Lewis Loudon, Palm City
Letter: Individual health insurance mandate is like Florida’s PIP requirement
I debated about sending this letter for a while, with the state of our politics and our society filled with meanness and hate. I read a column by Eve Samples (Dec. 4) about whether Medicare-eligible Florida drivers really need personal injury protection insurance. The gentleman questioning PIP wrote that he is on Medicare with a supplement that would cover his medical cost, so why did he have to spend another $125 for PIP, which does the same thing?
My problem is with the answer Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, gave Ms. Samples. Negron is a staunch opponent of the health-care law, especially the mandate that everyone has to purchase health insurance. This is his quote:
“I think the citizen has a point However I think it’s good public policy to make sure people are responsible for injuries they cause and that there are funds available for medical providers who are treating those injuries.”
The column goes on to say that Florida mandated PIP in 1972. The intent was to ensure that people injured in an accident would be covered! This is exactly what the mandate on national health care is all about — to make sure that everyone would be responsible for paying their share and that medical providers would get paid for their service. There are too many people who don’t have health care who choose not to have it.
Sen. Negron, if it works for auto insurance, it will work for health insurance — same premise.
On the subject of Negron, six months before the governor’s race, I received his flier on how mad he was about Medicare fraud. He went on to say it was stealing from our parents and grandparents. He endorsed our current governor, who was head of a company that committed one of the largest Medicare frauds in history.