This is in response to the Julie Miller letter of Feb. 28. I would agree with Ms. Miller that people need to think for themselves and pay less attention to the “obfuscation” put out by the two parties. In reading her letter, however, I noted a bit of just that where she states that “our insurance has doubled twice since 2008.”

First, I would remind her that Obama did not become president until 2009, and second, the Affordable Care Act was not passed for another year and the mandate that supposedly affected insurance rates did not go into effect until the end of 2013. Ms. Miller’s point about insurance rates doubling is accurate, except those increases she speaks of are not attributable to the ACA. Those double digit increases had been going on for the previous eight years prior to 2008 and was a major reason for passage of health care reform — to control health-care costs.  

Furthermore, once the law was passed, insurance companies hurried to gouge their clients for as much as they could get (from 2009 through 2013) before the applicable part of the ACA became law, and then get out with their largesse, because the ACA required insurance companies to refund overcharged premiums to their clients. If the Millers were insured during that period, they no doubt benefited from those refunds, as did tens of thousands of Montanans.

Now, to Ms. Miller’s and Steve Daines’ repeal mantra — hundreds of thousands of Montanans have been receiving benefits from the law since its passage, such as young adults being included on their parents’ plans; insureds under 65 receiving a free preventive care visit; thousands of Montana seniors who benefit from the closing of the doughnut hole on prescription drugs (savings of up to $3,000 per year); tens of thousands of insureds who received rebates for overcharging premiums since 2010; 19,000 small businesses in Montana who were eligible for tax credits since 2011 for providing health insurance to their employees; and 20,000 Montanans who have signed up for coverage on the insurance exchange since October 2013. In addition, all Montanans enjoy policies that no longer have limits and are not excluded from preexisting conditions.     

So, I would pose to Ms. Miller and Steve Daines this question, “What do you say to the hundreds of thousands of Montanans already benefitting from the ACA when you take all of these benefits away?”

Of course, there are problems in the law that need to be fixed and it would make me feel better about Steve Daines if he was offering to fix some of the problems. Sadly, he and his “party of no” are offering no solutions; they are simply using the “hate Obama and Obamacare” rhetoric as a campaign slogan, knowing full well that they could never take these many benefits away. If Steve Daines cared about the Millers’ problem, he would be working to fix it, not repeat Rush rhetoric. —Wes Higgins, Kalispell