Letter: The Affordable Care Act is broken

Nancy Pelosi opined at the Affordable Care Act passage that we will have to see how it works. Under present conditions Iowa will have no coverage because the expenses exceed the premiums. What is surprising is the outrage from the left to any changes in coverage or premiums. Perhaps because it is called Obamacare, the Democrats have to be as obnoxious to any changes as the Republicans were to its creation. In essence, it is affordable to those with high bills and seniors and not affordable to those with good health.

The act should have followed Medicare more closely. To wit, not all seniors pay the same; those with high incomes should pay more. Also there should be a significant penalty for gaming the system by dropping insurance when not needed and then getting in again when needed. By government statistics, seniors have more disposable income and have greater health costs than any other age group. Limiting the markup to 3:1 between seniors and juniors (should be 5:1) is unfair to youth and hence the healthy are not enrolling.

You can kill the Affordable Care Act in two ways; repeal it or keep it as is. Congressman Rod Blum showed compromise to get a change out of the dysfunctional House and into the Senate. But the Senate can't agree on changes. So those outraged by Blum's vote may yet get their wish; the act stays the same with the unintended consequence of no insurance providers willing to subsidize the costs.

Juergen Bruckner

Cedar Rapids