By Mike Hothi
Dozens of protestors gathered outside the Republican National Committee (RNC) headquarters Tuesday to stage the mock death of an emergency room patient.
The demonstrators, calling themselves Code Blue, were rallying against cuts to Medicare and Medicaid proposed in Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis) budget plan. Under the proposal, Medicaid reform would cut roughly $1 trillion over 10 years, turning it into a block grant to the states.
One demonstrator dressed as a hospital patient was laid out on a gourney and pretended to go into cardiac arrest. As the demonstration continued, a man calling himself the budget cutter went around and forced nurses to quit helping the dying patient because they couldn’t afford it.
“Nurses from big cities and small towns have gathered here to call a code blue on our healthcare system. We are also here to call a code blue on the Republican mission to shift more healthcare costs onto seniors and working families,” one activist shouted.
Diane Palmer, a nurse from Wisconsin stated, “this is dangerous to our patients and its dangerous for jobs in America. We are saying no cuts.”