Insuring Texans

Enlightening

Regarding “State’s uninsured plunges” (Page A1, Friday), as a strong supporter of a singlepayer health care system that would provide care to all Americans, I was encouraged to read about the study from the Episcopal Health Foundation and Rice University’s Baker Institute that the uninsured rate has dropped precipitously in Texas. This is great news.

However, it is important not to confuse an increase in insurance rates to an increase in health care. It is the measures of health and whether or not those newly insured have access to quality care that will be the true measures of the presumed beneficial effects of the Affordable Care Act.

Leonard Zwelling, Bellaire

Disgusting

While it is great that more people in Texas are covered with health insurance, the means by which this was accomplished is still loathsome.

To force people to lose their existing health coverage, have their policies canceled and have their insurance premiums skyrocket to sustain others smacks of socialism, plus the fact that our president straight out lied to all of us to get it passed (“If you like your health care provider, you can keep it. Period”) is disgusting. So while there are indeed good benefits to ACA, the means by which it was accomplished are disgusting.

Bob Fowler, Point Blank

Bureaucracy

The latest statistics on Texans with health insurance thanks to the ACA (aka Obamacare) are misleading. First of all, it doesn’t say anything about the actual cost of medical care, which continues to rise daily and which the so-called Affordable Care Act doesn’t address anyway.

A truly useful legislative act would work to decrease all the health care-related regulation and bureaucracy, so as to free up entrepreneurs and innovators to find more efficient processes.

David M. Woods, Houston

Congress

At the same time that the Episcopal Health Foundation and the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University are reporting that the number of Americans with health insurance has increased significantly because of the Affordable Care Act, the House GOP is preparing a budget that includes the repeal of Obamacare.

Either the House GOP is unaware of the report or they are ignoring the facts intentionally. Either case is unacceptable.

The House GOP has become so bogged down in its failed ideologies that it has refused to recognize the facts.

The Affordable Care Act has been a “game changer” for millions of Americans and has had a positive impact on middle- and workingclass families.

America needs lawmakers who look at the facts and then write legislation based on those facts, not failed ideology.

Last week, a Gallup survey indicated that the vast majority of Texans understand the importance of having health insurance and many are in favor of moving to universal health coverage.

Yet the House GOP is working to repeal Obamacare and deprive millions of Americans of having affordable health insurance.

The GOP needs to pay more attention to the facts and the needs of the American people.

Bill Meyer, Kingwood