Dear Senator Gardner:

Once again, I am writing to insist that you vote against Trumpcare and the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

First and foremost, the process for this bill can only be described as surreal. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that you do not even know what you are voting on. There have been no hearings; there has been no input from the insurance industry, health care providers or patient advocacy groups; there has been no attempt to seek input from your colleagues in the Democratic body. One would think that the world’s greatest deliberative body would want to take those steps.

Donald Trump is insisting that you vote on a bill that you have not seen, that will impact 17% of the economy without any understanding of the bill’s impacts. What could possibly go wrong?

We should never pass a law that will have this big an impact on the economic health of this country without some understanding of the expected impact. The very idea is absurd, yet that is what Trump insists you should do.

Second, the very idea of this bill is deeply immoral. Based on studies of Rommneycare in Massachusetts and people who received Medicaid as part of the ACA’s expansion of that program, we can expect an increase of 20,000 deaths per year. To put that in perspective, the highest number of Americans killed in action during the Vietnam war in a single year (1968) was 16,592. It boggles the mind to think that any member of Congress would vote in favor of a bill guaranteed to cause the deaths of fellow Americans that is not a declaration of war. There is only one word for such a law – evil.

The repeal of the ACA will guarantee that 23 million Americans will go without insurance, and therefore without meaningful medical care. It is not possible for a Christian to vote for a measure that will so increase the suffering of so many people. As a Lutheran, you should consider well the position of the Evangelical Lutheran Church

“We of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have an enduring commitment to work for and support health care for all people as a shared endeavor. Our commitment comes in grateful response to God’s saving love in Jesus Christ that frees us to love and seek the well-being of our neighbor.”

We simply should not be the only industrialized country in the world without universal health care. We provide significant aid to Israel and they provide universal care. Botswana and Costa Rica provide for such care. Would you return us to the days when Homer Simpson was right when he said “America's health care system is second only to Japan, Canada, Sweden, Great Britain, well ... all of Europe. But you can thank your lucky stars we don't live in Paraguay!”

Trumpcare is an evil madness. I urge you to vote against it.

Yours most sincerely and respectfully

Michael J. Sexton