Instead of repeal, revise, improve
My adult daughter has celiac disease. If the Affordable Care Act is repealed, heaven forbid she should lose her job and be forced into the individual health insurance market. Untreated celiac disease can lead to myriad medical conditions, for which insurance companies would undoubtedly deny coverage, citing celiac disease as a pre-existing condition. Should she develop health care problems later in life she could be denied insurance coverage and access to affordable health care, or be forced into bankruptcy to pay for care.
Every politician supporting repeal of the act should be asked this fundamental question: Do you believe that every American citizen should be guaranteed the right of equal access to affordable health care, as are the citizens of virtually every other developed country in the world? This question when answered affirmatively need not lead to uncontrollable health care costs. Other developed countries provide universal health care to all citizens, do so at costs as a percent of GNP, and per-capita that are substantially lower than in the United States, and achieve health care outcomes that are as good as or better than ours. We are the richest country in the world, and considered to be the most innovative. Surely, we can offer our citizens a right to health care and achieve health care outcomes for them that match those provided to citizens of other developed countries around the world, while matching cost efficiencies that have been achieved in those countries.
Politicians who answer this fundamental question negatively reveal a willingness to control health care costs on the backs of uninsured and underinsured Americans, and a lack of empathy for citizens who are deprived of adequate health care, or face financial ruin to obtain it. Many who support repeal may be of this ilk. This act is imperfect, especially when it comes to cost controls, but should repeal succeed, through legislative or judicial means, a genuine commitment to replace it may not exist. Instead, the opportunity to extend health care coverage to large numbers of uninsured Americans could be lost for another generation.
Therefore, instead of “repeal and replace.” our elected representatives should be working to revise and improve the act.
James Bluemle
Sugar Grove