OPINIONS: Don't forget some facts

Please educate yourselves before writing an opinion, an informed opinion holds much more clout than a rant. Living in the rightest and reddest state in America carries a lot of privileges and freedoms that I covet, it also bears resounding ignorance at times that makes me shameful of fellow man.

I know people are upset by RomneyCare, yes it is Mitt Romney who created the plan and adopted in Massachusetts. Its success and general favor from that state fueled President Obama to no longer let America be a black sheep in the international HealthCare world and apply it nationally. I have done an incredible amount of research on the ACA, and while not perfect, people really owe it to themselves to understand it better prior to crying out things like, “communism and dictatorship.”

Let us educate ourselves. This is an insurance reform, nothing in the 1,400-page bill talks about applying any tangible restrictions to HealthCare providers. The only systems that are getting reformed are insurance providers on how they handle our money. This is unlike any other United HealthCare system in the world. This “half-step” America is taking is to appease medical capitalism, which I think is great. However, once health-care professionals begin charging everyone’s new found insurance for every procedure under the sun, I do predict that the ACA will adapt sharply or prices will continue to inflate, it is this issue that we must combat and bring to the attention of our governments, so let us focus on something that we can hopefully one day change.

I think it is great to offer an insurance plan to Americans that covers pre-existing conditions that simultaneously forces private-insurance companies to be more forgiving and competitive. I do not support the fact that it is mandatory, but if it is not mandatory, then private-insurance companies would lose monumental amounts of money. Since our economy is tied in with large corporations, we simply cannot allow them to fail. We must take the good with the bad, welcome to small-government Corporate America.

We need to have our voices heard, but comparing Hitler to our current administration and supreme courts is not going to win over any intellectuals to stand up against the ACA. I am not going to pretend to know all the in-and-outs of the ACA as I do not have an extra 10-years to read through the bill in its entirety. The fact is that the average American, our neighbors, brothers and sisters, our fighting men and women, our fellow man, generally favor this program, we just do not see that in our neighborhoods.

Let us hear your thoughts, but please let your thoughts be intelligent and constructive so we can prove to our government that we are not simple-minded sheep to be herded.

JOSH WEEKS

Coeur d’Alene