SOMETHING OF VALUE

     These last few days have been terrible.  I have had nightmares almost every night.

     Two nights ago I dreamt that I was the Director of Public Relations for Penn State University.  I was drafting a speech to defend an indefensible position.

     Then last night I dreamt that Mitt Romney had repealed the Affordable Care Act.  It’s no wonder I am stressed out.   I am at the age where health is a major concern.

      If Romney is elected and if he is successful in his plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act, would this mean:

·       We would no longer be able to keep our young adult kids on the family health policy,

·       Insurance companies could cap the amount of care we receive and cancel our policy if we get sick,

·       The requirement for insurance companies to cover preventive services like mammograms would be eliminated,

·       Insurance companies could refuse coverage for pre-existing conditions,

·       The plan to build and improve hundreds of community health centers would be scrapped, and

·       Tax credits to small business owners to help them afford to offer quality health care for employees would also be cancelled?

     What worries me most is that if the Republicans are successful in torpedoing this constitutionally approved health care plan, we don’t have a clue as to what they would do to replace it.   As far as I can tell, their “plan” is doing whatever it takes to beat President Obama and take over both houses of Congress.

     Many years ago I read Robert Ruark’s novel  “Something of Value.”  The social philosophy of this novel was the warning, “If you do away with the traditions of the past, then you must first replace them with ‘Something of Value.’”

      It is time that Romney and his Republican cohorts provide us with “Something of Value” if they persist in destroying our nation’s first major health plan.