Republicans put politics ahead of public health

Editor:

With the election not far away, I think it is a good idea to look at the priorities of the political parties. Since I am interested most in health care, I was very interested in “Middle of the pack” (Reading Eagle, Sept. 19), which shows how Pennsylvania rates in the health care of its children. Pennsylvania was in the middle of the rankings, but I found most interesting how all the states ranked. The five best were all Democratic-controlled states, and the five worst were all Republican-controlled. This should tell us something about the parties’ priorities.

President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act offered states an expansion of Medicaid with the federal government helping to pay for it. It seems for the good of each state’s poorest citizens that this would be a no-brainer, but it wasn’t for the states controlled by Republicans.

I’m sure those states had a good reason. I’m sure they didn’t deny their citizens health care just because it was Obama who offered it. We are talking about millions of people.

While voting we should consider these facts.

Judith Matuszak
Fleetwood