Mandates fair, needed

In response to Mr. Rolland Ley's "Mandate is unfair" of Nov. 26:

We may never feel a need for medical insurance but aren't we glad it exists when the need arises? Without a mandate in the Affordable Care Act, we may end up at an emergency room without coverage.

Who pays for this service? Those of us already insured actually pay. This results in higher insurance premiums for the rest of us because hospitals will pass on the costs mostly to our insurance companies and therefore to us premium payers. Eliminating the ACA's mandate is just another way of killing the act.

An alternative to the demise of the ACA caused by the end of the mandate is to have a single-payer system whose cost to the individual in (mandated) taxes would be less than the cost of premiums paid by us today.

Robert M. Gerhold

Arlington Heights