Letter: ACA issues
To the editor:
Because of the flood of TV ads and emails, I am getting tired of the focus being on the president and especially the Affordable Care Act, usually called Obamacare. (And we must look forward to three more weeks of this).
Voters need to pay attention to two matters: 1) Obamacare is not perfect (and there never will be a perfect law). So what is being proposed, except for another vote to cancel the law? Going back to pre-Affordable Care Act days does not improve our health care. (Will Congress waste time again and again with useless votes to defund/delete/deny Obamacare?) 2) Kansans have not been given a fair experience with the Affordable Care Act. Our governor has engaged every possible way to impair implementation of Obamacare. He rejected work the Republican state insurance commissioner did to prepare a Kansas insurance exchange by rejecting/returning funds available for developing a state program. Provisions to extend Medicaid coverage were rejected to the detriment of many deserving, eligible neighbors. Must Kansas be known for “being smarter” than the national decision? Again we lack a ‘better” way or proposal.
This concern implicates not just to the governor or our representatives in Washington. We must pay attention to the candidates for insurance commissioner. What does each propose relating to Obamacare? Will it be implemented or impeded? Improved or obstructed?