WILLINGBORO, NEW JERSEY — From the moment Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-NJ) started his first town hall since the House passed Trumpcare, it was clear the night would be brutal. The congressman, who authored an amendment making it easier for states to drop key Obamacare protections, walked into the event with a target on his back.
The booing and jeering began as soon as the Pledge of Allegiance ended. “For all!” the roughly 300 constituents allowed into the venue yelled together, repeating the last two words of the pledge. Then MacArthur introduced himself, beginning to tell the story he often shares of his daughter who was born with special needs and died when she was 11 years old.
“Enough of the canned responses!” one constituent yelled. “Were you able to afford her health care?” another asked. “Who paid?” A woman in the back accused him of exploiting his daughter’s story for politics.
The town hall was held in a largely African American area of New Jersey’s third district that MacArthur lost by almost 90 points in November. He knew what was coming. “The president got nine percent of the vote here,” he said. “I got a whopping 12 percent.” But as he explained at the beginning, he represents the entire district, and understands that many Americans are angry.
For nearly five hours, MacArthur proceeded to answer — or more accurately, respond to — dozens of constituents’ angry questions. Most asked about the Affordable Health Care Act (known colloquially as Trumpcare) and the amendment he authored which would allow states to charge people with pre-existing conditions more for coverage. Many told heart-wrenching stories about their medical histories, or those of their loved ones.
“Without Medicaid, it’s jail, commitment, or death,” said a woman who told MacArthur she has struggled with opioid addiction and mental health issues but has been clean for two years.
A few people asked about Russia, a topic MacArthur was not eager to discuss. “No, not yet,” he said when asked about whether he would call for an independent prosecutor to look into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. “What will it take?” one constituent asked.
Another asked about flood insurance, and another about funding for historically black colleges. But mostly, constituents wanted to know how MacArthur could break his promise that he would never support a bill that would take health care away from Americans.
“You have been the single greatest threat to my family in the entire world,” Geoff Ginter, a Pine Beach, New Jersey resident whose wife survived cancer, told MacArthur as he neared his third hour of grilling. “You are the reason I stay up at night. You are the reason I can’t sleep. What happens if I lose my job?”
Throughout the evening, MacArthur explained that very few people with pre-existing conditions would have to pay more — just those who lose their insurance and experience a gap in coverage. But Ginter said that is the exact thing that would happen to him were he to lose his job, and his family were forced into a high risk pool.
At another point, a constituent asked everyone with a pre-existing condition to stand up. Roughly half the room got out of their chairs.
A few hours later, a soft-spoken man in the back corner got the mic. “I was one who was not able to stand up,” he said, explaining that he confined to a wheelchair because he suffers from muscular dystrophy.
At times, MacArthur admitted that his legislation isn’t perfect.
“Members of Congress don’t vote on the bill they wish was in front of them,” he said. “They vote on the bill that is in front of them.”
“You put it there!” a constituent immediately yelled in response.
Some of the most heated exchanges throughout the evening came when two high school seniors asked MacArthur about the provision of his amendment that would allow states to charge more for women who have been raped. “How did it pass your conscience to allow rape to be a pre-existing condition?” asked Joseph Zetkulic. The room, becoming rowdy, demanding that the congressman explain whether rape is a pre-existing condition. He would not.
Later, 17-year-old Daisy Confoy, who said she will be old enough to vote in 2018, asked the same question. “I will not describe a violent act against a woman as a pre-existing condition,” he said.
The room also became contentious when MacArthur explained that his bill will not cut Medicaid. In reality, Trumpcare will take $880 billion from Medicaid and roll back the Medicaid expansion in states that opted to participate. According to local news reports, that could mean that more than 500,000 New Jerseyans would lose their coverage.
As he reached the fourth hour of the event, the crowds had thinned and the anger and snide remarks subsided. Still, MacArthur went person by person, hearing out every question. “This is one of the most educated groups of residents I’ve seen here,” a former mayor of Willingboro said to a few dozen remaining constituents, adding that Trump’s administration had motivated people to get educated about political issues. “I’m glad you were here to see that,” she told the congressman.
Most of the protesters outside — who earlier numbered in the hundreds — had abandoned their signs and gone home when MacArthur answered the final constituent question around 11:30 pm. As people filed back to their cars, just three protesters remained.
One of them, a woman dressed as the Grim Reaper, had the words “Trump Care” around her neck.