According to a story headlined “Costs spike on Western Slope” (Herald, Nov. 18), 55 percent of people who enrolled this year in Connect for Health, the Colorado Obamacare exchange, are covered under Medicaid. Calling Connect for Health “private health coverage” is false when those receiving Medicaid pay nothing for their government welfare program.

And the reported price increase of 7 percent for the remaining 45 percent of those enrolled does not reveal that many of them receive partial government subsidies paid for by taxpayers. As the U.S. becomes more of an insolvent welfare state, please don’t try to fool readers into believing government is “private.”

Anthony R. Palmer

Durango