Can someone explain to me Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ stance on health care? She has vigorously fought to repeal Obamacare, claiming that it is a “government takeover of medicine,” when, in fact, 60 percent of health care in the United States today is already paid for or subsidized by the government.

The Veteran Affairs system, which she supports, is totally owned and operated by the federal government, similar to the British National Health Service. Medicare, which she claims to support, is a single-payer program modeled after the Canadian system, also called Medicare.

She continues to receive a subsidy from the taxpayers for her own health insurance. Yet she supported shutting down the federal government in 2013, which cost all of us approximately $20 billion in order to deny affordable access to health care for 43 million Americans.

For further irony, the Affordable Care Act is not a government takeover but instead is a government subsidy of private, for-profit insurance companies that was originally designed by Republicans in response to “Hillarycare” before Obama became president.

Please help me understand where this woman is coming from.

Daniel Schaffer, M.D.

Spokane