Medicare, Obamacare are not the only options
LETTERS LETTERS@USATODAY.COM
In his column, “GOP health bill pits
freedom of choice against freedom from fear,” Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel uses a false dichotomy. He offers two possibilities, Obamacare or Medicare, and states there are no other options. While this is a classic form of argument, it is also a classic form of deceit.
There are many more options to affordable health insurance. While it might take years to achieve, one option Emanuel ignored is to allow people to make their own choices, but, at the same time, live with the results of those choices.
For example, the government could require insurers to publish a scale of rates, and, as long as a person paid the premiums on time, they would know what their premiums would be forever. Dropping coverage would subject that person to the most current rates. The guaranteed rates could increase with age, but only according to a contractual schedule. Also, the rates would only be guaranteed for the coverage in that particular policy.
So, how would it work? A young person would buy a highdeductible catastrophic policy in his or her 20s. In their 30s, they may decide for a more traditional policy, and would have to pay the going rate. However, the rates and increases would be contractually guaranteed. Then, let’s say, 10 years later, they developed a major illness. The coverage and rates would be guaranteed, and the person would be covered. If the person chose to remain with the “cata- strophic coverage,” they would only get the coverage in their policy.
To some, this will sound mean-spirited. However, one of the rules of life is “pay me now, or pay me later.” Emanuel’s choices make the taxpayers, or those with insurance, pay for the poor choices of others. This approach, for example, would make a person be responsible for his choices. It might take a decade of transition, but isn’t this better than telling someone who has been responsible about his insurance he is are required to pay for someone who chose to spend his money on “goodies” and now cannot afford their treatment? Raymond D. Trombino Green Valley, Ariz.