PALCO — There was standing room only as Senator Jerry Moran held a town hall meeting in Palco Thursday. Palco has fewer than 300 residents and is about 212 miles northwest of Wichita.
Moran’s event was his first scheduled town hall meeting during the July Fourth congressional break and came after he said he opposed a bill overhauling health care drafted by top Senate Republicans.
A Moran town hall in June in the Kansas City area sometimes grew rowdy. Critics of the Senate GOP plan were promising to transport people to Thursday’s event.
Medicaid, Medicare, the cost of prescription drugs, insurance company profits and the Affordable Care Act were issues addressed at the meeting.
Veterans, cancer survivors, doctors and people with physical and mental disabilities showed up to voice their concerns about healthcare in the U.S., including what new efforts to repeal and replace the ACA could mean for rural Kansas.
“Healthcare is something very important to me, not because I feel I should have more of it, but because everybody should have access to adequate healthcare,” audience member Robynn Andracsek said.
Moran opposed the most recent healthcare plan in the Senate, saying it misses the mark for Kansas. He told the crowd gathered in Palco he feels that in order to find solutions to issues like healthcare, the county must be united.
“It takes two parties who want to come together, not just Republicans, not just Democrats, and it takes the American people to demand that,” Moran says.
Moran has more town hall meetings set for Friday in Haskell and Seward counties.
