By DON PERDUE
WAYNE -- It is with no little dismay that I note the number of candidates for political office who assert -- even brag -- they would repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act if they are elected.
In my view, that is a little like throwing your shoes away because the laces are too long.
Let's look a few of the things that will happen if the law is repealed:
* Children born with heart or lung disease (pre-existing conditions) will be denied health coverage.
* Those who have a serious accident or costly illness which require a lifetime of care will see ever-lowering dollar limits on their policies.
* The right to an appeal of an insurance company's decision to deny claims will be lost.
* Preventive screenings, vaccinations, etc. will not be automatically covered by all health plans
* Whatever "right to decide" you may be able to exercise regarding your health care will go back to the drug, medical corporate and insurance companies that, by the de facto power of the purse, have been making those decisions for us for too long.
* The donut hole will reappear and seniors will once again have to pay the entire (and inflated) cost of their medications themselves after they spend a certain amount.
It seems insane -- but oddly apparent -- that those who would repeal the entire law want our country's health system to remain behind 36 other countries in the World in terms of quality and effectiveness. They seem to want institutions whose standard of care is poor to continue to get paid at the same rate as those who do it right.
They would say we need to exercise "personal responsibility" with no regard whatever to provider, insurer, or payer "responsibility". In short they would have it that people who are sick or injured must continue to sell their lives as they have in order to feed a monster they (those who would repeal the PPACA) don't have the will to control.
Well, I'm not one of those people. If we need to shorten, change the color of, or re-tie the strings then fine. But unshod altogether is a poor way to travel the world we live in today.
Perdue, D-Wayne, is chairman of the House Health and Human Resources Committee.