Letter to the editor: Scrap health care reform law and start over anew

It was hard to miss the full-page advertisement on page A2 of the The Jamestown Sun Jan. 24 signed by Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., titled “Open letter to the people of North Dakota from Senator Kent Conrad.”

The purpose? To assure us that the health care reform passed by the 111th Congress and signed by President Barack Obama, “takes us in the right direction” and “we are putting our nation back on a more sound long-term fiscal course.”

The letter summarizes the health care reform legislation of more than 2,000 pages into six parts: Separating fact from fiction, two glowing testimonials, and a blue-tinted section asking — really, telling — what would repeal mean for you?

Hmmm. Was that meant to scare someone?

By the way, health care reform is officially called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and for some reason is never called that by Conrad.

Many Americans, however, call it unconstitutional as 26 states have brought suit to challenge this in court. It is likely to reach the U.S. Supreme Court for a showdown. Conrad has built a reputation as a deficit hawk and a numbers person, and as such, seems to miss the basic issues surrounding PPACA. First is the constitutional question: This federal legislation mandates American citizens must purchase health care insurance or face penalties imposed by the federal government. This appears to violate a basic freedom.

The second issue: The PPACA is a massive expansion of the federal government into all facets of the health industry and affects every person from cradle to grave. Historically we are wary of government; and especially wary of big government. Congress, in the past four years, has demonstrated in endless repetition, an ineptness and incompetence in conducting social programs and managing our national financial affairs. The whole PPACA comes down to trust, and trust in our federal government is at a very low point. Americans are not buying into a massive plan that is so ill defined, so disreputable in its creation and so questionable in public benefit.

Yes, Conrad’s perception is right on. Trust is at low ebb and the public is restive. It is time to call PPACA a learning experience, scrap it and start over.

Hal Neff

Bismarck

Tags: health care, opinion, letters, reform