Letter writer: Questions for our senators on dismantling the ACA

Graphic by Lori Deaton

As we move toward the end of open enrollment four in the Affordable Care Act, my thoughts have turned to our North Carolina senators and a few simple questions I would like to ask them.

As expected [last] week, the two of you both voted to begin to dismantle the ACA. I have just a few very simple questions for you to answer.

When was the last time insurance companies did not raise their rates? When was the last time that insurance companies didn’t raise rates on employer-based health insurance?

Why do you conflate the broadest false interpretations of rate increases to support your position? ACA rates have risen less overall than national health insurance rates.

How much profit do you feel is appropriate for insurance companies, already the most profitable businesses in America, to gouge out of customers?

Please tell my why it is better for citizens to not have health care? Why must people suffer to assure tax breaks for the very wealthiest Americans?

Please tell me how rural hospitals can stay in business without the ACA and Medicaid expansion. Look to the Pungo Hospital experience Down East [in Belhaven] and tell me how small, rural hospitals in areas of lowest income will and can survive?

Please tell me why haven’t you given up your government-funded health care if government-funded health care is so bad.

How do you see it as possible for poor people, living from paycheck to paycheck or with public assistance, to set aside significant amount of money in health saving accounts, an idea that gets revived yearly by Paul Ryan? Which do you recommend that they do: not pay rent, not buy food, not send their children to school, not drive to work? Or would you rather they just die?

If the ACA is such a bad deal, why did you all tout Romney-care, a plan that is what the ACA is modeled after, and a plan developed in The Heritage Foundation, a Libertarian Republican think tank?

It appears that the much-feared death panels are on the way, only it’s Republicans who are going to put them in place. Should we just say goodbye to our disabled children and our poor now while we still can?

And finally, how much have you accepted in bribes (political donations) from the insurance and Big Pharma lobbies?

— Michael Beech
Asheville

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21 thoughts on “Letter writer: Questions for our senators on dismantling the ACA

  1. Deplorable Infidel

    Yep…and WHY are health insurance companies ‘allowed’ to sell health insurance across state lines? It took everyone years to figure out that method of control, but that is what has caused the total inflation of medical care costs, so now we must abolish that ‘rule’ and bring prices way back down. President Trump will do that. Hillary would NOT.

  2. Deplorable Infidel

    oops…NOT allowed to sell health insurance across state lines…

    • Lulz

      Again, the left only represents literally death of the middle class and the best way to achieve it. They want a subservient poor class of people controlled by a wealthy class. Everything else to them is simply standing in the way of it.

      Watch as the left becomes increasingly militant as their big government machine is dismantled and those in the bureaucracy are shown the breadlines. And as they assume that a thing like CalExit is like their pot of gold and will be an example of progress many already know what the outcome will be. Problem is MANY want California to go away because those on the left need a hard dose of reality. Once their water is either cut off or taxed, once their illegals consume all the resources from things like free health care, once their tax base leaves, they will see up close what a “progressive” state really is. And it ain’t no Eutopia.

      • Lulz

        Oh and least I forget in regards to CalExit, once the 500 million in fed funding disappears. California isn’t self funding nor are their commie bastions. They need others to subsidize them. And it’s going to be glorious when LA and San Francisco lose their funding in the lunacy of keeping sanctuary city status. Sink you scumbags.

        • hauntedheadnc

          You are aware that California pays more to the federal government than they receive, right?

    • luther blissett

      Because “across state lines” would mean one state legislature would gut its regulations to attract insurance companies, and that would create a race to the bottom. This is what happened when South Dakota abolished most of its usury laws and credit card companies set up shop there.

      If you pay $50 a month for (e.g.) an Idaho insurance policy and they decide to deny your claim, who are you going to complain to? The NC Commissioner? Not their problem. The Idaho Commissioner of Insurance whose job it is to keep insurance companies in the state? Good luck with that.

  3. “Tucked away in that 2,074-page [ACA] bill is a citation of a 1944 Supreme Court ruling that deemed insurance to be interstate commerce. Reid conveniently omitted any reference to the McCarran-Ferguson Act passed the very next year, which gave states absolute authority to regulate health insurance. That law’s effect has been to bar individuals from purchasing health insurance across state lines. Accordingly, there is no interstate market…If Congress were interested in using the commerce clause for its intended purpose, we would be debating the Health Care Choice Act, which would permit the interstate purchase of individual health policies. The Democrats, however, bottled up that bill in committee…”
    http://bit.ly/2k5Z5xO

    McCarran-Ferguson Act
    https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/6701

    The Health Care Choice Act 2005 (H.R. 2355 and S.1015)
    http://bit.ly/2kHoyfQ

    • tom williams

      Herr Peck- Where is the promised replacement plan? Is this another promise like disclosing his tax returns? Is this the same as “Mexico will pay for the wall” promise? What about “Lock her up ” promise.The list goes on…….. You need to ask for a raise. Tell your bosses that your job just got a lot harder after the election. You, Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer all deserve a raise. It is very hard to create”Alternative Facts” every time that you are asked a question.

    • tom williams

      That is not a plan it is a Google site. Is that what President Trump does, watch Fox News googles for policy ideas and then govern by impulse. He admits that he does not read book, has no time to intelligent briefings, knows more than the generals and governs by impulse. He is totally dependent upon people like you Kellyanne and Sean to do damage control. Ya’ll are going to be very busy until the impeachment begins. Like I said, demand a raise.

  4. “That is not a plan it is a Google site.”

    Really? Is that what everyone got? A google site? Or a link to the answer to the question posed?

    Let’s try again. Everybody, you can play along at home.

    “Here, let me get that for you”:
    http://bfy.tw/9mUA

    • tom williams

      Reason.com is the Plan? That is not an official Government site with a plan. Where is the plan that Trump is going to replace the ACA with, not an opinion site. Try again Tim.

    • tom williams

      Your smugness is only matched by your political record. You failed in the local election where you were soundly defeated so badly, you moved to Ft, Worth ,Texas. Your boy Tm Moffitt was sent packing , never to be heard from again. Your water theft effort was defeated. Pat McCrory was humiliated at the polls in what should have been an easy win. HB2 was a disaster for North Carolina. The site that you claim will be the replacement policy for ACA was an op ed piece by a writer at Richmond Times -Dispatch, not by President Trump. Keep trying Tim, you may create a new record.

      • Anonymous

        Don’t forget Tim’s shilling for Bob Edmunds as well. We saw how that worked out. Tim really kind of isn’t great at the whole political operative thing.

      • Tracy Rose

        Please stick to the subject of the letter rather than personal criticisms of other commenters. Thanks.

    • tom williams

      Herr Peck- How is week two of the Trump Presidency going? Let’s hope that not every political choice that you support turns out to be a loser. Odds are that you should at least one right.

      • Instructions for intellectual progressives: put your left index finger in your left ear; put your right index finger in your right ear; and repeat after me, “lalalalalala”.

        Text of H.R. 3400: Empowering Patients First Act
        http://bit.ly/2fypbuo

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