N.J. residents angrily confront MacArthur over health-care bill

Tom MacArthur, the South Jersey congressman who helped revive the GOP plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, came under fire Wednesday from constituents who expressed fear that they and others might lose health coverage if the bill is signed into law.
Fresh off the House vote on repealing Obamacare care, U.S. Rep. Tom MacArthur (right) meets with constituents in Willingboro.

At an emotionally charged town-hall meeting in heavily Democratic Willingboro, MacArthur, a second-term Republican, heard from exasperated residents in his district, including a man with a heart condition who worried he wouldn’t be able to afford insurance in a high-risk pool if he were to lose his job; a woman on Medicaid recovering from drug addiction, concerned she would end up “in jail, prostitution,” or dead without coverage; and a man whose wife had breast cancer.

MacArthur, who represents parts of Burlington and Ocean Counties, started by noting that President Trump won 9 percent of the vote in Willingboro, “and I crushed it with 12 percent.”

“I recognize there’s a lot of anxiety in the country, there’s a lot of anger,” MacArthur said to jeers. “I represent everybody in this district. … I want to meet with my constituents and tell you the things that matter to me, the things I’m doing, and why I’m doing them.”

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