Healthcare debate
While Republicans rail against the Affordable Healthcare Act, forecasting rising premiums and healthcare companies fleeing the marketplace, it would help if they had not put so many obstacles in its path, depriving it of the very things that could make it successful.
If the penalty for not having coverage had been the least expensive plan under the ACA, there would have been no reason for the young and healthy not to sign up. Consider it a tax increase on the young, but the number of insured would have increased dramatically in the first year, leading to its success.
If all the states had expanded Medicaid, as most of the successful states did, it would have greatly reduced the number of folks who fell in the gap.
Bob Troy, Miami
This story was originally published July 15, 2017 at 10:13 PM with the headline "Healthcare debate."