A letter published on August 21 written by Fred Hammel claiming that government workers get free health care is absolutely not true.  Mr. Hammel surely did not try to interview any government workers, nor did he research the facts.

Mr. Hammel does not differentiate which kind of government workers he is talking about, but I am sure all city, county, state and federal government workers have health-care coverage that is partially paid by their employer (the government branch that employees them) and by the worker themselves. The simple fact that they already have health care insurance exempts them from the Affordable Care Act insurance. 

My husband was a federal government employee for the last 19 years of his career. While employed, we paid approximately $400 per month for Blue Cross health-care coverage. The federal government paid Blue Cross an additional amount each month for our coverage.  This is the same setup that is provided by many corporate and private sector businesses. After retirement we chose the option to continue our federal Blue Cross coverage as our supplementary health-care insurance to our primary Medicare coverage.  

Our Blue Cross premium did not go down after retirement even though it is now a secondary coverage, while at the same time approximately $100 per month is subtracted from our Social Security monthly. In fact, our Blue Cross premiums have continued to go up each year since retirement. We now pay more for health-care coverage after retirement than before.

Because we have health-care insurance, our premiums help pay for the millions of Americans who do not have any health insurance. The Affordable Care Act now provides a way for those previously uninsured to have some health-care insurance. 

Mr. Hammel better check the facts before mouthing off again. —Judy Elwood, Kalispell