;He receives a Medicaid waiver which has helped so much with this diabetes treatment, but at 18 he will no longer be eligible for that,&#8221; Stefanelli said. &#8220;He would thus not be able to purchase insurance without preexisting condition protections.&#8221;</p><p>For Cartwright, that is unacceptable.</p><p>&#8220;Getting medical treatment should not leave families in a lifetime of debt,&#8221; he said.</p><p>Is there a realistic chance of Republican approval for HR 987 in the Senate? Cartwright acknowledged that of its key goals, one &#8212; streamlining approval of more, cheaper generic drugs &#8212; has some support support across the aisle.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not widespread. It&#8217;s the more courageous Republicans are for that. That&#8217;s why the people have to raise their voices,&#8221; Cartwright added.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, left, speaks on Public Square Saturday morning about HR 987, a bill whose goals include enhancing insurance protections for consumers with pre-existing health conditions. Looking on, from left, are Marlee Stefanelli and son Matthew, as well as Amy Zemek, daughter Alexa and husband Eric. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/web1_64665462_1444502359081219_7867090449326931968_n.jpg</photo0><caption0>U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, left, speaks on Public Square Saturday morning about HR 987, a bill whose goals include enhancing insurance protections for consumers with pre-existing health conditions. Looking on, from left, are Marlee Stefanelli and son Matthew, as well as Amy Zemek, daughter Alexa and husband Eric. </caption0><photoCredit0>Roger DuPuis | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Roger DuPuis</p><p>rdupuis@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div>

Cartwright rally in WB seeks support for health care bill