March 27 - To the Editor:

Hooray! President Trump and his Republican House of Representatives’ political machine failed to throw the “baby out with the bath water” with seeking to completely eliminate the Affordable Care Act and replace it with an utterly flawed plan that would only benefit Big Health Care Insurance. Had it passed, it would have resulted in an estimated 50 million people being without health care benefit coverage by 2026, and result in a significant health care benefits loss for currently existing federally legislated health care insurance beneficiaries. Nevertheless, this ill-advised Republican legislative elimination process isn’t finished yet, is it?

It’s ironic that the Health Care Insurance Industry lobbies helped write the broken Affordable Care Act in the first place. Then our trusted elected Congress didn't bother to read the 2,000 pages of crafted legislation before passing it into law. Wasn’t it Nancy Pelosi, the then Speaker of the House, who said that no one had the time to wade through such long and complex legislation? Couldn’t they task organize their staffers to each read a section of the draft law and provide our elected lawmakers with educated assessments and thoughtful recommendations? Apparently not.

It is also clear that America’s Health Care Insurance Industry lobbies and America’s Congress didn't factor in how sick older Americans are, and how this new law would cut into Big Insurance’s annual profitability, which is billions of dollars a year. Ironically, it is also important to note that the Congress and the Health Care Insurance Industry didn’t expect that younger adults would rather choose to pay the federal penalty than sign-up for unnecessarily costly comprehensive insurance premiums that would then be applied to subsidize the high costs of the Affordable Care Act, i.e., costs for ailing baby boomers, the unemployed and under-employed, and those with expensive pre-existing conditions. Rather, the lobbies and Congress falsely expected their legislation to pay for the uninsured while ensuring sustainment or even increase in the annual profitability of said Health Care Insurance Industry. The egalitarian motivation of the Affordable Care Act is appropriate for the good order and discipline of our nation, but the self-serving planning and execution of this law is unfortunately proving to be a costly unsustainable mistake.

Here’s a constructive solution for America’s Congress to consider:

Amend the existing broken legislation, not throw it out and replace it with more self-serving stuff that doesn’t even get applied to Capitol Hill’s illustrious elites.

Congress must address the self-aggrandizement of the Health Care Insurance Industry and the Pharmaceutical Industry in order to finally ensure that America is taking care of Americans like other industrialized nations do for their citizens. This could mean, in a spirit of “ethically controlled competition,” allowing Americans to shop around for “federally-controlled” affordable health care plans across state lines. It could include allowing Americans to purchase prescription medicines from Canada, who charge less than half of what American pharmaceutical companies are price-gouging America’s medication users, or better yet, requiring the Pharmaceutical Industry to charge fairly for their medications. After all, America’s Pharmaceutical Industry, which achieved an estimated $20 billion in profits for 2016, must be mandated to rein in their drug prices in accordance with reasonable federal reimbursements that conform to what the other industrialized nations allow. In this regard, for comparison purposes, Canada comes to mind.

If the U.S. Congress cannot figure out how to do this through fair and equitable competitive American capitalism, then perhaps America does indeed need a Federal Single Payer Health Care System. Though there are legitimate criticisms for some nations’ unresponsive single-payer systems, objective evidence proves that Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Canada serve as excellent examples of how such an egalitarian health care delivery system can work efficiently and effectively. Here’s a novel thought: Seek these nations’ cooperative advice and expert support.

It's finally time for America's Congress to start doing their doggone job to truly serve the best interests of the American people rather than serving themselves and their special interest sponsors who fund their re-election campaigns.

Dr. Mike Crago

Dover