Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

The fact that proposed
rate increases for health insurance will mostly be borne by individuals
and small-business employees simply adds insult to injury ("Health Insurers Plan Hikes,"
page one, Sept. 8). These were the very groups that needed help the
most, who could not benefit from access to a government health plan or
the negotiating power of a large employer. Now, as predicted, it is even
more difficult for these citizens to procure affordable health
insurance.

It defies logic to think
that the administration and Congress couldn't foresee the effects of the
disastrous health-care bill, so one must assume they did see and didn't
care because the ultimate goal was to force everyone onto a
government-sponsored plan or single-payer system.

Tannahill Glen, Psy.D.

Jacksonville, Fla.

Thanks to the new
health-care law, my small-business group health-insurance premiums are
expected to rise between 64% and 69% in response to preventative-care
mandates and other so-called benefit enhancements that I neither asked
for nor require.

Whoever named this law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has a cruel sense of irony.

Beth Zimmerman

Long Beach, N.Y.