To the Editor:

Red flag warnings that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka Obamacare, is a flawed bad law have been flying around from the get-go.

 The bill was ramrodded through Congress during a Christmas Eve session in the Senate. Who would have been paying attention on the eve of a serious U.S. holiday? House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., demanded that, “We have to vote for the bill to know what is in it!” Pelosi and Democrat leaders did not want anyone to know what was in it because this bad law, more than 2,000 pages long, raises taxes, penalizes businesses and therefore kills jobs, steals funding from Medicare, burdens younger citizens with high premiums and deductibles, is loaded with confining regulations, costs government far more than originally predicted and creates more than 150 new agencies, boards, and commissions made up of unelected people who are not accountable to us! Red flags!      

 To secure the necessary votes to pass the ACA, senators and congressman were bribed with funding promises  (Mary Landrieu, Louisiana) or waivers (Ben Nelson, Nebraska).  Michigan Rep. Stupak, a Democrat abortion issue holdout, was convinced to change his vote to “yes” and retired from politics. Red flag!

 Up to 16,000 new IRS employees will administer the mandate that all citizens buy health insurance. The same untrustworthy IRS agency whose agents denied or delayed conservative leaning groups their nonprofit tax status will now have access to our personal health care records.

Objections to the Affordable Care Act surface from all around the nation but we are reminded that the ACA is “the law.” Nevertheless President Obama, without congressional approval, has changed the law by granting 1,000 waivers, delays and additional subsidies, mostly to favored groups — unions, corporations, Congress and their staffs. But, no delays, waivers or exemptions are granted to ordinary individuals who are now burdened with insurance cancellations, additional taxes and penalties. Red flag!

The ACA website is under-functional after millions of dollars were spent to program the site. President Obama kept saying that if you like your insurance plan you can keep it and you can keep your doctor. Not so! Millions have been cancelled by their present insurance company and therefore their doctors because the policy they like does not meet ACA requirements … all policies are mandated now by government not by what the insured chooses. 

Employer funded insurance will be mandated by ACA/Obamacare requirements in 2014, causing many to be cancelled as well. We were told that ACA insurance will cost only $2,500 per year but even if premiums are low, deductibles are exorbitant. We have less choice and less competition.

 There is no doubt that some areas of our healthcare system should be fixed, but the Affordable Care Act is not the way. Tell your congressmen and senators it is time to repeal and redo this bad law and replace it with one that is affordable, improves the quality of our healthcare care, and maintains our personal choices. 

Carol Adams

Glenville