Opponents of the Affordable Care Act have recently been putting out a variety of “alternative facts” (falsehoods) about this important health care law.

One false claim is that health insurance premiums have skyrocketed since passage of the ACA. The truth, as reported by the non-partisan Kaiser Foundation and Brookings Institution, is that the growth in health insurance premiums slowed after passage of the ACA. For employer-provided family plans, the rate of increase dropped from 33 to 20 percent. In the individual market, there was an initial decrease in the average premium of 10 to 20 percent. Since then premiums have risen, but at a slower rate than they were before passage of the Affordable Care Act.

Another false claim is that there has been a decrease in medical school enrollment since passage of the ACA in 2010. The truth, as reported by the Association of American Medical Colleges, is that medical school enrollment has been steadily increasing, and reached an all-time high in 2015.

These two examples are clear illustrations of how ACA critics are using falsehoods to justify their criticisms. Readers need to be very cautious — just because someone says something is true, that doesn’t mean it is true. Check the facts.

Even with the ACA, health care costs in the U.S. are much too high. One reason for this is that for-profit health insurance companies have very large operating expenses (much of it for television advertising of their products), and very large executive salaries. Another cost driver is the fact that pharmaceutical companies charge much higher prices for medications in the U.S. than they do in other developed countries.

Health care costs could be dramatically diminished if a public option were added to the health insurance marketplace, if medications could be imported from other developed nations, and if Medicare could negotiate drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies.

Each of these cost-saving measures could be enacted by congress. Please call Rep. Upton and Senators Stabenow and Peters and urge them to support legislation to bring about these cost reducing initiatives. At the same time, please urge them to strengthen, not repeal, the Affordable Care Act.

 

SANDY FELDMAN

Lakeside