Health care approach doesn’t make sense
To the editor:
The question, Mr. Hood is, why do we have to change 15 percent of our economy to provide 1/10 of the population with health care? If the government can fund Nebraska’s Medicaid, why can’t it do that for the rest of the states? We think that was still a bribe, a paid for vote, as were a few other key Democrat’s votes, and those few nickels do add up to a lot of money over the years. If one needs an incentive to vote for a bill, there must be something wrong with it.
The only things that need to be changed is the insurance companies should be stopped from canceling people’s policies when they get sick, can’t work and therefore can’t pay the premiums. Perhaps a catastrophic insurance policy through the health insurance company or another insurance company that would continue paying the premiums would be a good thing to investigate. Or, once unemployment for serious illness or injury is proven, the state could pay the premium until the person returns to work. And as for not being able to get insurance for pre-existing conditions, you can’t wait till you are sick before trying to get insurance. That is like getting fire insurance while the house is burning down.
And, we agree, one way or another, everyone should contribute something toward health care. How can that be done? Making it mandatory for everyone who has a job to pay for a basic policy that would cover serious medical situations, not the occasional visits to doctors that younger people most often take? That is if you are working you must have health insurance. Or an added tax to your income tax? (But that only adds to the federal government bureaucracy.) The best way seems to be an increase in the sales tax at the state level so that they can provide a backup to people who are not working, and are without insurance.
We should also do something about tort reform. But with most of Congress , being lawyers, that would be a hard thing to do.
This is a hard nut to crack. But upsetting 15 percent of the economy just doesn’t seem the right way to go. We should be putting all our energy into finding a way to help the 30 million that don’t have health insurance.
Bill and Doris Heyns
Cape Coral