To the Editor:

Our Congressman Mark Meadows may have forgotten the needs of the voters who elected him. While Meadows wants to “drive down healthcare costs and insurance premiums,” his real aim seems to be eliminating government regulation and support for affordable medical care.

Meadows considers the Affordable Care Act “yet another healthcare entitlement” to be repealed. All subsidies and tax credits that help participants buy insurance would be eliminated. Clearly that would have a disastrous effect on thousands of industrious District 11 citizens who provide help for their families through Obamacare.

Rep. Meadows, a self-described fiscal hawk, believes driving down government costs is a priority. But a Western North Carolina food stand worker recently said, “It needs to be less about money and more about people.” She and her mother are scared that skyrocketing increases in prescription drug and hospitalization costs may do them in.

They and other Carolina workers interviewed on a national news program remarked that “maybe a ‘Medicare for All’ system would be better.” One local maintenance worker commented, “If you are going to help me, help me 100 percent, like other countries like Canada do.”

Ohio Representative John Conyers has submitted HR 676 – the “Expanded & Improved Medicare for All Act” to the 115th Congress. His bill can be properly funded using existing resources for healthcare revenue and small tax increases. All people would have the freedom to choose their health providers, and the end result would be vastly lower costs to individual families, corporations, and the government.

We cannot and should not allow Tea-Party Republicans to harm struggling families. If enough of us speak up for affordable, universal healthcare for all hard-working Americans, perhaps Rep. Meadows and the rest of Congress will enact a humane and fiscally-responsible healthcare bill like “Medicare for All.”

Frank L. Fox

Asheville