By Jim Ferrell – Special to the Pahrump Valley Times

Have we seriously considered the tragic costs of eliminating Obamacare? Do we really want to go back to letting profit for health insurance companies decide that your wife, husband, mother, father, aunt, uncle, grandparents, sons, daughters, cousins, and close friends do not qualify for medical treatment because they have pre-existing conditions or have used up the limits of their coverage, therefore not eligible to receive benefits? Is getting rid of Obamacare worth the sacrifice of lives of people who will die because they cannot get medical treatment?

Romney has repeatedly said “my first priority as president will be to eliminate Obamacare.” On one or more occasions he has said that he would replace it with coverage that would include pre-existing conditions, but just minutes after the first presidential debate he sent a correction which said, “only those who had pre-existing coverage would be covered.” In other words as time continues virtually everyone, except the very rich like Romney, will not have health coverage which includes pre-existing conditions.

Please remember it is very likely that you or someone close to you will die, sometimes a slow and painful death from lack of health coverage if Romney is elected.

Romney is being backed by powerful rich people like the Koch brothers, who with their billions are attempting, and in some cases succeeding, to privatize all areas of government. This poses some very serious moral issues.

For example, private prisons have lobbied and succeeded in getting Congress to impose longer sentences for offenses, because the private prisons are paid for each day that an offender remains in captivity.

Also, we the taxpayers, are paying more for prescriptions because the former Bush administration set up no bid contracts with drug manufacturers, contracts which net the drug manufacturers several billions each year, and many Republicans seem to think this is fine.

Similarly, their belief is no different for health care coverage. First, at least 10 percent of government funded health care is sliced off the top for profit, and then funds are established to set up a staff to act as gatekeepers, i.e., to find reasons to deny coverage. In addition the insurance companies have billed for services not given and provided services not needed. The result being that we, the taxpayers, have been shafted.

For example, Rick Scott, former CEO of a Medicare provider, and now the Republican governor of Florida, was charged for stealing $1.7 billion from Medicare. He took the 5th 77 times.

Now Romney and the Republicans are condemning Obama because he has reduced the amount the crooked providers have been stealing from Medicare by $716 billion — falsely saying that Obama has reduced coverage for Medicare recipients. Believe Republican lies if you like, but this is the truth.

Obamacare is probably not perfect, but it is far superior to the profit-for-health care we have had, and it can always be improved upon. There is an old saying, “Let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater.”

We have something that is good for America. Don’t let the fat cats take it from us so they can stuff their pockets more.