Health care is on the mind of voters meeting Thursday with staffer for US Senator Joni Ernst

A staff member for U.S. Senator Joni Ernst's office, Brittney Ann Zumbach, met Thursday with about two dozen constituents in the Decorah Public Library Meeting Room.

While a number of other issues such as immigration and President Trump's performance in office were brought up, the biggest topic of discussion was the US Senate's attempt to pass new health care legislation.

Decorah resident Lise Kildegaard told Zumbach that her son, who is in his 20s and gets health insurance through his parents' policy, "is one of the many, many people helped by Obamacare."  Decorah resident Karl Jacobsen appealed to Zumbach to ask Ernst to work across party lines to preserve Medicare and Medicaid and to come up with a health system that works.

Retired Decorah doctor Kevin Sand told Zumbach, "When you take away health insurance, people get sick, people die."  Winneshiek Medical Center Chief Administrator Lisa Radtke--who said she was speaking on behalf of herself and not as a hospital spokesperson--said cuts to health insurance would mean "our most vulnerable members of society are going to be impacted."

Zumbach said she would take the comments of the Decorah residents back to Senator Ernst.  Earlier this week Ernst voted in favor of the latest Republican Party health insurance proposal, which would have taken health insurance away from an estimated 22 million people, but failed to get enough votes in the US Senate.