Sarah K. Hutchinson: Republicans must protect their constituents’ health

President Trump and his administration are making dangerous decisions about healthcare that will be devastating to the Central Valley. Actions to cut back on funding to help people sign up for insurance, allow “skinny policies” that don’t cover maternity benefits or pre-existing conditions, and allowing employers to deny contraceptive coverage could have an impact on 6.8 million Californians who work for larger employers or smaller self-insured companies like Hobby Lobby.

While there’s hopeful word of a bi-partisan agreement to make subsidy payments to insurance companies, which the President wanted to deny, we believe our Republican leaders can do more. They need to stand up to the President publicly and vote against these disruptions.

We call on Representatives Jeff Denham, Devin Nunes, David Valadao and Kevin McCarthy to put the health of their constituents before politics and take Congressional action to prevent loss of coverage and higher premiums for our communities. We will hold them responsible for the higher costs and less comprehensive coverage these actions will cause.

This story was originally published October 20, 2017 at 11:35 AM with the headline "Sarah K. Hutchinson: Republicans must protect their constituents’ health."