Letter: GOP health care policies damaging

The amount of misinformation many Republicans are allowed, or indeed encouraged, to believe is a condemnation of Republican leaders.

Many persist in the delusion that health care did not need reform. Budget cuts proposed by Republicans and the tea party do not address the real problems.

The much higher costs we pay for health care are a major drag on the U.S. economy and the cause of government deficits.

Private insurance companies, with their ceiling on benefits and frequent denial of claims, operated much more like ?death panels? than anything proposed in ?ObamaCare.?

Health insurance mandates are only necessary, as Newt Gingrich admitted, if, as Republicans insist, we retain for-profit insurance companies as part of the solution (despite their having been a major part of the problem).

If Medicare were extended to cover everyone, as some Democrats proposed, the problem of insurance mandates disappears.

Blaming Barney Frank for the failure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is ridiculous. From 2001 through 2006, when most of the damage was done, he did not have the power to block any legislation the Republican majority proposed.

Moreover, Republican policies have made the fundamental problem of money?s corrupting influence on politics worse.

?? Mark Holmboe, Rockford

Source: http://www.rrstar.com/opinions/whatyouresaying/x1282424892/Letter-GOP-health-care-policies-damaging

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