Not so fast on an insurance pool

Re “Everybody into the pool,” Editorial, Sept. 26

Did the insurance companies write this editorial? They are the ones that have the most to gain from requiring all Americans to obtain health insurance.

The Times is promoting a plan that will deliver even bigger bonuses and profits to insurance companies.

President Obama said that if he were starting from scratch, he would have a single-payer system.

We don’t have to start from scratch. All we have to do is expand Medicare to include every person who wants it.

Sharon Hall

Torrance

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I was dismayed by your support of mandating that all Americans buy health insurance.

It is more just and fair to restrict (or at least subsidize) premiums charged to low-income individuals and families and to disallow the practice of calculating premiums based on age and where one lives, as this results in charging those people the most who are often least able to pay.

Dale Palmer

Altadena

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If forcing people to buy health insurance were an unconstitutional infringement on individual liberty, would that mean we would also have to abandon Social Security and Medicare, for which people are required to contribute a portion of their incomes?

Donald Schwartz

Los Angeles

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Should everyone be required to buy health insurance?

Generally, we fund public works through systems of graduated taxes -- fair, we believe, to rich, poor and those in the middle. With the exception of small amounts spent on administrative oversight, most dollars collected go directly for services, paid out to government agencies and private contractors.

In the case of healthcare, however, elected leaders insist that the money be funneled through private hands, where nearly a third loses its effectiveness. This in itself makes legislators “reverse Robin Hoods.”

Factor in proposing that we charge virtually everyone the same amount for coverage (granted, some will be able to purchase more coverage), and that makes the equation even more garishly lopsided: taxation pure and simple, with nothing progressive about it.

So, until corporate welfare and cost inequities are done away with, I don’t feel we should force anyone to spend money on an overpriced, substandard product.

Jon Williams

Goleta

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The Times likens mandatory health insurance to mandatory car insurance, but it’s not the same at all.

I can opt out of car insurance by not driving a car. What do I have to opt out of to not buy health insurance? Life?

Diane Soini

Santa Barbara