To the editor:

If the Republicans had only spent the last eight years working on an improved plan.

The plan as initiated was to provide insurance for every person. It was dependent in part on the younger population entering the market. This did not happen because the fines were too low. They should have been at least the cost of a medium coverage plan. The plan did not address the cost factors at all.

Doctors, hospitals, durable medical supplies have no ceiling and no competition. The Republican Party touts the premise that the market will decide all of these variables if only the market is allowed to run its course. The health care industry does not follow that business model.

There needs to be price control in all of the health care integral — doctor visits and procedures hospital charges for each “code” that hospitals use.

There needs to be a correction in the pharmaceutical industry to control the wide range of charging for the same drug.

There must be change in medical liability area. Medical malpractice cases and fear of being sued add billions to the cost of rendering care. These are but a few unaddressed problems in the new proposals.

Dr. Kenneth Bobb, Seymour