byThe Monitor
Posted:  Sunday, November 17, 2013 12:00 am

DEAR EDITOR:

Have Americans become a nation of whiners? What can be the problem with folks whose insurance plan was done away with because it did not meet the basics of the Affordable Care Act? Do they want inferior and more expensive insurance plans that provide lousy coverage?

Perhaps they do. If so, let them keep their lousy insurance plans. The rest of us Americans will obtain better insurance plans. Ask for a subsidy to help pay for it if the new and better plans cost more than the old inadequate plans. There is no free lunch, but there is help.

For those who truly cannot afford any insurance plan, there is Medicaid — not expanded Medicaid, however, because Texas apparently prefers to deny our most vulnerable children, elderly and disabled neighbors along with the working poor the healthcare coverage they need for political reasons. What pride is there in that?

The hospitals and doctors that provide uncompensated care to these folks deserve our praise. But they would prefer to be paid by Medicaid so that way everybody else’s health care would cost less. Instead, we all suffer because petty political points are being scored by ambitious politicos.

Yes, there are glitches in the federal government’s healthcare website. Fix them and move on. Those opposing Obamacare are arguing the same old stuff that their like-minded friends said, and say to this day, about Social Security and Medicare. Nonsense. These programs struggled to find their way in the beginning also and were tweaked along the way to meet challenges.

It seems the misinformed are scaring the uninformed into histrionics. At worst, the bad elements in our society are more concerned about profits for the insurance industry than health care for their neighbors.

Obamacare is not a crisis. It is not Pearl Harbor, the Cuban missile incident or even 9/11. Calm down and let’s work this out. Move forward because that is where the future is to be found — not by looking in the rearview mirror.

Ricardo Flores, Edinburg

DEAR EDITOR:

Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott’s professed concerns for South Texas’ health needs is a joke and that of the Republican-led tea party ilk in Austin, which refused Medicaid expansion and has done everything possible to cripple the Affordable Care Act.

South Texans will pay a huge price for this neglect. Toss in the horrible restrictions on women’s reproductive healthcare services and their unrelenting effort to shut down Planned Parenthood facilities and one can feel Abbott’s joke sadly grow.

Democratic candidate for governor, Wendy Davis, doesn’t offer such jokes. Her health concerns are believable!

Eugene Novogrodsky, Brownsville

DEAR EDITOR:

In reference to the Nov. 10 guest column by state Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, [“ID laws making it harder for Texans to vote”] to his question “What kind of message does it send to the rest of the world that in order vote in Texas you have to go the state police?” Well, I have four photo IDs. I have several copies of my birth certificate. The message would be that we, Americans, are not uneducated. If you are so uneducated that you cannot get a photo ID then you should not be voting. Rep. Canales: Stop scaring people to get votes. Stop playing the race game. We are all from different cultures, but we are all Americans. Period.

Jose Garcia, Pharr

DEAR EDITOR:

In Thursday’s Word Jumble puzzle, the word “the” was an impossible solution because the letter “t” was not included in any of the jumbled words and the letter “e” is included only in the jumbled word “oxygen” and it does not fall within any of the circles. Wake up proofreader.

John Masters, McAllen

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Monitor does not create the daily Jumble puzzles, which are purchased from an outside company. We do, however, apologize for any inconveniences.