Gloria Elston's championing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is seriously flawed ("Deserving Americans," Forum, July 13). It parrots liberal talking points: government-driven cost reductions; health care access for "most Americans"; blaming the profit motive for increasing costs. She concludes with: "Medical science has so improved that it is unthinkable to withhold it from Americans."

First, no government program has cost anything close to what advocates project! Already, cost estimates by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office for Obamacare have greatly expanded. These numbers do not even consider the accounting tricks used to pass the bill.

Second, "most Americans" have health coverage now, and those 19 percent who do not can get it in emergencies. In passing Obamacare, we have solved a problem for a small group of Americans by punishing the rest of us with increasing taxes and higher costs.

Finally, Elston's statement that medical science has improved is absolutely right. She just has no clue what has driven those improvements.

Most technological advances are driven by the very profit motive she derides. Without it, advances will come to a screeching halt, just as they have in countries with socialized medicine.

George Sherwood

Sandy