Insurers’ support for the Affordable Care reflects widespread public-private sector symbiosis, Professor Robert Field wrote in a letter to the editor published in the New York Times on Nov. 20.

“The same interdependence characterizes every major health care program,” Field wrote, noting the fact that Congress crafted a private claims-processing role when it created Medicare and that Medicaid programs in most states use private firms to administer benefits.

Field’s letter offered a response a front-page article on Nov. 18 that cited insurance-industry support for Obamacare.

The Times cited Field’s book, “Mother of Invention: How the Government Created ‘Free-Market’ Health Care,” which Oxford University Press published in 2013.