An angry crowd in South Carolina chanted "you lie" to Rep. Joe Wilson at a town hall Monday, using the Republican congressman’s own infamous line against him.
Wilson was rebuked after shouting those words at former President Barack Obama during his speech to Congress in 2009, after the president said the health reforms he was proposing would not apply to those in the country illegally.
Wilson later apologized, and Obama accepted the apology, saying at the time that "we all make mistakes."
Wilson was confronted at a town hall in Aiken County, South Carolina, on Monday again on the issue of Obamacare — but this time by people upset over Republicans’ plans to repeal the health care law.
A GOP effort fizzled last month due to lack of support in the House, but the majority party and President Donald Trump say that replacement is still on the agenda.
At the town hall at Aiken Technical College, members of the crowd held red signs with "you lie" on them and shouted the phrase at one point. Wilson said after the meeting that he is still committed to repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.
"My concern about Obamacare is we’ve already seen skyrocketing premiums, we’ve seen deductibles become unapproachable to work with,” Wilson told NBC station WAGT of Augusta, Georgia.
"People have lost their doctors, they’ve lost insurance, lost their jobs. We can do better," Wilson said. He said that a new plan allowing purchase of insurance across state lines, association health plans and health savings accounts would give people more choice.
The Congressional Budget Office last month estimated that the Republican plan to repeal and replace the ACA could result in 24 million people losing their health insurance by 2026.
The CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that the House bill as amended would have reduced federal deficits by around $150 billion over the 2017-2026 period, down from the $337 billion projected under the initial bill.
The bill was criticized by some moderate Republicans in states that expanded Medicaid under the ACA, who were concerned over how it could affect lower-income, older Americans. A 64-year-old making $26,500 would have paid an average of $12,900 more per year in premium costs, according to the CBO, and their insurance would not cover as much.
Conservative Republican Senators and members of the House Freedom Caucus criticized the repeal and replace plan as not going far enough to curtail regulations on health insurance companies or reduce the cost of health care premiums. Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul called it "Obamacare lite."
