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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Earlier this morning, Nashville-area moms participated in a roundtable at the Horn Coffee to discuss the importance of protections for their kids with pre-existing conditions. Parents called on Attorney General Slatery to withdraw Tennessee from a lawsuit, Texas vs. United States, that claims protections for pre-existing conditions are “unconstitutional.”
The mothers are asking Slatery to prioritize the lives of their children and the 2.7 million Tennesseans with pre-existing conditions and put politics aside.
“I’m disappointed, I’m ashamed that I live in a state that would even consider something like this. Tennessee is known for being the volunteer state,” said Andréa Evans, mother of two children with diabetes and asthma. “I’ve met friends from all over the world, and they come here for affordable health care, for decent jobs, for good health care. If one of these things are taken away, it throws off the balance. If this law were upheld, Tennessee would become the land of the sick.”
Kathleen Jones, mother of a daughter born with a congenital heart condition: “I’m frustrated and don’t understand. I can’t even give words to the pain that I feel; that A.G. Slatery can’t see that we are people, that Natalie is a person. We don’t deserve this from the hands of our public servants.”
“I don’t want to have to worry constantly. Living in America, we shouldn’t have to worry this much about health care. With my daughter’s condition, it’s difficult for me, even working full time, to get through the day,” said Deondra Moore, mother of a daughter who suffered a traumatic brain injury which resulted in refractory epilepsy, cerebral palsy, dysphagia, and neurological deficiencies. “I shouldn’t have to be this worried about whether she will get the care she needs. I did everything right and yet we are still struggling. I feel like we are being punished, like she is being punished, but we didn’t do anything wrong.”
Watch the roundtable here.
Oral arguments in the case opened earlier this month in a Texas Federal District Court, and the judge could rule any day now.
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