Congressional Republicans continue to pursue their misguided and destructive efforts to take away affordable health insurance from tens of millions of Americans, increase premiums and deductibles for older and sicker individuals, and eliminate coverage for essential health care services.

Their latest scheme, the Graham-Cassidy bill in the Senate, is their worst proposal yet. It is strongly opposed by a wide variety of patient and medical professional groups.

On Monday, 16 of these groups issued a statement condemning this proposed legislation. These groups stated that the Graham-Cassidy bill would “negatively impact patient’s access to adequate and affordable health coverage and care” and urged the Senate to reject this harmful proposal.

Last week six major physicians’ groups, representing more than 560,000 doctors, sent a letter to Senators McConnell and Schumer, the Majority and Minority leaders in the Senate, strongly opposing the Graham-Cassidy bill. The letter characterized this bill as “disruptive and harmful” and stated that it would “have a negative effect on affordable coverage for patients across our nation.”

All of these groups urged Senators to reject the Graham-Cassidy bill and to work instead on bipartisan legislation to stabilize the current insurance market and reduce premiums and deductibles.

Congressman Fred Upton betrayed the residents of southwest Michigan when he caved in to pressure from Donald Trump and cast one of the deciding votes to pass the House of Representatives’ horrible “repeal and replace” bill. The Graham-Cassidy bill contains many of the same awful elements that were included in the House bill.

We the people need to oppose Congressional Republicans’ attacks on health care.

Please urge your Senators to vote against the Graham-Cassidy bill. In 2018, please vote to remove Fred Upton from office and to retain Senator Debbie Stabenow, a strong voice for positive health care legislation.

Larry Feldman

Lakeside