Letters: Winners, losers and Obamacare

Re “Health law’s winners in plain sight,” Column, March 23

I was a loyal Republican for 30 years, yet once I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, every health insurance company told me “no coverage.”

This was my wake-up call — knowing my party had abandoned me when I needed it most.

I am now an independent, and so proud that someone empowered the people to stand up to the big corporate healthcare companies.

How can we consider ourselves proud Americans when we abandon our own people because of a chronic disease? How can we allow corporate America to write our laws?

How do we allow our representatives to sign a pledge to the wealthiest people, forgetting the majority?

I am ashamed that I ever was naive enough to consider myself a Republican; I find them narrow-minded, brainwashed and war-minded.

Laura Mellody
Riverside

Michael Hiltzik is a hard-hitting consumer advocate, always on the side of the little guy, when writing about individuals having been misled by or having a complaint about a business. Good for him.

But when it comes to Obamacare, he sounds like a paid flack for the Democratic Party; he even gives them strategic advice. Suddenly, lies about everyone being able to keep their insurance and their doctors and seeing a reduction in premiums are swept under the rug.

For the sake of argument, let’s assume everything in Hiltzik’s column regarding the winners he identifies under Obamacare is accurate.

No doubt there are winners. It’s also true that there are millions of losers under Obamacare. And there would be many millions more losers who would know it if Obamacare requirements weren’t being delayed until after the midterm elections, in yet another bait-and-switch.

Kevin LeWinter
Newport Beach

With any Ponzi scheme, there are always some early winners. The matter at hand is whether the majority gets screwed and that, as a result, everything falls apart after time.

Zack Kircher
Los Angeles

A few years, ago one of my sons was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Since he was out of work, my wife and I were paying $475 a month for his insurance.

We were afraid to change policies because of his preexisting condition, so we continued with that setup until the Affordable Health Care Act took hold.

Then we were able to get rid of what we learned to be an inferior policy and acquire a preferred provider — for considerably less money. God bless you, Mr. President.

Greg Lewis
Chatsworth
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