Your “Killing the Poor to Pay Millionaires” headline [Editorial, Sept. 20 and June 28] is one of the most demagogic I’ve ever seen. It slanders as killers those who support reforming Obamacare. The article is full of dire predictions associated with the Senate's current Obamacare reform legislation, but no sources are cited for most of those predictions, leaving the reader to conclude they were pulled from a biased source.
The article turns the definition of “to pay” on its head, implying that to pay someone means taxing less of their hard-earned money out of them. A bitter irony is that “paying millionaires” is exactly where many want to take Obamacare – as a “single-payer” or “Medicare-for-all” system in which the government literally pays for the healthcare of everyone, rich and poor alike. That kind of system is known for rationing, in which the poor and nearly everyone else get denied access to healthcare via months-long waiting lines (not to mention low-quality care), as is currently the case in socialized systems the world over.
Obamacare is not sustainable in its current form, with the number of health insurers dwindling and premiums skyrocketing, due to onerous government rules. Far more preferable would be a system involving high-deductible insurance plans coupled with mandatory (and for the poor, government-funded) health savings accounts, prompting citizens to shop around for the best insurer and health care provider to suit their needs — while leaving Medicaid in place. That would force insurers and providers to compete much more aggressively, causing prices to plummet and quality to improve. The current Obamacare reform legislation is a small step in that direction.
Patrick D. Chisholm
Chantilly