Opinion Piece by Samuel Strait – March 30, 2017  – One would think that after a less than stellar career at Solid Waste (SDNSWMA – AKA dump or transfer station take your pick) as its executive director, Kevin Hendrick would quietly go away and be silent.  Why he gets Coastal Voices space in the local Triplicate to pontificate on the Affordable Care Act is almost breath taking.  One would think that after years of disservice at Solid Waste, coupled with missing money, suspicious record keeping and the initiator of what has now become yet another expensive bureaucratic boondoggle, he would wish to remain anonymous.    Not Kevin, whose arrogance has led him to become Del Norte’s chairman of the local Democratic Party.  Yes, that’s right, you know them as the people caught money laundering political contributions during the last election.  Kevin Hendricks must feel right at home.

In any event, I will not spend time here pointing to all the omissions and characterizations, that repealing the ACA will not do, and move on to the incredible performance Kevin and his lemmings put on before the Board of Supervisors no less than in the public view.   Before wading through all of the false Democratic talking points presented at the meeting it might be instructive to learn just what the ACA is all about, and  what it has cost the 300,000,000 people who had coverage in order to provide faux coverage for 20,000,000 people many of which did not wish to purchase insurance in the first place.

Prior to the installation of the ACA, no person in the United States by law could be refused medical attention, whether they had insurance or not.  Makes the insistence that insurance coverage as a vital path to the receipt of medical attention a moot point. The ACA did nothing to change that scenario.  What it did change, was that people who are now covered by various Covered California Insurance programs, Medi-Cal and other assorted programs, is that we, meaning the tax payer and the medically insured, now have to pay for those people to continue to receive medical care plus pay for the insurance that they didn’t have.  What a deal!  In addition, or rather to add insult to injury, many people who had insurance before ACA at very affordable costs are now finding insurance too expensive and have been folded into the subsidized insurance programs at further cost to the taxpayer that WOULD NOT HAVE OCCURRED BUT FOR THE ACA.   And finally, to pile on, many of those who do not want to pay for medical insurance are now mandated to pay for something they do not wish to have, once again caused by the provisions in the ACA.   So what is this whole thing all about one might ask, when it should be clear that the ACA has caused nothing but problems for THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE SO THAT TWENTY MILLION PEOPLE MIGHT HAVE THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE PAY FOR THAT THEY DID NOT NEED IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!  Democrats that pushed this monstrosity should be run out of town.

In the five years since its implementation, the ACA is directly responsible for crushing the medical insurance industry, guaranteeing that medical costs would rise sharply, allowing the growth of hospital costs to go through the roof and making medical insurance unaffordable for millions.   While for what ever reason it isn’t obvious to Kevin and his group that the ACA is a train wreck that most reasonable people acknowledge and recognize as economic fiasco, Republicans currently the majority party at the Federal level can’t seem to come to grips with the concept that simply repealing the ACA, tort reform and providing incentives for insurance companies to return to the medical insurance marketplace would go a ways toward righting the ship.  Those that would lose coverage would simply go back to the previous system of receiving medical attention without the rest of us having to pony up for the cost of their faux insurance in the process.   Now on to Kevin’s circus….

I sometimes can’t believe that I am listening to adults, when I listened to Kevin’s proposal and the ignorance of those that spoke in his support.  One, I believe stated she was a retired teacher, says a lot about the state of education in this country.  In any event, why Kevin felt that the Board of Supervisors was the proper venue to display his nonsense is beyond me other than him trying to be once again relevant.  In the first place that the Supervisors should do anything more than politely listen then move on to a legitimate concern, but to spend time and County resources would be a travesty.  Our medical issues to be found are largely because of the Affordable Care Act, and not because it might be repealed.  The three thousand County residents referred to by Director Snow were, are, and will continue to receive medical care should the ACA be repealed.  I for one do not understand why this is such a difficult concept to grasp.

In a final OH MY GOD MOMENT, Eileen Cooper appeared in front of the microphone to plead for a single payer plan of medical insurance in place of the folly that is the Affordable Care Act. and assure us that it worked in many European nations and Canada.  At least she had one thing right in that the ACA is thought to be only a stepping stone to single payer by Democrats.  On the other hand, apparently, Ms. Cooper has not experienced the delights of single payer medical coverage. She would no doubt in my mind change her tune if she actually was a resident of  those countries and had to be subjected to the tender mercies of that kinds of socialized medicine.  I, for one, have experienced that kind of care and I must say it is an experience not to be missed.  Most people in the United States who have a fondness for single payer would change their respective tunes in a hurry.  Medical care in the United States is very good in spite of the high cost.  Single payer care is not even in the same room.

No disrespect for Mr. Hendrick, but stop wasting the Board’s time with this inane proposal.  As Supervisor Gitlin tried to educate you, the ACA was dead on arrival and should be treated as such.