Reader’s view: Cravaack misrepresents health-care law’s effect

U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack opposes the Affordable Care Act. He is entitled to that opinion. After all, his health-care needs are and have been well-guaranteed by the Veterans Administration, Northwest/Delta, and you and I, as all members of Congress receive a lifetime of full health-care benefits.

My problem is with Cravaack’s distortion and misrepresentation of the ACA. The most glaring example, in my mind, is his repeated claim that the ACA, or Obamacare, strips Medicare of $716 billion. Consistently, fact-check sources have refuted this claim. These fact-checkers report there is no cut of Medicare benefits to recipients and, in fact, the Paul Ryan budget plan relies on the same savings from Medicare. The much-talked-about cuts are the amount gained from private insurers, not Medicare recipients. This distortion of the ACA by Rep. Cravaack is present in his numerous speeches, messages from Congress and a regularly run television campaign ad.

Pete Boelter, retired

North Branch, Minn.

Tags: readers views, opinion, editorials, politics, health, elections