Lincoln Daily News
welcomes letters of appreciation, information and
opinion on matters pertaining to the community.
Controversial issues:
As a
community we need to be able to talk openly about
matters that affect the quality of our lives. The
most effective and least offensive manner to get
your point across is to stick to the issue
and refrain from commenting on another person's
opinion. Letters that deviate from focusing on the
issue may be rejected or edited and marked as such.
|
You may also send your letters by email to
ldneditor@lincolndailynews.com
or by U.S. postal mail:
Letters to the Editor
Lincoln Daily News
601 Keokuk St.
Lincoln, IL 62656
Letters must include the writer's
name, telephone number, and postal address or email address (we
will not publish address or phone number information).
Lincoln Daily News reserves the right to edit letters to
reduce their size or to correct obvious errors.
Lincoln Daily News reserves the right to reject any letter for
any reason. Lincoln Daily News will publish as
many acceptable letters as space allows.
|
To the Editor:
There is good news after all. George Petrilli will run for Congress
from our 18th District in Illinois. George Petrilli understands the
people of our district. For example, in Logan County we need
comprehensive health insurance at a reasonable cost. We do not need
inferior insurance plans that fail to cover our particular
conditions. We had good health care options under the Affordable
Care Act but early in the Trump presidency, a Republican Congress
gave some insurance companies the power to offer cheap, inferior
health insurance policies, policies that fail to cover pre-existing
conditions. This has caused many of us with pre-existing conditions
either (1) to "run bare" and not insure against a claim involving
their pre-existing conditions, or 2 ) to purchase a more expensive
"high risk pool" policy.
Our current congressman, Rep. Darin LaHood, has consistently voted
to deny those of us with pre-existing conditions an opportunity to
buy health insurance at the same rate as those without such
conditions. In Mr. LaHood’s world, if I have ever suffered from a
given disease, e.g., diabetes, I now should expect to be charged a
higher premium if I want health insurance that covers problems
associated with my medical history. The idea is simple: charge
sicker people more.
In the wake of President Trump’s and Darin LaHood’s attack on the
Affordable Care Act, it is not surprising to find that many
Americans have chosen to forego coverage on their pre-existing
conditions. Neither is it a surprise that many of those who are
"running bare" will end up facing huge medical bills resulting in
personal bankruptcy.
Darin LaHood voted for the "American Health Care Act.” Had the
proposal not been blocked in the Senate by the late Sen. John
McCain, our problems would have multiplied. Health care experts from
across the political spectrum – liberal, moderate, and conservative
– agreed that the bill was unworkable and suffered from fatal flaws.
[to top of second column in this letter] |
Wikipedia says that the proposal that LaHood
supported was "almost certain" to reduce overall health care
coverage and increase deductibles. It included language to phase out
Medicaid expansion.
The tax credits in the American Health Care Act would
have been insufficient to pay for individual insurance, and could
have led to Americans dropping out of the health care market. The
American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) noted that the bill's
elimination of the community rating provision (barring insurance
companies from charging older people more than three times what they
charge younger people) would have increased cost disparities between
age groups and would have increased premiums for Americans more
prone to illness. The dropping of healthy people from the health
insurance market could have led to insurer "death spirals" that
would have decreased choice. Moreover, the phaseout of the Medicaid
expansion would have been likely to result in a loss of healthcare
for millions of poorer Americans. Most importantly, the bill that
Darin LaHood supported would have denied us in Logan County
affordable and comprehensive health care.
Darin LaHood does not seem to recognize the goal of our current
Affordable Care Act: reasonably priced health insurance for all.
Instead Rep. LaHood advocates cheap, inferior insurance products
that fail to cover illnesses related to pre-existing conditions.
Candidate for Congress George Petrilli will explain all this when he
joins the Logan County Democrats in the Big Shelter, which is
located almost a mile inside Lincoln’s Kickapoo Creek Park at 6:30
p.m. on Thursday, July 16. All are welcome to attend.
Gary Davis
Lincoln, IL [Posted
July 11,
2020]
Click here to send a note to the editor about this letter.
|