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Thursday, March 28, 2024
<p>As a way of protesting the American Health Care Act, a group of about 30 local activists staged a die-in at congressman Ted Yoho’s office in Gainesville Tuesday.</p>

As a way of protesting the American Health Care Act, a group of about 30 local activists staged a die-in at congressman Ted Yoho’s office in Gainesville Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Anne Clarke pretended to die outside of Rep. Ted Yoho’s office.

Clarke, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004, did so to show the congressman how the American Health Care Act would affect people like her.

Although Clarke’s cancer is now gone, she said insurers would consider it a pre-existing condition under the new health care bill, which passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on May 4. Although Yoho originally opposed the American Health Care Act because he thought it kept some of former President Barrack Obama’s health care law regulations in tact, he later released a statement announcing his support of the amended bill.

Clarke was one of about 30 others to lay on the ground, holding up gray cardboard headstones outside of Yoho’s office Tuesday afternoon. The “die-in” was initially suggested by Indivisible, a national organization dedicated to resisting President Donald Trump’s political agenda, especially his plans to replace the Affordable Care Act with the American Health Care Act.

Throughout the protest, people shared how the American Health Care Act would affect them or their loved ones. Some feared their military service would be considered a pre-existing condition, while others discussed the possibility of not being able to afford treatment or medication due to supplementary cuts in Medicare.

“What’s important to highlight here is that even though I’ve had no other health issues and I didn’t do anything wrong, Republicans seem to think pre-existing conditions are our fault,” Clarke said.

Since January, tensions have flared between local activist groups and the congressman, who serves Florida’s third congressional district, including Alachua, Clay, Putnam and Union counties, as well as most of Marion county. In addition to two town hall meetings held with the congressman in Gainesville earlier this year, the local chapter of Indivisible has organized weekly protests at Yoho’s regional office.

Despite frequent appearances at Yoho’s office in Gainesville, representatives from the congressman’s office were not pleased with the Tuesday die-in. Protest organizer Olysha Magruder said one office worker came out to tell protesters they were trespassing on private property and even threatened to call the police.

This led protest leaders to move the die-in from the parking lot to a grassy patch of land in front of the office, which is technically public land, Magruder said.

Magruder said alongside other local activists, she plans on continuing the protest of the American Health Care Act so Florida senators vote against it in the near future.

“We know they’re watching,” Magruder said.

 Contact Adam Turner at aturner@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter: @fladam98.

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As a way of protesting the American Health Care Act, a group of about 30 local activists staged a die-in at congressman Ted Yoho’s office in Gainesville Tuesday.

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