This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
In "The limits of Medicaid" (Opinion, May 11), M. Royce Van Tassel criticizes Obamacare (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) for not improving health, though he agrees that it "nearly eliminated catastrophic out of pocket medical expenditures." But this is a precise description of what an effective health insurance plan should do.
Some people believe the propaganda of insurance companies that they make us healthier, but this is nonsense. They provide zero value to health (as the study Van Tassel cites shows) while taking their massive 20 percent profits. On the other hand, public plans such as Medicare and Medicaid cost less than 5 percent to administer.
Millions of uninsured Americans dread the future because any sickness or injury may bankrupt their family. Protection against this terrible insecurity is the purpose of insurance, and Obamacare begins to fill this need.
It's a first step to control the greedy insurance, hospital, pharmaceutical and medical device corporations that are devastating our economy with their excessive profits.
To stop them from bankrupting us, we need a strong government-administered health care system, safely protected from the massive corrupting influence of these corporate profiteers.
David A. Moore
Salt Lake City