Letter: Why is health care complicated?

My source, a top White House official, informs me that health care is complicated. The natural question is why?

Health care is expensive. For people with chronic conditions, medical care is astronomical, and insurance is mostly out of reach. Chronic conditions constitute one complication.

A second complication comprises people who cannot afford insurance, nor afford to pay out of pocket. Without assistance, they go without preventive care, not by choice but by necessity.

A third complication includes those who decline to purchase insurance even though they can afford it, trusting their health to fate and emergency rooms.

These are the main complications relating to consumers (others relate to insurers and providers). What responsibility has government toward those with chronic conditions? Toward those unable to afford coverage? Toward the “conscientious objectors” who decline to purchase insurance?

The Republican solution to these complications is to reduce funding for the first two groups, and to ignore the third. This approach addresses neither the issue of health care for all citizens, nor the issue of ballooning costs. It is “repeal” without meaningful “replace.” It aims to return to the situation before Obamacare, followed by the gradual withdrawal of funding for federal health care programs.

This story was originally published July 11, 2017 at 11:59 AM with the headline "Letter: Why is health care complicated?."