Affordable health care

Think Progress published this exchange between Ohio Rep. James Renacci and a constituent at a town hall meeting:

FONTE: You’ve said you want to repeal the health care law and replace it. There’s a lot of things that took effect that help seniors. Once you repeal it, what happens to all that? And what are you going to replace it? Why don’t you make a replacement plan before you repeal it so we can look at it? [crowd applauses] [...] There’s preventing screening in there that took place. There’s people between 45 and 64 that lost their jobs. Now you want to replace it, that’s fine, repeal it, but what are you going to replace it with we don’t know what’s going to happen. What do we tell the seniors out there, that there’s already stuff taking place, and it’s gone now? Let’s think about this before we jump and do whatever we wanna do.

RENACCI: Remember, it was the American people sent us down there, 87 new Representatives, and I agree there are some good things, but there’s also a half a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicare that are going to go in place real soon —

FONTE: And that’s through Medicare Advantage, which takes more out of traditional Medicare, than anything. That’s what you have to tell us. Why should insurance companies get more?! Now I’ll tell you something, I was involved in health care, and since 1993 health care has went up every year double digits, and it’s never come down. What’s going to make it come down? And tell me one job that’s been taken away from it, this new health care law.

RENACCI: I’ll take you around any time you want to go, to three businesses –

FONTE: I’m ready.

RENACCI: — that have lost seven or eight jobs because their health care went up 63 percent.

FONTE: It’s went up every year!

RENACCI: Yeah but now, and I’ve been a business man for 28 years, when it goes up 7, 8, 10 percent –

FONTE: That’s not acceptable either.

RENACCI: — that’s a problem.

ThinkProgress explains: “Fonte is absolutely right to point out that the cuts in Medicare were made to Medicare Advantage, a program that costs taxpayers more than traditional Medicare because it is administered through inefficient for-profit insurance companies.”

I’m not at all familiar with Medicare Advantage. There’s a link to this person’s opinion.