It would be generous to call the recent column "What Price left out" (CHN June 6) by congressional candidate B.J. Lawson misleading. He makes a number of factual errors and offers no viable alternative to the recently enacted comprehensive health care legislation.

Lawson cites the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to claim that insurance premiums will increase by 10 to 13 percent. In fact, for large- and small-group coverage the CBO predicts no change or a slight decrease in premiums. In the individual market, where a small percentage of people purchase coverage, there will be a premium increase for some because companies have to offer coverage to those with preexisting conditions. But the majority of people buying individual policies, the CBO says, will qualify for federal subsidies that reduce premiums by 50 and 60 percent. Lawson also claims that high-deductible health plans will end. This is simply not true.

As a devout follower of Texas Republican Ron Paul, a well-known opponent of federal programs like Medicare and Social Security, Lawson is clearly hostile to increased regulations on insurance companies to protect vulnerable people. But without these common sense rules insurance will become increasingly unaffordable to more and more North Carolinians.

Adam Searing

Chapel Hill

The writer is the project director of the N.C. Justice Center's Health Access Coalition in Raleigh.