Let’s not forget the progress achieved through the ACA

Regarding the recent article “Obama administration’s proposed insurance reforms incite industry backlash” (Modlet’s not ernHealthcare.com, Dec. 22), forget one of the biggest reasons for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: insurance company abuses.

The ACA eliminated the following: denial of insurance or claims for preexisting conditions; higher premiums simply for being female; lifetime and annual caps on benefits; increasing premiums if the policyholder got sick; dropping the policyholder for getting sick; raising premiums without public oversight; using over 20% of premiums for non-healthcare related expenses, such as executive bonuses. The law also made preventive screenings and vaccines free, without any copays.

Despite intense political opposition to making health insurance available to the majority of Americans, more people than ever before have access to affordable healthcare. Insurance companies and healthcare providers are making money. Let’s not go back to a system of exclusion, illness-caused bankruptcy and an insurance industry run exclusively for profit over health.

There is much to fix and adjust in the ACA. Let’s make it better for people, not insurance corporations.

Betsy Marville Boynton Beach, Fla.