Letter to the Editor: No freebies when it comes to health care

Composite stock image, St. George News

OPINION — Many states have no health insurance providers.

Premiums in states with coverage have become unaffordable.

Obama didn’t have the political stomach to ask for universal single payer health care, so we got Obamacare and it opened a can of worms.

Before 2009 working people paid for health insurance.  Some chose to go uninsured.  The poor were covered by Medicaid or charity.

The Affordable Care Act mandated everyone must have health care or suffer a tax penalty.  The working man paid a lot and the poor paid little or nothing.

So, what has happened in 8 years under Obamacare?  Premiums for working Americans have skyrocketed.  Government spending on health care is out of control.  Seventy-five million Americans are on Medicaid which was intended as a stopgap, not lifetime health insurance.

America is broke.  We owe $20 trillion dollars to creditors.  We can’t afford universal health care without doubling individual taxes and raising corporate taxes which would kill the economy.

The Republican bills in congress and the senate are saying “wait a minute”.  Do we want to be Europe?  Do Americans want to pay 60 percent of their income in taxes?

Or would we rather pay for our own insurance in an open market across state lines?  And, can the federal treasury afford to cover so many who are on Medicaid?  Perhaps the states should scrutinize Medicaid services and administer it according to regional needs.  The urban areas have different medical delivery systems than rural areas.

Can Americans have high level medical care without high premiums?  Of course not.  Can everyone who chooses unemployment or underemployment  be covered by Medicaid?  Of course not.  We are going to pay for what we get.

There are no freebies.

Democrats created the mess.  Now they don’t want to participate in the tough choices to fix it.

There is no perfect answer.  The economic reality and the politics don’t match.  Since the Democrats have opted out of a fix, I feel Republicans should let the pieces fall where they may.  Let Democrats work this out.  It’s their baby.  They have lost ground in every election since its inception.  Let them face another midterm election in 2018.

Submitted by CRAIG DAVIS, Washington, Utah

Letters to the Editor are not the product or opinion of St. George News and are given only light edit for technical style and formatting. The matters stated and opinions given are the responsibility of the person submitting them.

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Letters to the Editor are not the product of St. George News, its editors, staff or news contributors. The matters stated and opinions given are the responsibility of the person submitting them. They do not reflect the product or opinion of St. George News and are given only light edit for technical style and formatting.

 

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15 Comments

  • comments July 1, 2017 at 9:31 am

    He’s saying “democrats did it! democrats did it!”. The last republican president we had brought the entire US economy to near total collapse, 2 failed wars, $4.50/gal gas, and lets not forget the enormous costs of medicare part D–absolutely massive. I notice this particular wingnutter didn’t even discuss getting medical costs under control. An ignorant one-sided tirade is all this is, and likely from a trumpite loon. Didn’t this same clown already write a letter in this year?

  • Stephen Joe July 1, 2017 at 10:27 am

    Something tells me that Craig Davis is foolish yet.

  • Chris July 1, 2017 at 11:05 am

    “They have lost ground in every election since its inception.” Wrong. Democrats gained seats in both houses in 2016.

  • Pheo July 1, 2017 at 12:29 pm

    The first line is not in the same universe as the truth. I’d love to hear what states have no health insurance providers.

    The second thing is that while insurance premiums have gone up, the rate of insurance premium increases year over year is lower under Obamacare than before.

    This isn’t to say that healthcare isn’t too expensive. It is. Every other first-world country provides great care for far less than we do. Heaven forbid we learn something from them.

    To be clear, the current proposal for healthcare reform does nothing to decrease healthcare costs. It may decrease insurance premiums for some people, but it will do this by paying for fewer benefits and by reinstating lifetime or annual caps. Rather than decrease the costs of healthcare, the proposed bill will just shift the costs from the rich and/or healthy to the poor and/or sick.

    So enjoy your lower premium and pray that you never get cancer or have a child with a chronic, life-threatening disease. Your cheaper insurance plan will offer poor protection against financial ruin.

  • 42214 July 1, 2017 at 2:53 pm

    I’ve heard so many say that health care is a right. Is it a right equal to the rights listed in the Bill of Rights? Is health care a right just like the right to bear arms or freedom of religion? Is it a right meaning you merely have the right to have access to health care if you can afford it or choose to buy it. Is it a right that the government is obligated to pay for because if it is I want the government to buy a gun for me. I want the government to build a church for me so I can exercise my right to religion.
    We keep going in the wrong direction with entitlements and the national debt will never be brought under control.
    Margaret Thatcher brilliantly observed that socialism is the greatest for of government there is until the other guy runs out of money.

