Today we have a treat we haven’t had for a while. A guest post by Larry Hodgden from Tipton.

Larry is a retired Viet Nam era veteran of the USAF. He and his wife of 40 years, Sharon, have three children and seven grandchildren who keep him very busy. Family, education, church and politics have been a lifelong passion.

Today millions of our fellow citizens have, for the first time, an opportunity to purchase the insurance protection most of us have always taken for granted. Many of them were shut out of the market because of cost and/or pre-existing conditions. People just like you but unable to protect their family from financial ruin by an illness or to get the routine care many of us take for granted.

They now have access to a competitive insurance market which cannot deny coverage and offers affordable policies for everyone. In addition, adult children under 26 can remain on family policies, your insurance cannot be dropped because of a major illness or because you have reached an arbitrary lifetime maximum. There are also many preventative health care services available at no charge and if your insurer does not spend a reasonable amount on health care, you will get a refund. These are only a few of the many benefits available under the Affordable Care Act.

This law was debated, passed by Congress and was signed into law by the President in 2010. The Supreme Court ruled it to be constitutional and a referendum on the law was held during the Presidential election in 2012. It is the law of the land.

Yet the Republicans insist on overturning this law as a ransom for them to allow our government to function. This shows a great deal of ignorance about how our democracy is supposed to work under our Constitution. Any high school student would know better. These Republicans are the same people who have never produced a plan of their own nor are they working on a plan.

One must assume they like the double digit increases in health care costs we’ve had for over 30 years, or maybe they like having 30 million Americans without access to affordable health insurance, or could it be they like families with a child or other family member with a serious illness being unable to qualify for insurance.

Are these Republicans really so callous as to not care about anyone but themselves? And how about those who are so negative toward this plan, yet, have good health insurance through their government job or provided by their private employer or worse yet, are on Medicare.

One of the purposes of our Union as clearly stated in the preamble to our Constitution calls for us to “Promote the general welfare”. Republicans promote the welfare of the wealthy and the comfortable while ignoring the needs of women, children and the least fortunate, actions which more closely represent a philosophy of “I’ve got mine, to hell with you”.