We Hear You: From Obamacare to Affordability and Choice for Consumers

By Ken McIntyre

Dear Daily Signal: Thank you for Elizabeth Fender’s data-filled article on the Obamacare approval ratings over time. I appreciate your truthful reporting of the facts, and your citing the specific data and your sources (“Obamacare May Soon Be Over. Here’s What Americans Have Thought of the Law Since 2010”).
In addition to the reasons you cite for Obamacare’s low approval ratings (narrow networks, high and rising health care premiums), there are several others.
These include religious liberty violations: the contraceptives mandate on employers by the Department of Health and Human Services (source of two Supreme Court challenges and hundreds of lawsuits); abortion and Planned Parenthood funding; Independent Payment Advisory Board “death panels” (someone wouldn’t be able to use his own money to save his own life); and the government’s definition of “religious entity.” Last but not least is the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage, which affects administration of health care benefits.
The Obamacare regulations seem to have completely ignored the serious comments advising the government to stop, slow down, make major changes. The contraceptives mandate and transgender mandate are huge mistakes, ignoring the science that shows that the premises upon which these mandates are based are faulty.
I am hopeful the Trump administration will work more collaboratively with key stakeholders in our health care system, including Catholic health care providers. The larger Judeo-Christian health care delivery system deserves to be treated as the large stakeholder that it is.
As the new administration moves into office and into power, we still can attempt to be peacemakers. We can honor the goal of the Affordable Care Act—to create a health care system that provides affordable care and expands access. This is a worthy goal.
People who have preexisting conditions need to have some form of health care insurance. Theoretically, there should not be an “uninsurable” person. These are some of the areas where insurance companies can focus to create new products and services. I believe they would respond appropriately. My experience with the industry supports the fact that they have far more goodness than they are given credit for.