Get informed on health care before voting

In preparation for the November elections, it is important for voters to educate themselves on the complex issues surrounding health care.

The Affordable Care Act, while not perfect, is designed to balance the right of all Americans to affordable care, develop evidence-based standards for minimum coverage and create programs that may help to reduce health care costs.

Since the beginning of 2017, there has been a methodical effort to dismantle the law. Repealing the individual mandate, discontinuing cost-sharing payments, allowing non-conforming plans, abandoning evidence-based research projects and refusing to defend the requirement for coverage of preexisting conditions have served to weaken the health care marketplace and protections for consumers.

This affects us all in the Lowcountry. We will see premium increases as healthy individuals leave the insurance marketplace. Hospitals will see increased costs as the uninsured seek care and are unable to pay. These costs will be passed on to those who have insurance.

Medicare is at risk since instability in the commercial marketplace affects Medicare payments and long-term viability. The nearly 40 percent of Beaufort County residents who are covered by Medicare should care deeply about these craven efforts to destabilize the health care marketplace

Every citizen should be taking the time to familiarize themselves with the issues surrounding health care from reliable sources such as the Kaiser Family Foundation (www.kff.org), The Commonwealth Fund (www.commonwealthfund.org), the American Medical Association (www.ama-assn.org), and the American Nurses Association (nursingworld.org).

Informed voters protect the interests of residents of the Lowcountry based on fact and not hyperbole.