Letter: Editorial was misleading, inaccurate

I was deeply disappointed with the editorial of Saturday, Oct. 19 supporting the Affordable Care Act. It was simply a regurgitation of the hypothetical unfounded theories of why this law is needed. You presented nothing new; just the same misleading and inaccurate data.

You assumed that the one-fifth of our local population without health insurance probably cannot afford it because they have no money to pay for it. While this is most likely true, the ACA only gives free healthcare to those who qualify under the new relaxed Medi-Cal rules. Using your numbers, there will be 13,000 people forced to buy insurance with money they don’t have.

You say preventive care is the key and imply that seeing a doctor is the only way to get information on lifestyle changes. There is an abundance of health information available through public service announcements on TV, magazines, your own newspaper and a multitude of sources. Seeing a doctor is not a requirement for improving one’s lifestyle.

The one thing you did get right is that those not in financial need will be subsidizing the poor through their undoubtedly higher insurance premiums.

David North
Glendale