After reading “Health-Care Facts Poorly Researched” [Letters, Feb. 20], I felt compelled to respond to Mark [Claxton]‘s assertions. While he finds World Health Organization’s data biased, he suggests readers go to National Center for Public Policy, which is an unabashedly biased conservative think tank for political issues. Health care is not a political issue in truth; it is a matter of life and death. Perhaps if he had directed me to an organization fully knowledgeable about health care, I would have given his words weight. I suggest [that] he visit www.voicefortheuninsured.org, a Web site by the American Medical Association.
[Claxton] asserts that we have the best health care in the world, and we do—if you can afford it. He asserts that thousands of foreigners come here for advanced health care, but doesn’t explain that thousands of Americans visit South America for affordable care. He suggests that high infant-mortality rates are due to the “increased incidence of single mothers” when, in fact, health-care access and affordability of insurance are the issues.
While Mark opposes socialized health-care systems, he does not realize a few are already in place. Senators and representatives use government health care. Our seniors and low-income citizens use government health care. Every government employee uses government health care. It works for millions of Americans. Additionally, private employer-provided insurance is subsidized by our government by $100 billion annually. Any taxpayer who must get insurance independently [will] get no [subsidy] and no bulk-price break. It means more and more people go uninsured.
The ideal of insurance is that everyone contributes in good faith and everyone benefits as needed. Capitalism is often the cry of resistance, but we are not talking about a free market for widgets, we are talking about regulating middlemen that exert more influence than doctors and patients in matters of health care.
— Chantal Saunders
Asheville
Chantal, you wrote:
“The ideal of insurance is that everyone contributes in good faith and everyone benefits as needed. Capitalism is often the cry of resistance, but we are not talking about a free market for widgets, we are talking about regulating middlemen that exert more influence than doctors and patients in matters of health care. ”
If you wish to control the “middle”, why are you proposing a giant expansion of the middle in the form of a Federal program between the patient and doctor?
Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it.
Confucius