Health care letter wrong

I would like to correct the allegations made by Mr. Dixon (Aug. 9 letter) alleging Democrats did the same with the ACA as the Republicans did with the AHCA.

According to a July 27 Fortune magazine article, the ACA (Obamacare) came out of committee after a month-long markup with 167 Republican amendments. The Senate Health committee spent 60 hours over 13 days on the markup. The Senate Finance Committee held 53 meetings and an eight-day markup. The committee considered 130 amendments and held 79 roll call votes. There were 44 hearings and public events about the plan just in the Senate.

The Republican plan (AHCA) was voted upon before the release of the CBO report. There were no public hearings and no input allowed from the Democrats. The Senate version was crafted by just 13 Republican senators in the dark. Even the remaining Republican senators were unaware of the bill’s contents until just days before the vote, which failed to gain the 50 votes even as the Republicans hold 52 Senate seats.

So Mr. Dixon is simply wrong in his allegations.

Allen Roberts

St. John