As Obamacare crumbles under the weight of its own complexity and dwindling popular support, Americans gain the opportunity to make genuine, systemic changes in health care funding, namely a single-payer program of Medicare-for-all. ("Md. weighs options after Obama unveils fix to dropped insurance policies," Nov. 14).
While touted as a dramatic reform measure, the Affordable Care Act merely solidifies an already broken system in which precious health care dollars are squandered on a Byzantine network of administrative costs and insurance industry profits.
Under Obamacare, insurance companies will continue to be allowed to raise premiums, increase deductibles and exert undue influence over medical decisions that are best left to individual providers and the patients under their care.
A not-for-profit single payer system suffers no such pitfalls as its only purpose is to fund decent, universal health care for all.
Indeed, since 1966, the single-payer Medicare program has enabled participants to enjoy affordable, high-quality medical care while maintaining freedom of choice and confidentiality without interference from non-medical administrative demands. Americans deserve to have that kind of system extended to everyone.
Irwin Fried, Baltimore
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