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Issue one
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Make it better
My friend, a retired physician and conservative Republican was right. If you expand coverage to so many people at once, there are not enough primary care doctors to take care of them. Besides, there are not enough cost savings in Obamneycares. But ... the cost savings were taken care of by instituting so many preventive health measures. Don't let people get so sick that the emergency room is their alternative.
The fact that the law was not to be fully implemented for four or more years has given us time to expand community health centers and clinics and get more docs into the system. What genius! Now, as the president said in reaction to the Supreme Court ruling that the Affordable Care Act is constitutional: "Let's improve it even more."
On to Medicare for All.
BARBARA DICKMAN
Delmont
GOP has no plan
Justice John Roberts' defection from Supreme Court conservatives on the Affordable Care Act rescued those in opposition from answering the basic American health care question. If not the ACA, then what? How would they solve skyrocketing premiums, a huge and growing uncovered citizenry and the health implications for a society whose system for controlling disease and injury is breaking down.
Those against the ACA do not have a plan. They dream about a mythical America of the past and are unable to solve any problem that requires new thinking. But things have changed considerably since our Constitution was written.
The anti-ACA folks want to hand the problem to individual states. As if Pennsylvania can deal with UPMC-type health care giants whose facilities and financial interests span our globe? They decry any mandate, ignoring the reality that providing quality affordable health care to 300 million people will require some uniform rules across society. They spread fear of government decision-making over what care is provided, while millions have been locked out of any or adequate care in a world where money talks and morality walks. In a globalized world, health care costs for domestic businesses must be competitive with health care costs in nations we try to sell products to. It's a complex issue that defies a simple solution.
One presidential candidate and one party have vowed to repeal the ACA. Not only would that take us back to square one, it would saddle us with a national leadership that is fundamentally incapable of coming up with an alternative. We've got a president who has the courage to confront reality. We need to keep President Barack Obama and elect a Congress that has that same courage and can-do attitude.
IKE GITTLEN
Mt. Lebanon
First Published July 8, 2012 12:00 am
