To the Editor:

If you or any of your loved ones has a pre-existing medical condition and private medical insurance, you should be aware of a serious threat to your coverage. 

Before the Affordable Care Act (“Obama Care”), insurance corporations were  allowed to cancel insurance or deny your policy in the first place if they felt you had a pre-existing  condition. The ACA for the first time did away with this cruel practice that cut off thousands from treatment for cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other illnesses. Over 120 million Americans were protected. 

So it is with anger — but not surprise — that I read Thom Tillis’ campaign materials bragging that he is 100 percent for protecting Americans’ health. 

Really? He is 100 percent with President Trump in pledging to destroy the Affordable Care Act. He has in fact voted against it on the Senate floor where heroes like John McCain stopped this travesty. Now Tillis is eager to appoint a judge to replace Ruth Bader Ginsberg and push the Supreme Court to wipe out the protections of the ACA once and for all. 

The  Republican plan to replace the ACA? Madison Cawthorn says it’s to have more corporate insurance companies get their share of the pie (16 to 20 percent of your dollars goes to their profit). 

Mike Clampitt also opposes the ACA and also refuses to expand Medicaid.  In Ohio, it was expanding Medicaid that brought down the opioid death toll by over 50 percent, according to the Republican governor. 

Tillis, like Trump, offers no plan to replace the ACA. Since 2016, Trump has stated at least 8 times that the “greatest health care ever” was just weeks away. There is no such plan. 

However, there is a plan to undermine Medicare and Medicaid, and 75 percent of WNC families have at least one member in those programs. Even the ultimate “socialist” program — Social Security — is under threat. As Trump said at the Davos Economic Forum on CNBC last year, it’s all “on the table — but only after the election.” Very sneaky, but at least the billionaires got their tax cut

Steve Wall

Waynesville