<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Friday, March 29, 2024
March 29, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

Letter: ACA reinforces hope to control cost

The Columbian
Published: December 10, 2014, 12:00am

Regarding Cela Kruse’s Nov. 30 letter “Premiums rise as benefits change,” I recognize her need to blame someone for the premium increases she’s experiencing, but she has her sights on the wrong target.

President Barack Obama and Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., in proposing and voting for the Affordable Care Act, were hoping for nothing more than to provide health insurance for the millions of uninsured Americans in danger of dying for want of affordable medical care and to prevent the many bankruptcies that occur through stratospherically high medical costs that only the wealthy and the insured can provide for themselves and their families.

Unless Kruse’s motive in writing is simply to reinforce the Republican Party’s mantra, she’d do the community a greater service by pinpointing the real cause of the upward march of her health care premiums: the relentless, merciless increases in the cost of health care itself. It’s a Wild West out there, an uncontrolled profit-making machine that rolls over and crushes anyone in its path unfortunate enough to be unprotected. It’s a market where prices rise exponentially, often with no proportional increases in result, and where government allows American families to be churned into financial mulch in the ever-grinding maw of almighty capitalism.

The limitless greed of the health care industry and Congress’ failure to rein in costs are the alpha and omega of Kruse’s problem, not the ACA.

Joel Littauer

Vancouver

We encourage readers to express their views about public issues. Letters to the editor are subject to editing for brevity and clarity. Limit letters to 200 words (100 words if endorsing or opposing a political candidate or ballot measure) and allow 30 days between submissions. Send Us a Letter
Loading...