To the Editor:
"The Affordable Care Act is the law of the land," Delegate Plum intones ("The Battle to Insure Everyone," Reston Connection, Oct. 9), omitting to mention that it has already been so distorted by the president with his waivers, exemptions and postponements that it is itself looking a tad sickly. He is studiously silent also on the attendant rise in private insurance premiums, often astronomical, the abject failure of the initial "rollout" of the insurance marketplace (a "hacker's dream")—perhaps several years of preparation were insufficient—doctors refusing to accept Medicare recipients, job losses, and the outrageous Capitol Hill exemptions—all the benefits of redistributed wealth.
Delegate Plum quotes in support of our supposed need for a European-style health-care system a ... travel consultant! Shades of Walter Duranty: I saw Euro-health care, and it works. I would refer him to the Francis QC Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry Report on the state of health "care" in England in the example of this infamous hospital. I quote: "We now know that police may be investigating between 200 and 300 deaths at Mid Staffs Hospital for criminal negligence. This is almost so horrific that it falls outside comprehension or belief." I would doubt that the horrors are isolated.
The American people, Delegate Plum says, have been in a "frantic rush to get into the (healthcare.gov) program." Really? I suspect that the real numbers are too embarrassingly low to be quoted.
Delegate Plum talks hilariously about the program's "overwhelming appeal and acceptance." We should not, Mr. Plum says, try to block the law from taking effect. Based on the experience of the program's signup rollout, what could possibly go wrong?
Harry Locock
Reston