HEALTH: A step in right direction

Audacious! After the Supreme Court decision, President Obama said the health care plan was not done for political reasons, but because it was the right thing to do. It’s ironic that Obama’s health care plan was first introduced by Romney, who is now attacking it. People with a pre-existing condition can now get health care, there is no dollar limit, and our children can stay on our insurance until the age of 26. It provides affordable medication for the elderly.

The mandate forcing us to buy insurance, like car insurance, should bring prices down for two reasons. First, before this plan, people who did have insurance paid a higher premium to offset the cost of those who didn’t buy insurance. For example, six people purchasing a plan that had to insure 10 people meant the cost of insuring 10 people had to be divided between six people. Now the cost is divided between 10 people.

Secondly, since we all have to be insured, there will be more competition. Insurance companies will be wooing us. The Republican Party is attacking a plan first introduced by their own. They can’t wait to repeal it, but they have not offered a viable alternative.

Obama’s plan is a good one. It gives insurance to those who couldn’t get it before, it opens the door for competition, and it spreads the cost burden out more evenly. Our president willingly put his job on the line to do what is right. No Republican has been so bold.

GERI HAGLER

Coeur d’Alene