Good of constituents

To our senators: Please vote for the good of your constituents and against Trumpcare when you return from recess. I realize the ACA isn’t perfect and there are tradeoffs between it and the Senate bill. The new bill’s pros: lower premiums for the healthy, elimination of the uninsured penalty (also generally the healthy), and massive tax cuts (nearly a trillion dollars) for the top 1 percent and insurance companies. But the bill’s significant cons would affect the majority of your constituents:

• The CBO estimates 22 million, including 200,000 Arkansans, will lose health care, and 43,000 will die as a direct result.

• An estimated 1 million jobs lost over a decade, including 10,000-40,000 in Arkansas.

• A $500 million hit to the Arkansas economy, per Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

• Rural hospitals closing, with farmers disproportionately impacted.

• An estimated 5,000 Arkansas veterans will lose their health care after serving their country.

• Medicaid slashed (which funds about 60 percent of nursing home seniors, poor kids, and kids with disabilities).

• 62 percent of Arkansas Children’s Hospital’s revenue from Medicaid at risk.

• Protections for pre-existing conditions weakened or eliminated, affecting at least one in three people.

When you cast your vote, please consider whether the benefits for the select few (the wealthy and healthy) outweigh the cost to the majority of the people you represent (those with medical issues, seniors, veterans, poor kids, kids with disabilities). If that doesn’t sway you, then consider how many voters are winners versus losers from this bill. We’ll be watching your vote.

KELLY McCLEARY Bentonville