Lifesaving protection

Despite the fact that 32 million Americans are in jeopardy of having their health insurance taken away, Congress and our new so-called president are still trying to dismantle the aptly named Affordable Care Act, which they insist on calling Obamacare.

Meanwhile, the law continues to prove that it’s working: More than 9.2 million Americans signed up for coverage through this year’s open-enrollment period. And that’s just in the states using the federal marketplace.

Tens of millions of people—like those who just gained coverage for 2017—are currently benefiting from this law. And congressional leaders still have yet to come up with any universal replacement health-care plan that would be better, have lower costs, cover more people, and continue to protect those with pre-existing conditions. I believe they cannot announce what their own plan would be because they have none. And they seem to have forgotten that the current plan is based on what were then Republicans’ ideas!

The fact is that repeal will cause chaos at the expense of care. It’s up to all of us to stand up and to keep speaking out about the lifesaving protections the Affordable Care Act guarantees, and the devastating effects that its repeal would cause to our health-care system. Yes, it can be improved; and the most practical, intelligent, economical, and effective way to proceed is to create a bipartisan committee to research and create ways to make needed improvements, not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. NANCY BAXTER North Little Rock