Great story from Vox today on a group of kids and their parents who went to try and lobby Congress to save the ACA and Medicaid.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-polit...ifetime-limits
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Several Democratic senators — who roundly opposed the repeal bill — made time for the group. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) sat with the family in his office conference room.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) bumped into the group in the hallway. She immediately began taking photographs with them, brushing aside aides’ reminders of another meeting she had to get to. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) invited the group to visit his offices right outside the Senate chamber and popped out for a minute to thank them.
The meetings were often quick. They followed a formula: Senators would thank the families for their work, ask them to visit Republican offices, and take a group photo. And the families would wonder: Did this actually make a difference? Would it shape the debate at all, meeting with senators who already agree with them?
Michelle and Elena had collected more than 100 stories from other parents of medically fragile children all over the country. They handed out copies of those stories to the senators who might use them to fight for the Affordable Care Act.
They mostly wanted to talk to Republican senators — but those meetings were a lot harder to get.
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Advocates have struggled to wield influence over the Senate’s secretive health care process. Noam Levey of the Los Angeles Times reported that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had declined meetings with health groups including the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, and the March of Dimes.
“A representative from McConnell’s office told them staff schedules were too busy,” Levey wrote.
Mark Morrison tried to call McConnell’s office Wednesday morning but couldn’t get through; the message box said it wasn’t accepting more voicemails.
The Morrisons focused their outreach efforts on Republican senators’ offices but didn’t have much luck. They corresponded with an aide in Sen. Mike Lee’s (R-UT) office but were unable to pin down a meeting. They had some families from Pennsylvania try Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) — they even faxed him a letter — but that didn’t work, either.
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