Jackson County Democrats

Health insurers oppose reform

As a retired federal employee, I have the same health plan for the family as Rep. Greg Walden. We have a choice of federally subsidized private plans.

Our plan costs $12,103 a year. I pay $3026 and the government pays $9,077. However, as the costs of our private plan go up dramatically, the insurance company's profits soar nationwide.

Upon retirement, government regulations require that Medicare take over most of the big expenses, but the insurance companies continue to rake in the full premiums. For example, after my recent surgery, Medicare picked up almost the entire bill with very little contributed by the insurance company.

It doesn't take rocket science to figure out who helped write those regulations and allowed this very lucrative double-dipping scam to be written into law. In the meantime the insurance industry becomes more consolidated, its profits grow, its political power grows and the hapless consumer pays more.

No wonder the industry is so dead set against the option of a competitive a nonprofit public plan that would level the playing field for the consumer and help bring down costs of all plans, public and private. — Don Morris, Ashland