$2,500 to buy insurance? This is why Americans don’t trust Republicans on healthcare

To the editor: Dr. Joel Strom, a dentist, has proposed another misguided Republican effort to replace the Affordable Care Act. (“The right way to repeal and replace Obamacare,” Opinion, June 13)

Republican alternatives tend to strip away benefits as they strip away cost controls and are thus inherently unworkable. Obamacare’s flaws are the result of the political maneuvering that was required to get the legislation passed. We should either fix Obamacare or replace it with the far more efficient single-payer system.

Strom wants physician organizations to jump on board with a plan in Congress to replace Obamacare by providing $2,500 to each American adult to buy insurance. He shouldn’t be surprised when they don’t endorse yet another bad Republican idea.

David Hurwitz, MD, Calabasas

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To the editor: If the Republican Party really wants to speak with “clarity, sincerity and authority” on healthcare, as suggested by Strom, it might start with a frank discussion of the finances of the proposal from Rep. Pete Sessions from Texas and Sen. Bill Cassidy from Louisiana that he promotes.

That plan would deprive millions of Americans their current Obamacare coverage in return for a $2,500 payment that pays two adults about a quarter of the estimated $20,000 annual health insurance premium for a family of four.

This illusory “greater choice” is as meaningful as a choice offered to both rich and poor to sleep under a bridge.

Daniel J. Stone, MD, Beverly Hills

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To the editor: I read with interest Strom’s piece in The Times. It will be difficult for the GOP to convince people that it actually cares about patients when 19 states, all because of decisions by GOP lawmakers, have declined money offered to them by the federal government to expand Medicaid.

Strom asserts that Obamacare may be inefficient in some areas, but it seems that inefficient insurance for the poor is better than no insurance at all.

Good luck, Dr. Strom, convincing the American people that the GOP cares at all about medical patients.

Thomas Mathews, Ventura

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