More than 3,000 people in Lake County are covered by the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare).

Thanks to the Republican Congress, their coverage is about to be repealed with no replacement in place.

For many that means that treatment they are receiving for often serious illnesses will cease unless the patient can cover the cost – an impossibility for most.

It also means that subsidies that are provided to our rural hospitals will be cut and our less-than-optimal current health coverage here in Lake County will be reduced even further.

Keeping your kids on your policy until they are 26, no lifetime maximums and coverage of pre-existing conditions – all will be gone. People will die – our neighbors and our friends.

And next in the GOP’s sights – Medicare and Social Security, which would have a devastating effect on so many in this county who rely on both programs.

Don’t be silent – contact your senators and your congressmen. Tell them to fight to make the president and Congress keep their word that they would only repeal the ACA if they had a replacement, and that they wouldn’t reduce Social Security or Medicare.

And, by the way, do your research and don’t be fooled, health savings accounts are not an adequate replacement for the ACA.

HSAs are a way for you to save your own money to pay for your own health care. If you have no funds to save, you will have no money to pay for your chemotherapy, birth control, surgeries, prescriptions, etc.

You will have no other option but to file for bankruptcy as more than half a million people a year did prior to the Affordable Care Act.

Gillian Parrillo lives in Lakeport, Calif.