To the Editor:

The Tribune editorials by Senators Moran and Marshall concerning the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill were inexcusable for their lack of honesty in failing to admit or address the human tragedy that will result because of the bill. Amazingly, both senators failed to mention the Bill will result in an estimated 42,500 to 51,000 additional American deaths per year.

According to the Yale School of Public Health and the Institute of Health Statistics at the University of  Pennsylvania, the “Big Beautiful Bill” our GOP Kansas congressional delegation voted for will produce the following breakdown in deaths: 20,000 from working people losing health coverage from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act,18,000 low-income elderly from loss of prescription subsidies, and 13,000 due to loss of nursing home safe staffing standards. In fact, the deaths taken together would rank as the 10th leading cause of death in America, behind kidney disease and ahead of COVID deaths.

Other studies by Harvard Medical School and the University of California - San Francisco also project marked increases in hospitalizations and fatalities because of the bill. That increased morbidity and mortality is a by-product of the bill is not a debatable point. The only real question is how many of the most vulnerable Americans will suffer and die because of it.

Benjamin Franklin wrote that “half a truth is often a great lie” and in politics, it’s not what is said that is important but what is not said. The Big Beautiful Bill editorials speak volumes by their complete silence on the issue of human suffering implicit in the bill.  In the future I would hope our Senators will be more honest when addressing their constituents and hopefully find their misplaced Judeo-Christian ethics as well.

J. Bryan Mann, MD

(Retired physician and Wichita State University educator)

Valley Center