Health isn’t a profit center

We have an incredible opportunity to make our bloated health care “system” more efficient. The CEO of Mayo Clinic says we do not have a system, rather a hodgepodge of waste. How tragic that a few seek to drown out this conversation. They serve the interests of the powerful few, not the needs of the many.

We pay twice as much per person for health care as other developed nations. Yet we have much poorer health statistics. Physicians hire considerable staff to handle a maze of claims and to battle insurance denials. Private insurance companies use 20 percent of premiums for overhead, including shareholder profits. Medicare serves the public for 4 percent overhead. Sure, Medicare needs reform. But those who hate government for a living have closed their minds to improvements.

Long ago the health care industry decided it should make a profit (sometimes a very large profit) from our being sick. The screams you hear come at their behest. The rest of the world has largely decided that being sick is not the place for amassing wealth. What a concept! Next time you see a mob trying to close off the conversation about your health care, consider who wins.

Larry Winters

Cheney