Insurers part of problem

In W.C. Rust’s letter of Jan. 5, he comments on rising health care costs and wonders why we should blame insurance companies. In his words, “Why shoot the insurance companies. They are just the messengers.”

This is a wrong perception. Insurance companies are big businesses whose goal is to make profits for their stockholders. They do not provide any medical services to anyone. They attempt to decide who gets services and who does not, and it is always associated with the intent of making money.

Most other industrialized countries in the world do not allow these types of companies to exist. They are simply middlemen who take our health care dollars and then get to decide who lives and who dies. Most other civilized countries provide health care to their citizens. They do so because their leaders are not beholden to the huge amounts of lobbying money spent by insurance companies to keep them in business.

I don’t think big business should be the ones holding my life or yours in their hands. Do you?

Steven E. Wynn

Spokane