A woman who confronted Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) at a town hall Wednesday over Obamacare slammed the senator for brushing off her question during an interview with MSNBC Thursday morning.
Kati McFarland, a woman who has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a group of disorders that affects the skin, joints and blood vessels, gave an impassioned plea to Cotton on Wednesday night.
“Without the coverage for pre-existing conditions, I will die. That is not hyperbole, I will die,” she told him.
When McFarland asked Cotton if he would commit to a replacement for the Affordable Care Act before it is repealed, he quickly moved on, seeming to ignore her question, a move that elicited loud boos from the crowd.
McFarland told MSNBC that she was disappointed by Cotton’s reaction.
“He just seemed to repeat my own question back at me,” she said. “He kept saying, ‘if you lose your coverage today, you can still have it.’ He made no promises as to what would happen in the future, once he votes for the repeal he keeps promising.”
McFarland echoed the seriousness of her situation, repeating that is quite literally life and death, but said that the volume of protesters at the event gave her hope.
“I just thought, you know, if they are going to do this, if it’s going to possibly kill me in the next couple years without health care, I have to get my couple years without health care, I have to get my story and my face out when I can, maybe if I put a human face on if, give them something they can really recognize like their daughter or their niece, then maybe it would change their hearts,” she said.
“There were moments of anger, of course, because you do just get angry and you get passionate when talking about life and death for yourself,” McFarland continued. “For me, the overall emotion was incandescent hope. Just people being able to exercise their rights to democratic process, being able to have their voices heard. I think that inspires hope in everyone.”
