GREER, S.C. — Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Annie Andrews told voters in Greer, S.C., on Tuesday, Oct. 6, that protecting Medicaid from scheduled federal cuts would be her first priority if elected.
The roughly half-hour campaign event at the Tryon Recreation Center focused almost entirely on health care. It was moderated by two Upstate health professionals: Octavia Amaechi, chief medical officer of ReGenesis Healthcare, and community health worker Angelia Edwards-Means.
Andrews, a pediatrician from the Lowcountry, argued that the Medicaid reductions in the 2025 Republican budget law would ripple well beyond people enrolled in the program. She said hospitals would be pushed to slow expansion and hiring, emergency rooms would become more crowded, and premiums would rise for people with employer coverage, marketplace plans or Medicare.
She also said she supports a government-funded public option alongside private insurance, a cap on out-of-pocket insulin costs, and letting Medicare negotiate drug prices.
Republican Sen. Darline Graham, whom Andrews faces on Nov. 3, has a different approach. A Graham campaign spokesman, T.W. Arrighi, said in a statement that the senator wants a more transparent and competitive health system to drive down prices, and that adding more government involvement would make the problem worse.
The two candidates and Libertarian Kasie Whitener are scheduled to meet in the race’s only planned debate Sunday evening in Columbia. Election Day is four weeks away.
