I see from the May 12 paper that Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, has reintroduced legislation that would require insurance companies to cover the cost of medically necessary nutrition for patients with certain digestive and/or metabolic disorders. This is common-sense legislation which I hope passes, and I laud Herrera Beutler for her stand on this.
But Rep. Herrera Beutler voted dozens of times to repeal significant portions of the Affordable Care Act. At least once she voted to eliminate the ACA in its entirety, in the absence of anything to replace it. Now, however, she has discovered the importance of quality affordable health care. She’s completely in favor of protecting those with preexisting conditions, opposes scrapping the ACA, etc.
A cynic might be inclined to think that this newfound dedication to affordable health care for all is the result of her realization that many of her constituents feared losing their health coverage and that this was going to cost her votes.
When Herrera Beutler voted to take affordable health care away from millions of Americans, she showed me her true colors. It’s going to take quite a lot to convince me that her recent votes to the contrary are anything other than political opportunism.
