Regarding the Jan. 29 op-ed by Rep. Virginia Foxx (“Expensive and unsustainable: Obamacare must go”): Foxx represents North Carolina’s 5th Congressional District. As her constituent, I was intrigued by this headline and eager to read her ideas on how to improve upon the Affordable Care Act.I was dismayed to see that Foxx’s article was more concerned with berating Obamacare than with providing specific ideas for improvement. She wrote that the Republicans’ new plan will “give working families more control and more options.” She did not, however, provide examples of how this control would be granted. I am concerned about the lack of detail Foxx is willing to disclose about a replacement plan.I pose two questions to Foxx and her fellow Congressmen about their plan to replace the Affordable Care Act:First, does their proposed plan protect people with preexisting conditions? Before the Affordable Care Act, insurers could deny coverage to people with basic preexisting conditions, like a prior diagnosis of breast cancer. I am curious to know whether the proposed plan from Republicans would protect these patients?Second, does the proposed plan include coverage for the treatment of mental illness? The Affordable Care Act made great strides in recognizing the importance of behavioral health disorders by requiring that all plans offered through the Health Insurance Marketplace cover treatments for these conditions. It is imperative that any replacement plan also include coverage for behavioral health disorders.Representative Foxx and her fellow legislators must be held accountable to provide voters with specific details of a replacement plan before they repeal the Affordable Care Act. So far, it seems they are content to rely upon grandiose statements that sound impressive but lack real substance.Meredith WasWinston-Salem
LETTER: ACA replacement plans needs specifics
