To the editor:

Young adult immigrants known as Dreamers in 19 states will be temporarily blocked from getting health insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s public marketplace. This includes Dreamers in Kansas, thanks to our state attorney general, Kris Kobach. Judge Daniel Traynor of the U.S. District Court in North Dakota issued the order this past week.

Lost is the lesson we should have all learned from the COVID pandemic. That is, we are all affected by the health of each and every one of us. So besides the more humanitarian argument of caring for one another, or the human right’s argument that all are deserving of equal access to health care, there is the larger issue. That is, we are all at risk of the spread of illness and disease when some in our communities do not have access to adequate health care.

Kobach called the recent court’s decision “a victory for the rule of law.”

I suggest, Mr. Kobach, that the victory is overshadowed by the threat of decreased health to all in our state. Perhaps Mr. Kobach should think in terms of “whole cloth,” as in we are all part of the fabric of our communities, rather than scraps and bits torn apart.

Kelly Wall,

Lawrence