Claims about best health care in world are a bunch of hogwash
At the health-care summit on Thursday, several senators and representatives stated that, “The United States has the best health-care system in the world” [“Dems may go it alone as both sides dig in heels,” page one, Feb. 26]. What arrogance!
However, they are so obviously false that these claims should be consigned to a bullpen at a nearby ranch. There are now more than 30 million U.S. citizens who have no easy access to health care. If asked, they likely would rate our system something similar to health care in the Third World.
Even more, those who presently rely on health insurance supplied by their employers are one layoff away from joining those people already bereft of health coverage. This adds up to a lot of people who either have or could lose their access to health care in the U.S.
The practice of medicine in the U.S. is very good if one can afford it, but the system overall is not good if one can’t. Compared with other advanced countries, we fare poorly.
Members of Congress who utter such nonsense have great, free and lifelong health coverage. If only we all could be so fortunate. Once we elevate them to Congress, they thereafter cease to be “of the people.” Those more obtuse congressmen, also cease to be “for the people” as well.
Beware those uttering such bold claims because they don’t have a good grasp of our situation.
— Richard Andler, Seattle
Those starving for health care need coverage, not ‘cake’
I read about some of the comments made by Republican senators at President Obama’s health-care summit. I was particularly struck by a comment by Sen. John Barrasso from Wyoming.
I guess they do things differently in Wyoming, but I was pretty shocked that his proposal for health-care reform would be to do away with health insurance except for catastrophic care. Sen. Barrasso felt that people would make better health-care choices if they were forced to pay for their general health care.
Is he kidding? Does he have no sense of the struggles that are facing people in this country with regard to health care? Does he not understand that people are desperate concerning medicine and doctor bills? To say that people in this country would be better off paying for their health care is like Marie Antoinette saying that the poor people in France who had no bread should just eat cake.
Sen. Barrasso and his Republican colleagues should be ashamed of themselves and owe the American people an apology.
— Sandy Kraus, Seattle
Pre-existing clauses require state, not federal, oversight
Paul Krugman, thank you for today’s column [“Memo to Democrats: Just do it,” Opinion, Feb. 27]. Health-care reform isn’t so much about the quality of health care as it is about the money that pays for it.
Concerns about pre-existing conditions may be real, but they are applicable only to individuals who have allowed their health insurance to lapse. Pre-existing condition clauses exist to encourage equitable contributions to the financing of health-care plans. Buying health insurance after you’re sick is like buying auto insurance after an accident — too little, too late.
Not every state needs a federal watchdog. Our state insurance commissioners already regulate the industry with mandates for minimum benefits, maximum annual rate increases and a reasonable three-month limit on pre-existing conditions with credit for partial coverage during the three-month look-back period.
If our state government is doing its job, the federal government doesn’t need to reform it. And if for some reason state insurance commissioners aren’t doing their jobs, then maybe the federal government should address that problem instead of trying to tackle sweeping federal reform. I say this not as a Republican, but as someone who already sees a strong government presence in existing health-care legislation.
— Teresa Mosteller, Seattle
Have waited to long to set aside health-care reform again
The last time Congress “set aside” health reform, my head was bald, my husband and I were childless and our backyard was a wasteland. 18 years later, the pre-existing condition exclusion still terrorizes millions of Americans, but 30-foot trees stretch skyward in our yard, unruly hair springs from my scalp and our teenage daughter plays high-school volleyball.
I remember the bleak, barren days all too well: My HMO had canceled my insurance just as cancer threatened my life. I became the poster child for reform back in the early ’90s, urging lawmakers to end such insurance company abuses. When reform failed, we planted a small garden to inspire a bit of hope.
At long last, health-reform legislation that will rein in insurance company greed and help everyday people is on the brink of passage. The measure proposed by President Obama will end the pre-existing condition nightmare once and for all.
Politicians muster this sort of courage only once in a generation. This is no time to hit the pause button.
— Roberta Riley, Seattle