Letter: Senate health plan a big step backward

Monday July 10, 2017

Editor:

I have let Sen. Pat Toomey know that I strongly oppose the health insurance system he helped to draft. My main objection is the fact that his plan takes a giant step back from making health insurance products available that actually perform the basic function of any insurance: to spread the risk over a wide enough pool of insured people to keep the product affordable for most and protect the insured from financial ruin when something really bad happens.

The Senate plan allows people to avoid paying for insurance until they get sick and opens the door for insurance companies to sell low-cost, low-coverage policies to younger/healthier people, while sicker/older people will need more comprehensive plans that will be hugely more expensive due to no longer spreading the risk over a pool that includes those with (for now) lower care needs.
The Senate plan is much more effective at reducing government spending and lowering taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations than at creating a system in which Americans are able to access necessary medical care without going broke. If our educational and economic systems were not failing so many Americans, the need for government subsidization of health care would decline. I suggest our elected representatives turn their attention to these problems.

Lucy J. Cairns
Wyomissing
Senate health plan a big step backward