Health care coverage saves lives

I am a resident of the East Side. As someone whose life has been affected by the health-care crisis in America, the attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act were deeply personal to me.

My mom was 64 when she got lung cancer. Since she couldn’t afford to go to the doctor, the cancer went undiagnosed for months. When her excruciating back pain finally sent her to the emergency room, an aggressive carcinoma was filling one lung and strangling her spinal cord. She died six months later.

My mom would have been covered by Ohio’s Medicaid expansion. Sadly, she died before the expansion went into effect. I bring this up because insurance would have saved her life.

Indeed, when Medicaid was expanded in Ohio, many lives were saved. So when the future of this expansion was called into question, I took it very personally. I called and emailed Sen. Rob Portman, visited his office and spoke with staff members on a number of occasions. In the end, though, my concerns fell on deaf ears.

The senator cast a cynical vote to kick hundreds of thousands of his own constituents off health insurance and drive costs up for everyone else. All to score a political point.

Portman put politics ahead of Ohio, and Ohio will not forget that anytime soon.

Emily Webb Columbus they have no backbone.

I have been a Republican since Ronald Reagan was president, but I am going to change to independent. The GOP cannot support President Donald Trump because he is a businessman and did not spend his life as a politician.

Democrats come up with ideas with no substance but they stick together. Politicians stay in Washington for years and leave as millionaires. And they do not have to live by the laws they make.

At least Trump is bringing jobs and destroying Islamic State, but he gets no credit. Sad.