Protest Against Repeal of Obamacare Results in Arrest of Local Pediatrician

February 1, 2017

The potential repeal of the Affordable Care (popularly known as Obamacare) continues to spark confrontations. Last month, a local pediatrician was arrested during a protest outside the Republican Organization office in Palatine Township.

As reported in the (suburban Chicago) Daily Herald Dr. Wynn Sheade said “he was only trying to get the ear of U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam when officers took him into custody.” Dr.Sheade added, “Palatine police impeded my progress to go into the meeting with Mr. Roskam. They said I wasn’t welcome to make that journey to his office.” Dr. Sheade has been charged with trespassing on private property and was the only person arrested out of about 400 people who were protesting outside the Republican office.

The future of the ACA continues to be a hotly debated subject across the country. In our December NDL newsletter we noted: “During this year’s often bitter presidential campaign, Candidate Donald Trump was sharply critical of the Affordable Care Act. He vowed that, if elected, repealing and replacing the ACA would happen on ‘day one of the Trump administration.’ But now, what can we expect from President-elect Donald Trump? Repealing Obamacare is the easy part. Fashioning a replacement plan is the hard part.”

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “an estimated 20 million people gain[ed] health insurance coverage between the passage of the law in 2010 and early 2016—an historic reduction in the uninsured.”

The Daily Herald reported that “Sheade said he would have told Roskam it is important to keep the Affordable Care Act in place until there is something better to replace it. He said the Act has allowed many, including some of his own patients, access to the health care system. [Repealing the ACA] is going to restrict my patients and people like my wife [who has cancer] and others to health care,” he said.