Recently, my employer’s health insurance company attached a letter to my paycheck stating the reasons for increases in our premiums.

Of the six reasons listed, one in particular caught my attention: Governmental mandates and regulations, 15 percent.

I wonder how much of this has to do with Maine Dirigo. I wonder why I work sometimes more than 40 hours a week, pay money every week for health coverage, pay co-payment amounts every time I visit the doctor or get a prescription, and have to satisfy a required deductible amount before coverage kicks in to about 80 percent depending on the procedure, doctor or type of ailment.

I also wonder how many uninsured people have jobs but voluntarily opt out of company-sponsored health plans because they feel it is too expensive. They are required by every other sector of society to pay their bills, such as mortgages, auto loans, electric, gas, auto insurance and phone.

I also wonder why the Department of Human Services can swipe someone’s income tax return and apply it to unpaid child support, but the socialist-minded people in Augusta can’t swipe an income tax check and apply it to unpaid medical bills. The only thing I can figure here is that when wealth is involuntarily redistributed, it is done to make people dependent on the state, hopefully securing votes in future elections. Let’s be real, who is going to bite the hand that feeds?

The bottom line here is other people’s medical bills are their responsibility, not mine.

Peter J Michaud, Lewiston

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