I actually gasped when I read columnist Jim Fossel refer to what he called the “rushed, insular, partisan nature” of the Democrats’ passage of the Affordable Care Act (Oct. 1).

There were months of open hearings in which liberals, like myself, had to watch the bill drop from a single-payer idea to a public option, to a complicated mix of public and private elements, all in a futile attempt to accommodate Republicans, who had absolutely no interest in doing anything but saying “no” to President Obama, regardless how far he reached out to them.

John Manderino

Scarborough