Letter: Newhouse caters to wealthy, not health of constituents

Section 1233 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) was to provide counseling about living wills, advance health directives and end-of-life care options.

Many of you may recall back in 2009 when the ACA was being debated, the Republicans called this provision “death panels” to determine who would receive medical care. However, the real death panels at the time were the medical boards of the health insurance companies. They were the ones who decided who lived or died based on corporate profits.

Now that the Republican-controlled House has passed the American Health Care Act (AHCA) that allows states to terminate many of the ACA protections, such as pre-existing conditions and basic medical care, the country has a new death panel — the Republican politicians. Our representative, Dan Newhouse, was absent during the House vote and didn’t cast a vote for the AHCA, but has publicly voiced his support for it.

So, join me in congratulating the appointment of our own local health care death panel representative; Mr. Dan Newhouse. It’s clear that he caters to the wealthy and corporate profiteers (i.e., campaign contributors) rather than the health of the constituents he claims to represent.

This story was originally published May 30, 2017 at 11:07 PM with the headline "Letter: Newhouse caters to wealthy, not health of constituents."