Reader’s view: Media needs to stop using GOP’s ‘Obamacare’

It’s time! It is long overdue. It is long past time the news media discontinued the use of the derogatory term “Obamacare.” It is an invented term created for the single purpose of denigrating the law of the land. A law passed by Congress and signed into law by the president of the United States is the law of the land. It is a term created by an ultra-conservative right to enable it to say, “If you are not against Obamacare you are not a true conservative.”

Medicare and Social Security are not entitlements. They are paid for by wages earned. I have paid into Social Security since 1941 and Medicare premiums since retirement.

Medicare became a lifesaver in my family. My wife of 66 years developed stenosis in her aortic heart valve that required replacement. Without that valve replacement she would have been doomed to a horrible death of drowning in her own bodily fluids. Of course we sought the valve replacement. The cost was more than $100,000 plus months of pain. Could we have done this without Medicare? I suppose we could have remortgaged our paid-up home and tapped out our IRA, but we didn’t need to. Now do you understand why I feel so strongly about the use of the term Obamacare?

The wealthiest nation in the world should rejoice in its ability to care for and to relieve the suffering of all its people.

Ernest Petersen

Duluth

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