Letters

They Lied

Peter Suderman's very fine article "They Lied" (February) surprisingly misses the biggest lie of all in Obamacare: That it will reduce the number of uninsured in the country. In fact, Obamacare is well on its way to increasing the number of uninsured while making coverage more costly for the rest of the population.

The number of uninsured will surely increase because of the cancellation of many otherwise acceptable plans, because the costs of health exchange policies will go through the roof due to optimistic and actuarially unsound assumptions, because many companies will drop coverage, and because behavioral and economic disincentives will discourage the young and healthy to sign up.

One might argue that this is what the liberals had in mind as an inevitable march toward a single payer system controlled by the government. However, because of sheer incompetence in the design and implementation of the initiative, the trust of the people has been so irrevocably broken that the best hope for restoring sanity to the healthcare market is to move toward a free market solution for the majority of Americans, with a proven safety net for the poor (Medicaid) and for the elderly (Medicare).

Hank Werronen

Arlington, VA

I enjoyed Peter Suderman's article on the 12 lies of Obamacare ("They Lied," February). However, I think he missed one-a very big one.

Didn't the president say he would not sign a health care bill that added one dime to the federal deficit? From all I have seen this bill will add over a trillion dollars to the debt over the next 10 years, and probably a lot more than that.

Warren Robinson

Olive Branch, MS

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"This is Hawaii, the state that promotes foreign products like pineapples (native to South America), Macadamia nuts (native to Australia), cut-flowers that are mostly exotic orchids, heliconias, proteas, gingers and anthuriums (native to a slew of places other than Hawaii), papaya (native to the Americas) and even the batch of 'real' Hawaiian foodstuffs that were brought along on the raft along with the human colonizers who weren't really native either."

–reason.com commenter "jester" in response to "The Fable of Hawaiian Frankencorn" (February)

"I submit that the appropriate action for the government to take is to step up and NOT do things. If government didn't dole out favors, corporations and industries wouldn't lobby for them."

–reason.com commenter "Sylvie1" in response to "Crony Capitalism vs. Market Morality" (February)

"The Catch 22 in health care is people who promote the free market solution are honest. Will a free market lower cost? Yes. Will everyone have access to health care? No. This leaves a weakness that can be exploited by the government to promise universal healthcare. Can the government deliver that? No. But the politicians have no problem being dishonest."

–reason.com commenter "Floridian" in response to "Consumers Should Drive Medicine" (February)