Millions of our neighbors, friends and family members — ordinary Americans — live in dread of the next illness or injury because they lack health insurance. The next emergency may bankrupt them. An undiagnosed illness may kill them. And a chronic condition may make insurance forever unaffordable. This has been our real, human crisis, and President Obama met it head-on.
Despite implacable opposition from those who plotted his failure, he led the formation of a national solution, a uniquely American creation, limiting government where possible and giving private industry the greatest possible role. Conservatives should've been delighted.
It was a compassionate, noble, shining effort.
But the haters doubled down. In the months since passage, they've relentlessly misrepresented the law. Ignoring great human need, they've yammered away, endlessly appealing to naked selfishness.
I've been stunned by the otherwise sweet, wholesome citizens who've bought into the lies. People speak as if good is evil, and evil is good. It's incomprehensible and embarrassing.
And though the Affordable Care Act was inspired by Gov. Romney's own proud Massachusetts creation, candidate Mitt Romney now makes the breathtaking, eye-popping, hypocritical promise to immediately dismantle it if elected. Amazing.
LOREN BAUMAN
Modesto
Editor's Note: An understandable recap of the changes under the Affordable Care Act is available at the Kaiser Family Foundation Web site, www.kff.org.
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