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What health system?

The Spokesman-Review

We all know of the need for health care reform. We all have a stake in it whether we like it or not or whether we understand it or not.

We do not have the world’s best health care system; indeed, we don’t even have a health care system. We have an industry which employs over 14 million people, making health care a very large employer.

We have a serious problem when 62 percent of all personal bankruptcies are caused by medical bills. Seventy-eight percent of those folks had health insurance which did not help them.

We spend $2.4 trillion on health care each year, which is 16 percent of our GDP. In the 1960s it was about 5 percent. France spends less than 11 percent of its GDP on health care, and Canada spends less than 10 percent, and they cover everyone.

The status quo is not working. Name- calling and yelling will not solve this problem. We need new solutions to this growing problem, and the bills being negotiated in Congress can make improvements. The solution will be a process, not an event, but we are making a serious mistake by trying to disrupt and stop the process.

Larry M. Belmont

Coeur d’Alene



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