Recently I received a flier from U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas, informing me that the Affordable Care Act will cost jobs; raise premiums; limit choices; harm veterans; drive small businesses into bankruptcy; destroy our health, our democracy and our economy; and prevent the sun from rising ever again.
Herrera Beutler’s own baby was born with Potter Syndrome, a medical condition that would surely have caused the child’s death had our representative not had sufficient medical coverage through her government benefits. Now Herrera Beutler is trying her best to deny that same care to children of parents who had, until Obamacare, no insurance to cover it.
But this is what it means to be Herrera Beutler: grab all the benefits you can get and deny the same benefits to others. There’s nothing in her flier about serving the people she is supposed to represent, just ideological claptrap about denying health insurance to those who need it most and can afford it least.
Would I prefer that her child had died? Of course not. I prefer that we all have the same chance for life and health that medical insurance provided Herrera Beutler’s family.
