Wow. To listen to the Republican presidential candidates, you'd think the new Affordable Health Care Act was a major threat to the American way of life. Here are some of its significant provisions; you be the judge.

-- Provides health insurance coverage to Americans who have been denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions or denied benefits when needed most.

-- Guarantees the right to appeal insurance company decisions.

-- Provides tax credits to small businesses to assist them in providing health insurance to their employees.

-- Saves the country money (nonpartisan experts predict the act would save over $100 billion in the first 10 years, and over a trillion in the second decade).

-- And most contentiously, encourages Americans who can afford health insurance to buy it to protect their families from unplanned illness or injury, and not pass the cost of their medical treatments to those who pay for health insurance.

So don't believe the Republican presidential candidates who criticize everything the Obama administration has done (including the government bailout of Chrysler and GM, which saved hundreds of thousands of American jobs and gave these companies the opportunity to recover to the profitability they enjoy today). The Affordable Health Care Act really is good for America.

Rob Gohd, Kennewick