Several North Carolinians attended a town hall held by Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) in Swannanoa to confront McHenry about Obamacare on Wednesday, including a mother grieving the death of her son.


During a live interview with WLOS-TV reporter Kimberly King before the event, Leslie Boyd, of Asheville, said her son might still be alive had the health care law's protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions been in place sooner.


"My son had a pre-existing condition, a birth defect," Boyd said, holding a framed photo of her dead son. "And without that birth defect he probably would have been able to get insurance. But that birth defect prevented him from getting insurance and without it he could not get the care he needed. And so he got colon cancer and they caught it after it had already spread, so he died."


The Affordable Care Act prohibits the health insurance industry from discriminating against the sick starting in 2014[1] .


The Asheville Citizen-Times reported that health care dominated[2] the town hall, attended by roughly 270 people. The paper noted that while McHenry said he agreed with Obamacare's ban on denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, he has joined House Republicans in numerous votes to stymie the law.


"It's always a healthy thing when people come out to voice their concerns, even if I don't agree with them on every issue," McHenry told King in a separate interview[3] after King noted Asheville is a liberal area.


Americans United for Change, an Obama-allied liberal advocacy group, blasted the Boyd clip to reporters on Thursday.