Wow. I don’t think Ed Tharp likes the Affordable Care Act much, or me, either, for that matter (“King Angus and the working serf,” Oct. 21, Page A6).

He seems particularly steamed about two things, the so-called personal mandate under the Affordable Care Act, which requires everyone to purchase health insurance, with help on the premium if they can’t afford it; and the supposed special deal that members of Congress get on their health plan.

Here’s the thing about requiring the purchase of health insurance: It’s based on the old conservative principle of personal responsibility, the idea that we shouldn’t burden our neighbors to take care of us if we can help it.

In our country today, no one is denied medical care because they can’t pay, which means if you don’t have insurance but need care, all the rest of us pay for your treatment in the form of higher insurance premiums and hospital and doctor fees. This is the same idea that’s behind Maine’s longtime requirement that all drivers buy car insurance, which I’ve never heard much complaint about.

The other reason it makes sense to require people to have insurance is that one of the most important features of the ACA is its requirement that insurance companies cannot deny coverage because of “preexisting conditions” — a provision which has made coverage available to millions of Americans who have previously been shut out of the insurance market at any price. Almost everyone believes this is a good idea.

But the personal mandate and “no pre-existing conditions” go hand in hand — without the mandate, no one would buy insurance until they were in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

Finally, the congressional exemption hoax. Most of us, maybe even Mr. Tharp, get our health insurance through our work, and our employer pays a portion of the premium, usually between 50 percent and 80 percent. So it is with federal employees, including members of Congress and their staffs; this has been true for something like 60 years.

The simple fact is, my health care plan is the same as a park ranger in Yellowstone National Park — or Acadia, for that matter — an air traffic controller, or a border control officer in Van Buren.

And this kind of employersupported health coverage is exactly the same arrangement as with most American workers — so it’s not such a special deal, after all.

After this year, members of Congress will have to purchase our insurance through the new health care exchanges with the employer share continuing — as it has for decades. Rather than being exempt from the ACA, Congress actually opted in when the law passed in 2010.

There’s plenty to criticize about Congress — like shutting down the government and gambling with the country’s credit rating for no good reason — but having a non-existent special deal on health care isn’t one of them.

U.S. SEN. ANGUS S. KING JR. is an independent from Brunswick.