Bob Fromuth: Even killing Obamacare won’t make Republicans murderers
Re “Killing Obamacare?” (Page 1D, Dec. 4): I am responding to the column by C.V. Allen and its dramatic subtitle, “That’s the same as killing 16,000 Americans every year.” Dr. Allen bases his opinion on a American Journal of Public Health article “Health Insurance and Mortality in U.S. Adults” (December, 2009). The “uninsurance” group was matched with the insured group in every relevant way, including education and income. Therefore the “uninsurance” group presumably had equal access to healthcare insurance when compared with the insured cohort, and for undisclosed reasons simply chose not to purchase it. Members of the “uninsurance” group are therefore simply risk takers!
But there is a larger point. What special term do we reserve for the premeditated conscious killing of other human beings? Murder. So, in the eyes of Dr. Allen and The Bee, for the 62 million of us who voted for Donald Trump, in addition to misogynist, homophobe, racist, Islamophobe and xenophobe, we can now add the moniker murderer. This kind of hysterical demagoguery is precisely the reason we now have a President-elect Trump. Folks, it is going to be a very long 1,461 days.
Bob Fromuth, Modesto
This story was originally published December 6, 2016 at 5:45 PM with the headline "Bob Fromuth: Even killing Obamacare won’t make Republicans murderers."