Letter of the Day: Mandate upheld

Mandate upheld

EDITOR: It's disappointing to see how political debate often lacks common sense. The Affordable Care Act - Obamacare - is a good example. The right wing/Fox News echo chamber has done a good job of vilifying this law with misleading and untrue rhetoric. Take the individual mandate, which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld. This mandate is not aimed at those who can't afford health insurance. It's aimed at those individuals who have the means to purchase health insurance and choose not to. When these people get sick, they go to the emergency room, and we all pay for them. People who cannot afford health insurance will be helped by the act to obtain it at low or no cost to them. Thus the name: "Affordable Care Act."

How has this mandate worked in the Massachusetts version of this approach? Under Romneycare, 98 percent of Massachusetts' citizens have health insurance. Folks jumped at the chance to sign up because the bill was a good deal for them.

Opponents point out the cost of the Affordable Care Act. What they don't say is that if we kept the status quo, our health care costs would be far higher. And that analysis comes from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

PATRICK NAGEL

Ukiah