Reader’s view: Health-care smoking penalty reeks of socialist medicine

I couldn’t believe what I was reading on Page 2 of the Jan. 25 News Tribune and the story headlined, “Fine print of health-care law has smoking penalty.”

Are you kidding?

Under President Obama’s health-care law, the Affordable Care Act, health insurers can charge smokers buying individual policies up to 50 percent higher premiums. The worst is for people older than 60, who could end up paying nearly $5,100 a year on top of premiums. That is so unaffordable they could offer it to anybody who ever smoked pot, did drugs, had to join Alcoholics Anonymous, suffered from depression or had a disease.

That’s socialist medicine by health insurers. Better go back to the drawing board and start over before it is too late.

Diane Martinek

Proctor

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