Editor:
Thank you for your article on the Affordable Care Act in Humboldt (“The Faces of Obamacare,” March 6). I, like Jude Ehrlich, am thrilled to have health insurance after five years of going without. I am self-employed and eligible for government subsidies for the same basic plan I purchased until it became unaffordable.
I was astounded to hear that the only available Covered California insurance providers in our county refuse to reimburse providers a reasonable amount for services they used to pay for. I think this is yet more evidence that a single-payer system that cuts insurance companies out of the picture entirely is the only way to provide medical coverage to all. The corporate greed of insurance companies clearly outweighs what small amount of concern they may have for the well-being of their insured.
To my mind, providing a windfall for insurance companies by increasing their policies at the government’s expense was an apparently necessary evil in getting any health care reform passed. The first step in reform, said many. And yet Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield seem to interpret their monopoly over insurance coverage to make a power grab for even more profits for themselves, at the expense of patients, providers and everyone else in this country’s broken health care system.
Perhaps the corporate greed that seems to run our country makes true health care reform impossible. I believe Obama has the desire to provide something better for our population, but we as a voting populace lack the political will and compassion to move beyond the drive to make money for a few.
Janet Stock, Arcata
This article appears in The GPU.
Come on really you think single payer is the way to go. So you like the idea of your doctors office being the open door clinic? why would a doctor accept 10 bucs an hour to be a doctor when his schooling cost over a million. The rich will still get gold plan insurance because all the good doctors will be in there own practice that doesnt accept gov insurance and everyone else will be lining up at the E.R for substandard care. You will not have to worry though if single payers is what you want it is what you will get. obamacare was set up in a way that will cripple the insurance market and the u.s healthcare system. This was not done by mistake. Obama and the liberals knew they would never get single payer through a vote so they set up obamacare and wrote it in a way that has to fail. Once they cripple insurance market then they will have to step in and save the people by invoking a single payer system. This was thought out and planned and the law was wrote to accomplish single payer. Now i ask who pays for single payer? You do. which will take everyone who works paying 25% more in federal taxes.The price of milk will be 10 bucks a gallon and so on. Of the 5 million who have signed up 2 million are people who had insurance but got it cancled becasue of obamacare, 2 million are illegal immigrants, only 150,000 are people who didnt have coverage. why do you think the white house is not releasing the numbers of who is who in the 5 million. The law has all ready cost 1 trillion dollars and really no one has coverage yet. Obama had giving big business a pass in paying for obamacare, he has giving union a waiver to exempt there cadilac plans. he has delayed every paying part of obamacare besides the individual mandate. Just dont cry when you see what single payer is truely like. 6 month waits for a doctor, 1 year waits for surgery. just bing canadian wait time for doctors or surgery you will see what i am saying. The average age of life in the us will go back to 60 years old because what will be incentive to discover new drugs or even continue to make the ones they do.