MOORHEAD, Minn. — As lawmakers in Washington kick-off their Easter break, Rep. Collin Peterson hosted a town hall on healthcare in Moorhead, according to Kim Hyatt of Inforum.
Peterson asked the crowd if they had a magic solution saying, “I would love to hear it. We need to do something to help these people who are hurting.”
“We need to get to a point where we have buy-in from both parties…How we get there, I’m not sure I have the answer to that,” he told supporters
Peterson, who won re-election by five points in November, is already facing re-election pressure just four months into his 13th term in Congress.
He also spoke of rural farmers who could no longer afford their healthcare according to MPR.
“Ordinary people that make $50,000 a year cannot be paying $1,500 a month,” Peterson said. “Before they were paying $500 maybe. That was still tough. It wasn’t easy, but they could do it.”
Alpha News reported in March on a farmer from Northern Minnesota, invited by Senate Republicans to explain how tax relief could help farmers.
“Two years ago, young farmers out there had to decide whether to pay for health care or pay the taxes to keep the farm,” Jerry Nordick of Breckenridge, MN said, “That’s how serious this is.”
Peterson, who acknowledged that he receives insurance through Medicare, said, “it works.”
He also said that the United States already has universal healthcare. According to Inforum, Peterson spoke of a 1976 law passed that made it impossible for emergency rooms to turn people away who need medical attention, despite their insurance status.
MPR reports, Peterson, who opposed both the American Health Care Act (AHCA) pushed by Republicans in 2017 and the Affordable Care Act pushed by former President Barack Obama seven years ago, welcomes the idea of Minnesota going back to its original health care system.
Preya Samsundar
Preya Samsundar was born and raised in Minneapolis, MN. She graduated from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities this Spring with a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology, with a minor in Strategic Communications. Preya has previously worked on several State Campaign Races.
