Policyholders matter

[“3 scenarios — and possible fallout,” News, June 14] does a good job detailing what may, or may not, be lost depending on the upcoming Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act. There have been recent articles regarding parts of the act that are currently in place, and how several insurance companies claim that they will continue to offer these parts no matter the ruling. You make reference to this in this article; the inclusion of 26-year-olds on parent’s policies is an example.

What the general public needs to remember is that the Affordable Care Act makes these benefits the law and requires insurance companies to provide them.

If the act is overturned by the Supreme Court, we will be back where we were before the act’s passage. We will be left to the whims and business interests of the insurance companies and, as long as these benefits prove to be good for profits, they will continue to be offered. Once they begin to cut into profits, they will be eliminated and we will have no power to stop that.

This is why the Affordable Care Act is so important. The insurance companies don’t care about their policyholders, they just care about profits and the policyholders are nothing more than channels for them to collect these profits from.

— Robert Oberlander, Issaquah