Congratulations on the Sun Journal editorial showing why people need Obamacare (Nov. 15). It was well-reasoned, persuasive and positive. Rex Rhoades left out part of the story though. He didn’t want to throw stones.

Allow me.

For years now, some citizens and corporations have been free-riding regarding medical care. They have foregone health insurance because of youth: I’m “immortal.” They have decided to play the sickness lottery — “I’ll never have an illness or accident” — and it costs them nothing. And, let’s be fair, some just can’t afford health insurance. Or a business has decided it’s a competitive advantage to not offer employees a health care plan. That decision saves them plenty.

How can people afford to take the risk? Because they’re playing with the public’s money. When people get sick or injured, they are cared for either at government expense (our tax dollars) or at hospital expense (our increased insurance premiums). They get a free ride. The public pays.

You would think the Republicans would embrace Obamacare. It is based on a proposal from The Heritage Foundation (a Republican think-tank), supported by the insurance industry and adopted in Massachusetts under Mitt Romney. Why? Because it requires citizens to pay their own way, if they can afford to, and provides government help with premiums if they can’t; and uses the private insurance market, not a government agency, to accomplish that.

For my money, it’s about time the freeloaders had to pay their own way. Shame on the Republicans for opposing it.

Stephen Lunt, Auburn