Pence to visit Little Rock today, tout health care proposal

Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the Harshaw Trane Parts and Distribution Center, Saturday, March 11, 2017, in Louisville, Ky.
Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the Harshaw Trane Parts and Distribution Center, Saturday, March 11, 2017, in Louisville, Ky.

FRIDAY UPDATE: Vice President Mike Pence's visit to Little Rock has been canceled. Click here for more information. The story that ran in Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette appears in full below:

WASHINGTON -- As the White House worked to round up votes for the proposed American Health Care Act, Vice President Mike Pence was preparing to travel to Arkansas to focus attention on the issue.

The former Indiana governor is to attend what’s billed as a “Health Care Listening session” this afternoon at Little Rock Tours and Travel.

The company's co-owner, Gina Martin, said she found out Monday evening that Pence would be visiting. By Tuesday morning, a security team was scouting the site.

It's been busy ever since, she said.

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"There's Secret Service everywhere and I've got a SWAT team. ... I've got snipers on my roof. I'm telling you, it's pretty crazy this week," she said in a telephone interview.

The vice president will arrive on Air Force Two; he won't have to travel far once he lands.

Little Rock Tours and Travel is roughly 3 miles from the city's main airport; it's located just off of Interstate 30 near Roosevelt Road.

A roundtable discussion is scheduled for 1:45 p.m. A speech, which is open to the public, is set for 2:30 p.m.

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Afterward, Pence is to fly to Memphis, where his wife's alma mater, Butler University, faces the University of North Carolina in an NCAA basketball tournament game this evening.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a Notice to Airmen informing them that there would be "temporary flight restrictions" in the Little Rock area Friday due to "VIP movement."

Planes taking off or landing at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field are exempted from the order. So are emergency responders and military aircraft that are assisting the Secret Service and the vice president's office.

Martin, who founded the company in 2003, is a longtime opponent of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. At a 2013 news conference in Washington, D.C., she described the negative effects the law has had on her business. Several months later, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, quoted one of Martin's remarks in a speech that was later published in the Congressional Record.

In 2014, Martin appeared in a television campaign commercial urging voters to help then-U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton unseat then-U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor. Pryor had supported the Affordable Care Act, she said, adding, "It's already costing us a fortune."

Since then, the problems caused by the Affordable Care Act haven't been fixed, she said.

"It's definitely raised our rates," she said. "It's a regulatory nightmare. ... Not only that, but the insurance isn't as good as it used to be."

Her copays are higher and her premiums have soared. "My family of four, we pay almost $1,100 a month. Before Obamacare, we were paying around $700," she said.

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With a close vote expected in the House of Representatives, Pence has spent much of this week trying to sway skeptical Republican lawmakers to support the proposed American Health Care Act.

On Saturday in Jacksonville, Fla., he touted the Republican health care legislation during a meeting with small-business owners and government officials.

Earlier this week, he made similar pitches during interviews with media outlets in Oklahoma, Louisiana, Tennessee and elsewhere.

When Pence's Arkansas trip was announced, White House officials were predicting that the legislation would be approved in the House by the end of the day Thursday.

Later in the afternoon, with the outcome still uncertain, Republican leaders said the vote would be postponed.

Officials with the Republican Party of Arkansas said Pence's visit would be unaffected by the Capitol Hill impasse.

"The Arkansas GOP is really excited. This is the first time that the vice president has been to Arkansas since he's taken on this new position," party spokesman Steve Houserman said.

Those wanting to attend the speech will be shuttled to the event from the parking lot at Horace Mann Middle School, 1000 E. Roosevelt Road.

"Just make sure you get there early," Houserman said, recommending that people arrive an hour or two early so that there's time to clear security and get to the speech.

Pence will be visiting a solidly red state. Arkansas voted overwhelmingly for President Donald Trump in November, and every member of the congressional delegation is a Republican.

Three of the state's four U.S. representatives already support the proposed American Health Care Act.

U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford of Jonesboro is the only House member who plans to vote against it.

"Big government under Republicans versus big government under Democrats is still big government," Crawford said earlier this week.

Cotton, a longtime opponent of the Affordable Care Act, announced Tuesday that he couldn't support the legislation, predicting that the Senate would refuse to approve it in its current form.

Democrats say the Republican proposal will leave millions of Americans without health care.

In a written statement, Democratic Party of Arkansas Chairman Vince Insalaco warned that passage of the legislation could strip health insurance from hundreds of thousands of Arkansans.

"It is the most vulnerable among us who will pay the steepest price of this administration's irresponsible policies," he added.

A Section on 03/24/2017

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