Cover folks with pre- existing conditions

From the start of this health-care debate, a promise has been repeated: The practice of discriminating against people with a pre-existing condition will not be allowed.

In fact, U.S. Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Genoa Township, even cosponsored the Pre-existing Conditions Protection Act of 2017, introduced by U.S. Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, which is designed to ensure that enrollees cannot have benefits excluded from a plan because of pre-existing conditions, and that patients will not pay more based on their health-care status.

However, the latest amendment to the American Health Care Act breaks that promise. It allows states the option of waiving the ban on healthstatus rating if they have a high-risk pool, ushering in a patchwork health-care system in which patients can be charged more for having pre-existing conditions and cancer patients could be priced out of the market.

States also would be allowed to waive the requirement that health coverage must include essential health benefits, leaving cancer patients and survivors with no guarantee that chemotherapy, prescription drugs, prevention services or hospitalization would be covered.

These moves would set back the clock to when individuals with pre-existing conditions essentially would be denied coverage in certain states. We must move forward, not backward.

Please join me in calling on Tiberi to stand by his promise and vote against the American Health Care Act and the MacArthur Amendment.

Robert Indian Volunteer American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network Westerville