(MILWAUKEE, WI) — Ahead of Donald Trump’s visit to Wisconsin for a campaign rally, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chairman Wikler, 5th Congressional District candidate Tom Palzewicz, senior advocate Stephanie Sue Stein, and community members held a press conference highlighting Trump’s broken promises on health care.

In October of 2018, Trump visited Mosinee, Wisconsin, where he promised, “Republicans want to create better health care through more choice, lower drug prices — and you will see, very soon, drug prices will go plunging downward. You wait, you watch. It’s all in motion.” However, prescription drug and health care costs continue to rise under Trump’s watch as he has repeatedly tried to take protections away from people with preexisting conditions.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett: “We also know that President Trump has made an attack on Obamacare and the Affordable Care Act one of the hallmarks of his presidency…We have a situation where millions of Americans who suffer from pre-existing conditions are at peril if President Trump and his followers carry through with their plan to eliminate the Affordable Care Act…Americans need to know, with all the noise, with all the chatter that is going on right now in this country, that health care is first and foremost an issue that we have to focus on.”

Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler: “I’m one of the 2.4 million Wisconsinites with a pre-existing condition…My own son has asthma as well, but I thought I was at least free of the fear that he would not be able to buy insurance because of his preexisting condition, thanks to the Affordable Care Act. And then Donald Trump was elected. Donald Trump promised two things in his 2016 campaign – the first is he said he would make sure that everyone would have great health insurance, he said he would bring down the cost of prescription drugs, and the second thing he said is that he would repeal the Affordable Care Act on his first day in office. He broke that promise. And from day one, he has been attacking protections for people with pre-existing conditions, trying to destroy the Affordable Care Act while lying through his teeth about his real plans for health care…Donald Trump is the number one threat to preexisting condition protections in the United States of America, and he is lying about it.”

Senior Advocate Stephanie Sue Stein: “I’ve seen the incredible things that prescription drugs can do to make people’s lives better, but I’ve also seen the dread and the grief that comes over people when they can’t afford those drugs. Instead of a rally over at the Panther arena, I wish President Trump would spend an hour or two standing in line at Walgreens or CVS and watching what happens when people are told how much their drugs are going to cost…President Trump promised to lower the cost of prescription drugs. Have they lowered? No…President Trump could fix this in a big way tomorrow if he supported the House of Representatives’ “Lower Drug Costs” bill, which passed the House in December.”

5th Congressional District candidate Tom Palzewicz: “The common denominator between all these stories is one thing: our health care is broken…this has a lot to do with the economy. Wages aren’t growing because the health care costs are rising…right now, we’re going to have a president that’s going to show up at our doorstep here, who’s going to talk about taking health care away from people. That is the wrong path, and it’s wrong message we need to be sending to people.”

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