Gallery • 3 Photos

Badra Kalil

A group of people gathered at Hubbard Park to protest the repealing of the Affordable Care Act, right after Joni Ernst’s town hall meeting across the street.

An enthusiastic crowd of protesters braved the heat this afternoon after Joni Ernst’s town hall meeting for the ‘Our Voice’ rally. Protesters gathered at Hubbard Park outside of the Iowa Memorial Union to protest the repealing of the Affordable Care Act.

“It’s all about the people–that’s where it begins and ends,” stated Ryan Halls, a student at the University of Iowa who is running for the Iowa City City Council.

Speakers and protesters talked of making the change happen within small communities, and then expanding. Energetic claps and cheers were offered in response to speakers who gave messages of representatives in Washington not being there for ‘the little guy’ as well as ‘the time to act is now’ subjects.

“Many of my patients are good, hardworking people that struggle with poverty, and I have no doubt that the Affordable Care Act saved some of their lives.” said Cecilia Norris, a physician and the director of the Free Medical Clinic in Iowa City, “The only way to cut costs is to have a single payer system.”

Norris later expanded on this, by talking about catching up to the developed countries, such as Canada and the U.K. She mentioned that they switched to a single payer system. This system guarantees all taxpaying citizens quality healthcare. Norris also pointed out that once these countries switched to universal healthcare, they never went back.

While most of the problems with current politics were brought out, they left no issue without a solution that was often centered around one common theme: making your voice heard.