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Letter: Mandatory insurance is the answer

The Columbian
Published: October 3, 2011, 5:00pm

Of course it’s true: “Report: Health insurance costs surge in 2011,” reported in a Sept 28 story. Hospitals are required by law to treat sick or injured people whether or not they can pay. Their health care costs money, so those of us who are insured have to be charged enough when we go there to cover the costs of the uninsured or hospitals would go broke. And since our health insurance companies cover us, they have to charge higher premiums to cover the uninsured costs that hospitals must add to our bills.

And don’t let anybody blame it on illegal immigrants. Yes, some of the cost is caused by them, but the vast majority of uninsured people who use emergency rooms for free medical care are U.S. citizens.

The obvious solution? Mandatory health insurance, as in what is sneeringly called “Obamacare.” Only the uninformed fail to see that it is the only possible solution to the problem of rapidly rising medical insurance premiums. All other types of insurance spread their cost exposure to the general public. Until medical insurance does likewise, the premiums of those who are insured will increase more and more.

To quote President Obama on a different subject: That’s not politics; it’s math.

Larry McCagg

Battle Ground

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