Ryan plan would increae insurance competition & lower costs

To the editor,

Wow, Bill Dawson is telling tales about health care without knowing the facts. He starts out talking about "legislation to enable states to jointly opt out of all federal health care rules" and lays out a process like it is going through the amendment process to the U.S. Constitution. You never really say where this legislation is being voted on. Is it at the federal level or in various states?

You mention the Affordable Care Act, more commonly referred to as ObamaCare. Is this proposed legislation in regards to this law? You don't make it very clear. The effects of this proposed legislation looks like you are spouting the liberal lies about the Ryan Plan, but that bill is sitting in the U.S. Senate with all the other budget bills that Harry Reid refuses to pass.

Is this proposed legislation the bill that actually passed the House to repeal ObamaCare? Your facts are clearly wrong if this is the case.

I will provide you with the facts on these two bills so you can understand what the difference is. The Ryan Plan, which is actually the 2011 Federal Budget passed by the House of Representatives is not the Romney Plan that Mitt plans to propose to congress. These two plans have a similar approach regarding Medicare, which is the only health care portion proposed.

These plans make changes in the Medicare system for anyone under age 55 by inviting all insurance companies to submit a bid for providing health insurance to the elderly. This would be done annually and everyone eligible for this benefit would receive an insurance policy for free equal to the second to the lowest bid submitted with the option of paying the difference themselves should they want a more expensive policy. The prices would be locked in for a year and this process would be repeated each year so that someone wanting the standard policy would pay nothing for the rest of their life.

The basis for these plans comes right out of the Simpson/Boles commission that the president put in place. Unfortunately he refused to institute any of the recommendations from his commission.

As to the legislation to repeal ObamaCare, this plan is to open up the marketplace so that anyone from anywhere can purchase an insurance policy from any company anywhere in the country. This would increase competition and lower costs. Another way to lower costs is by turning all the mandates on the insurance companies telling them specifically what coverage they need to provide to everyone into options that people can add to their policies. This would eliminate a single woman paying for testicular cancer coverage that she will never use.

Bill, you should try being a little clearer with the facts in your next letter so you don't sound so ridiculous to the average reader.

Greg Knytych

New Hampton