When Donald Trump was running for president and he was asked about the Affordable Care Act, he said that the pharmaceutical and insurance companies are what is wrong with our health care system. Bingo! Correct answer!

Today, the Republican-controlled Congress and President Trump are trying to convince us that their health care plan is the answer for repealing and replacing Obamacare. But nary a word about the excessive profits of the drug and insurance companies. The Republican health care proposal protects those profits and literally will send us back to the same situation in the 1990s when the Clintons tried to fix the health care system.

Capitalism at work: Whatever the market will bear. Outlandish profits and wealth provide huge amounts of money for the lobbyists who protect those profits, and no concern for the poor and downtrodden. The Republican Party has fought since Day One against Social Security and Medicare, but the easy answer is: Cover everyone under a single-payer system, including our elected representatives.

For those who might not know, the U.S. is ranked 37th in the world with regard to health care system performance, and we pay nearly twice as much as the rest of the industrialized world. Why? Why do we continue to tolerate the fraud and excessive profiteering and listen to Republican propaganda?

Recently, I received my monthly statement regarding my prescription of Nexium. I was charged $14; however, the manufacturer of Nexium charged Medicare $722.75. This is just a drop in the bucket of the abuse occurring with our health care system.

Peter Greene

Buxton