Health care re-do will push us to brink

At a recent health care policy visit to Congressman Peter Roskam's district office in St. Charles, I stated that I was representing homeless families. The receptionist matter of factly asked me, "What does homelessness have to do with health care?"

What a good question. In my three decades working with homeless families, youth and adults, I assured him that health care, or the lack thereof, has plenty of connections to homelessness.

Especially prior to the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, people were overwhelmed by medical bills, forced into bankruptcy, eviction or other economic duress, and landed on the streets. Lack of access to medical care, still a problem, was epidemic pre-ACA, causing hospitals to either turn away or prematurely release patients to the streets. Health issues cause job loss, a common path to the streets. Poor health, among other things, makes a person an undesirable employee, substandard student, inadequate parent; leading to, among other things, inadequate income which starts the spiral to the streets.

Proposed changes to Obamacare will, simply put, escalate the pre-homelessness crises that will push millions of teetering American adults and children onto the streets.

None of us likes homelessness, especially those who find themselves in that snowballing condition. It's expensive short and long-term, personally destructive, and creates quality of life issues for everyone.

Mr. Roskam has the opportunity to cast an enlightened vote opposing the America Health Care Act. On behalf of thousands of his constituents and millions more nationwide, I urge him to oppose dismantling our current plan, which by the way was a Republican plan that had the "misfortune" of being nicknamed for our last president who signed it.

Diane Nilan

Naperville