No easy answer

Some states have no health insurance providers. Premiums in states with coverage have become unaffordable.

Obama didn't have the political stomach to ask for universal single-payer health care, so we got Obamacare, and it opened a can of worms.

Before 2009, working people paid for health insurance. Some chose to go uninsured. The poor were covered by Medicaid or charity.

The Affordable Care Act mandated everyone must have health care or suffer a tax penalty. The working man paid a lot and the poor paid little or nothing.

So, what has happened in eight years under Obamacare? Premiums for working Americans have skyrocketed. Government spending on health care is out of control. Seventy-five million Americans are on Medicaid, which was intended as a stopgap, not lifetime health insurance.

America is broke. We owe $20 trillion to creditors. We can't afford universal health care without doubling individual taxes and raising corporate taxes, which would kill the economy.

The Republican bills in Congress and the Senate are saying "wait a minute." Do we want to be Europe? Do Americans want to pay 60 percent of their income in taxes?

Or would we rather pay for our own insurance in an open market across state lines? And can the federal treasury afford to cover so many who are on Medicaid? Perhaps the states should scrutinize Medicaid services and administer it according to regional needs. The urban areas have different medical delivery systems than rural areas.

Can Americans have high-level medical care without high premiums? Of course not. Can everyone who chooses unemployment or underemployment be covered by Medicaid? Of course not. We are going to pay for what we get. There are no freebies.

Democrats created the mess. Now they don't want to participate in the tough choices to fix it.

There is no perfect answer. The economic reality and the politics don't match. Since the Democrats have opted out of a fix, I feel Republicans should let the pieces fall where they may. Let Democrats work this out. It's their baby. They have lost ground in every election since its inception. Let them face another midterm election in 2018.

Craig Davis

Draper

Credit: By Craig Davis For the Deseret News