“Affordable”

The author of a letter in The Times [“An inaccurate comparison,” Northwest Voices, June 18] likes the idea of the government forcing everyone to buy health insurance as he believes his insurance premiums will be less.

The concocters call it “affordable”!

He doesn’t seem to realize that his taxes (if he pays taxes) will have to cover the cost of the premiums (plus a bureaucracy surcharge) for the millions of people already living off the government who won’t be paying for their own insurance, and once they have free insurance, they’ll likely be seeking the doctor more often.

What an awakening it would be if, just once, the left’s approach to “solving” an issue would be to come up with a way to actually reduce costs rather than just redistributing them, but they’ve never been known for supporting free enterprise.

— Gary T. McGavran, Bellevue

We need to stand together

We all know how important our own health care is and the consequences of not going to the doctor, dentist or optometrist on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, most insurance plans are a 60 percent to 40 percent, or 70 percent to 30 percent with high deductibles and are pretty spendy, which means co-pays for visits and prescriptions.

Plus, they rarely cover specialists, physical therapy, mental-illness therapy, etc.; not to mention that doctors only want to see you for one issue, otherwise you need to make another appointment, which leads to more costs and time off work — this seems even worse for dentists and optometrists.

My biggest problem is finding hospitals, caregivers, medical supply companies (like diabetic-management facilities), pharmacies and others that don’t accept certain types of insurances.

If we have to have insurance, then these plans should be accepted by all health-care affiliates, no matter what. Plus, all hospital’s ERs should be staffed and equipped to handle all types of emergencies, including mental illness, disabilities or any type of health care need. The president works for the American people, we need to stand together when we’re in trouble!

— Kevin Kochman, Des Moines