Letters: Mitt Romney Distorts the Facts

Dear Nashua Patch:

Last week, I received two estimates for a plumbing job. One estimate was twice as much as the other for the same work. I thought about why and figured that the company with the higher estimate has more overhead: administration, advertising, and a fleet of trucks. We’re going with the lower quote, from a self-employed individual with a glowing reputation. We can’t afford to support the bigger company’s overhead.

I look at the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the same way. Before the ACA, the government overpaid private insurance companies that participated in Medicare Advantage, and these overpayments went to profit, not care. Many of these companies pay their CEOs obscenely high salaries, and offer millions more as "golden parachutes" when executives are shown the door. This sounds like corporate welfare to me, and it is one level of waste I'm glad has been eliminated by the ACA.

Mitt Romney distorts the facts when he says that the ACA cuts $700 billion from Medicare. He leaves out one important detail: The cuts come from corporate profits, not from our benefits and care. Medicare Advantage is actually working better since the ACA was passed. Premiums are 16 percent lower and enrollment has increased by 17 percent. Benefits have not been curtailed.

No one wants to waste money, but we all want to get the job done. The ACA is helping us do so by reducing the overhead from our health care costs.

Sincerely,

Diane Raymond

Nashua, NH