Dear editor,
Kudos to Jim Smith for his letter of July 8 regarding the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare.)
“Google” Wendell Potter and you will learn that this former vice president of a major health insurance company resigned because he was appalled by the egregiously devious schemes used by companies to deny legitimate health claims while paying their CEOs millions of dollars each year. Besides providing good health coverage for millions of people, the ACA:
• Provides portable coverage so people don’t have to stay at jobs they don’t like in order to have health insurance;
• Prevents companies from rescinding coverage;
• Eliminates lifetime limits on insurance coverage;
• Offers relief for seniors who hit the Medicare prescription “doughnut” hole;
• Cracks down on health care fraud;
• Reduces paper work and administrative costs, and
• Provides incentives for doctors and nurses in under-served areas.
These are just a few advantages of the ACA.
Another big advantage is this: If the health insurance companies don’t pay out 80 percent of premiums on health care, they must reimburse the customers. No more than 20 percent of premiums can be spent on salaries, bonuses and ads.
Because of Governor Brownback’s refusal to expand Medicaid, Kansas hospitals are losing federal funding while still having to serve many uninsured people. This is an inexcusable injustice.
Catherine Myers Bowser,
former Iolan,
Overland Park, Kan.
Letter to the editor — July 15, 2014
