Letters: Buy insurance now so you can get sick later

Re “Healthcare enrollment rises sharply,” Nov. 19

Persuading young and healthy people to buy insurance shouldn’t be so hard. They will, of course, need that healthcare when they are old, so perhaps they should be promised lower premiums in the future as a reward for paying into the system when they are young.

When they’re older, they’ll be glad they had the foresight to be a little community-minded. As a society, there are some things for which it makes sense to pool resources to benefit all for the long term.

Almost every other developed country has universal healthcare, and they pay less for it than we do. When will these recalcitrant, me-first anti-progressives realize that they are shooting themselves in the foot?

Nancy Kiang

Irvine

It is not surprising that Obamacare is not a complete solution to the nation’s healthcare problems. It is basically a Republican idea, and like many other Republican ideas — such as the wrongheaded plan to increase revenue by cutting taxes — the Affordable Care Act seems to be doomed from the start.

The basic problem is that the insurance companies are still very much in the game. There is little the federal or state governments can do to keep them from raising rates or changing policies.

If the U.S. is ever going to get universal health coverage, it will take a single-payer plan as in Canada or something like Britain’s National Health Service.

Perhaps after this debacle, voters will eventually demand a system that significantly reduces or eliminates the influence of the insurance companies.

James Bailey

Banning

ALSO:

Letters: Greening the military

Letters: Much ado about the ‘Arab’ mascot

Letters: Mountain trees and malls don’t mix