This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
In response to Sen. Orrin Hatch's op-ed Sunday ("Obamacare threatens Utah families' futures):
On the defeat of "Hillary Care" in 1994, Sen. Hatch announced that Congress would address growing health-care concerns. It didn't. Health-care costs rose as much as 1,500 percent, 32 million Americans had no insurance, two-thirds of bankruptcies and foreclosures had direct links to health incidents, and unpaid emergency room costs were almost $1 trillion a year.
Loopholes in dependent insurance coverage almost killed my married daughter, twice leaving debts of tens of thousands of dollars. Families locked up sports equipment, bikes, and forbade children from sports for fear of uncovered injury. I know families who lived in churches and cars as results of devastating uncovered medical incidents.
This is why Obamacare came into being. It is why Sen. Hatch and his colleagues should have taken care of the problems 20 years ago. It is why they should have worked with the president when he begged them for help in 2009 and 2010. Sorry, your response plan is 20 years late.
Howard Adams
Layton