John Brennan: Medicare for all would work for everyone except insurance companies

Re “Modesto man blasts ACA for flimsy health plan” (Page A1, June 12): Bruce Pardini is placing blame for higher insurance premiums, deductibles and co-pays in the wrong place. The ACA didn’t raise the premiums, deductibles and co-pays – the insurance companies did.

What the ACA did was allow millions of lower-income individuals to have affordable health care. What it didn’t do was put restrictions on the insurance companies, so they continued to do what they have always done – raise their rates and shift more of the cost of healthcare directly onto the individual. Had Congress passed President Obama’s original plan, including a public option such as Medicare for all, the insurance companies would have had to compete for healthcare dollars and you would have seen premiums , deductibles and co-pays drop dramatically.

But Congress, beholding to the insurance lobbyists, voted down the public option and we got the ACA, better than nothing but not perfect. Contrary to what Congress would have you believe, affordable health care is not rocket science. Every industrialized country in the world, except the U.S., has affordable health care. A Medicare for all type plan would solve that problem.

This story was originally published July 14, 2017 at 2:36 PM with the headline "John Brennan: Medicare for all would work for everyone except insurance companies."