To the Editor:

Can we please stop referring to access to health care insurance as “access to health care” and health care insurers as “health care providers”?

Health care insurers are “middlemen” taking a cut of your health care dollars and betting against us needing many health care services. Removing the middleman means that our health care dollars will go to doctors and other actual providers of health care instead of to insurance premiums.

The current situation of insurers raising premiums and dropping out of the Affordable Care Act is our wake-up call to get the insurance industry out of routine health care. The insurance industry says it is losing money having to pay out more claims and if the government doesn’t help consumers pay premiums they might actually go out of business. A look at insurance company investments and holdings shows they are not hurting, but profits will be diminished if they are unable to place unreasonable restrictions on what they will cover.

The insurance industry has convinced us that we are unable to have health care without their “help.” This is why a single payer system, like Medicare for all, is the best plan, removing middlemen’s profits and directing health care dollars to doctors and others who have actually earned them by providing the services.

Judy Stockinger

Franklin