Follow the money to find the motive

Jim Riley, Las Vegas

Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013 | 2:02 a.m.

The only reason Republicans, and a few Democrats, in the House are determined to repeal Obamacare is that they don’t want to give up the millions of dollars in campaign money they receive from private health insurers and drug companies.

Their No. 1 priority is keeping their high-paying jobs. Getting re-elected depends entirely upon the amount of campaign money they can raise.

George W. Bush’s Medicare Part D is a huge giveaway to private health insurers and drug companies because to participate, a senior on Medicare must buy private insurance; and, by law, only private insurers are allowed to negotiate prices with drug companies.

If we could choose public, nonprofit health insurance, everyone could buy better coverage for much lower premiums. But that won’t happen because there is so much campaign money coming from private health insurers and drug companies.

When I hear people say they trust private, for-profit insurance companies more than they trust the people who run Medicare, it is hard to understand.