In response to Sen. Owen Hill’s Feb. 7 opinion column in The Colorado Statesman, I certainly agree with Sen. Hill that we need to protect Colorado Hospitals – particularly those in rural and underserved areas. However, he is mistaken in thinking that repealing Obamacare (“RomenyCare,” Affordable Care Act, ACA) and replacing it with the “Free Market” would provide this protection. In fact, it would have the opposite effect, especially in rural Colorado.

The premise that Obamacare destroyed the free market is false. The underpayment of providers by Medicaid and Medicare preceded the ACA and will persist if it is repealed. What has changed is that due to Obamacare, Colorado has cut the number of uninsured in half. An increased number of people with either public or private insurance has decreased uncompensated care and resulted in less cost shifting to the insured. More Coloradans are covered now than before Obamacare, including not just those economically most vulnerable but also those with pre-existing conditions who were denied coverage when insurance companies functioned in a “free market”.

Our rural hospitals are seeing significantly fewer uninsured patients. Many rural Coloradans can now see primary care providers and prevent costly emergency room visits. Hospital administrators in the San Louis Valley and Delta credit the ACA with their ability to sustain their hospital and provide the critical services needed in their communities. According to the American Community Survey the uninsured dropped from 18.9 percent in 2013 to 12.9 percent in 2015 in Alamosa County. In Delta County, the drop in uninsured was even more significant, from 21.6 percent to 11.5 percent. If Obamacare is repealed, eight rural hospitals are at risk for closure.

It is difficult to see how a free market approach would help the 73 percent of our counties that are rural. We have 29 Critical Access Hospitals which receive enhanced reimbursement from Medicare to help them keep their doors open. Many of our rural counties are medically underserved areas. They struggle to keep health providers in their community. Their incomes on average are 26 percent lower than urban areas. With limited income and no competition, it would be impossible for them to “negotiate” for medical care prices.

Additionally, most medical costs are for unplanned medical care. The market only exists for “shoppable” medical care which makes up at most 41 percent of health care spending. And when the value of the product, your life, is infinite, where is the price ceiling?

Let’s stop fantasizing about how a “free market” would fix American health care. Let’s improve on the faults in the ACA and not demolish the framework we have built for the health of Coloradans. We need to ensure that Congress does not dismantle “RomneyCare” until the safety of our rural communities is protected with a proven, improved policy.