    • Pheo July 1, 2017 at 6:59 pm

      The preamble to the Constitution states that our government was provided in part to “promote the general welfare”, right after “provide for the common defence.” We have a collective cow over a few people dying in terror attacks, but don’t even blink an eye when tens of thousands of people die every year from not having adequate insurance.

      We could have better care for less by just expanding Medicare to all, but we won’t do it because we’ve decided that government is always the wrong answer. (Thanks, President Reagan!) The free market will work for those who are mostly healthy, with occasional scrapes or illnesses along the way. It has no mechanism to pay for people with cancer or other expensive chronic illnesses.

      The Republican plan aims to lower premiums, but it will do so by making insurance worse and returning cancer patients to the days where they had to face lifetime or annual benefits caps. Americans should not be going bankrupt because they were unlucky enough to get cancer. That is the system we had before Obamacare.

      • comments July 2, 2017 at 1:09 am

        A lot of republicans truly believe that if your poor and sick you should just just be let do die. I know for a fact paul ryan does. It’s very Hitleresque, and I’m sure mr. ryan is a fan. It’s not much of a stretch from Ayn Rand to hitler

  • jaybird July 1, 2017 at 9:28 pm

    This guy really drank the republican cool aid. Single payer which works really well in Canada and other places could work here too. Anyone on Medicare can tell you it works well here too, way better than the rising prices of private insurance. People griping about the “skyrocketing” costs of health coverage, just wait until you can’t get insurance because of your pre-existing conditions; then see your premiums skyrocket. The reason insurers are pulling out of markets is because republicans and their worthless leader have caused the market to become unstable by threatening to stop pay on subsidies. Take those subsidies out, the wealthy may get their big tax break, but the middle class will be back to paying for ER visits. Then, the hospitals can go out of business from bankruptcy.

  • commonsense July 1, 2017 at 9:39 pm

    There are several states that have no insurance carriers willing to provide insurance under Obamacare. Others have one carrier only. Working Americans pay high premiums while those choosing to not work pay little. The act is a mess of regulations, taxes and mandates.

    There is not a good solution down this path to government medicine. Dems will fix it by taxing working people or borrowing more money from China.

    The fact is America has good medical care available but someone has to pay for it. I would like to see more creative solutions. The bills currently before congress are not good. One thing I know for sure is government is not good at managing anything.

    • comments July 2, 2017 at 12:55 am

      Oh my goodness! The walking talking piece of human excrement we call a president has been putting together policies so bad that even republicans think they’re garbage, and you’re finally starting to see it. And you actually are realizing things he does are not good, like this health bill they cooked up. I realize you’ve likely been absorbing right-wing propaganda all your life (likely you’re a mormon), but there may be hope for u yet, even just a spark 😉

      • comments July 2, 2017 at 12:58 am

        I was actually gonna say something really nasty to u, but i finished ur comment and I wasn’t as offended as when i read the first few sentences. And you are very good at offending people, trust me, lol 😉

  • Craig July 2, 2017 at 8:49 am

    Thanks. You took the time to understand what is happening.

    Further, government provided healthcare is unconstitutional.

    • comments July 2, 2017 at 3:18 pm

      are u the idiot that wrote the letter?

  • commonsense July 2, 2017 at 5:23 pm

    Comments, you resort to name calling out of fear and uncertainty. The Dems passed Obamacare with no votes by Repubs. It’s their baby. They avoid owning it or fixing it. It’s a mess.

    Oh BTW, it was Clinton banking policy that drove this country to recession. Problem is, Obama made it worse with economy killing regulations. Blaming Bush Jr didn’t really solve much in eight years.

    Finally, Trump has turned the economy. Savings accounts may actually earn interest. During Carter, treasury bonds earned double digits. IRA accounts are up 40% since the election results were announced in November. America is becoming great again.

    So, instead of name calling and anger can we discuss policy and results?

    • comments July 2, 2017 at 7:29 pm

      With your black and white thinking of “repubs are so wonderful and perfect and godly, and dems are just evil godless libruls” what is there to discuss with you? You’re just very very simple minded, and I’ll just say it (again), I think you’re dumb. You didn’t answer of whether you’re mormon, so are you?

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