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Healthcare advocates to rally in L.A. to protect Affordable Care Act

Video by Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

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Hundreds of nurses, other healthcare workers and patients are expected to turn out at a noon rally to protest the national effort by Republican lawmakers to rescind the Affordable Care Act.

Sen. Kamala Harris, a California Democrat who opposes the repeal, is scheduled to appear with healthcare activists outside Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center in Boyle Heights.

Organizers of the rally, which includes Service Employees International Union and other labor groups, warn that a repeal of the law without a replacement will strip coverage from 5 million Californians and throw the healthcare system into chaos.

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Hundreds of nurses, healthcare workers, patients and politicians protest in Our First Stand Rally outside the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.
Hundreds of nurses, healthcare workers, patients and politicians protest in Our First Stand Rally outside the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times )

The protest is one of several across the nation planned by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) in an effort to save the national healthcare system.

President-elect Donald Trump has said that he expects Congress to act swiftly to dismantle the healthcare law, predicting last week that a “repeal and replace” will occur “simultaneously.” House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) has committed to having repeal and replace carried out this year.

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Republicans in both the House and Senate voted last week to take the first step toward repealing the law, which was signed in 2010 by President Obama.

david.zahniser@latimes.com

Twitter: @DavidZahniser

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