Opinion: With Obamacare’s repeal, California must lead the way on healthcare for all

To the editor: It’s quite clear by now that Republicans want to push the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, over a cliff while promising to build an airplane on the way down. (“The risky GOP push to repeal Obamacare with no backup plan,” editorial, Dec. 20)

They want to change Medicare into Obamacare, and in the process they want to cut $346 billion in taxes over 10 years for the wealthiest Americans. What could be done instead is to permit Medicare to negotiate for drug prices, extend Medicare to those 55 years of age and develop a public option that can effectively compete with for-profit insurance companies.

So it’s up to California to once again lead the nation. California can defend and build on the achievements of Obamacare by first stabilizing the private insurance market and preventing millions from losing their coverage, before moving to having our own statewide public option leading to our own public universal health insurance plan. California’s economic power is bigger than that of France, which provides healthcare coverage for all people living there. We can do this.

Stephen Tarzynski, MD, Santa Monica

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To the editor: Obamacare must be repealed. For-profit healthcare has burdened us with ever-increasing prices.

Congress has the ability to control healthcare costs, but its members would have to sacrifice campaign contributions from corporate America. The Republicans have no viable plan, but House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) stated correctly that Obamacare has done damage to our healthcare system and families.

What is the remedy? Price controls in a government-sponsored healthcare public utility, as was done in the last century for power, telephones, trains, water and sanitation. The public must be empowered to demand this change and end our healthcare system’s attack on on all of us, which must start with the repeal of Obamacare.

Jerome P. Helman, MD, Venice

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To the editor: The Times lays out the many pitfalls of the Republicans’ plan, but it leaves out a major benefit of the current law: the out-of-pocket maximum protection, which caps the amount you are required to pay before you are covered 100%.

Before the Affordable Care Act, you might have had a split of, say, 70%-30%. If you had a catastrophic illness and racked up $500,000 in bills, you would be required to pay about $150,000. This was bankrupting folks who worked and paid their premiums.

Republicans must realize that once they touch Obamacare, they own it. There will be no excuses or spin if it is not as terrific as they are promising.

Dan O’Mara, Agoura Hills

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To the editor: I hate to assume ill will, but in this case I believe it’s warranted.

The only reforms to the healthcare system Republicans ever pushed for are selling insurance across state lines, putting caps on lawsuits against doctors, eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood and privatizing Medicare. They don’t want to reduce drug prices, they fought like crazy to avoid expanding Medicaid, they mocked the first lady’s efforts to improve childhood nutrition, they filed lawsuit after lawsuit to kill the Affordable Care Act, and six years after it became law, they have no real replacement strategy.

The Republicans have paid no political price for their actions. Why would anyone imagine they care enough to figure out a solution to the repeal fallout?

Joanne Zirretta, Aliso Viejo

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