Cantwell isn’t listening

I attended Sen. Maria Cantwell’s health care forum on June 15. Your reporter, John Stucke (“Health care solutions discussed,” June 16), did not mention the resounding support from the audience when single-payer or public-option health care plans were discussed by a few panel members.

It was obvious Sen. Cantwell does not support single-payer nor public-option plans. Who is Sen. Cantwell listening to? Certainly not the people who were in the room, nor the people that attended Washington Public Campaigns’ public forum on May 27, nor the people that elected her.

Maria supports private health insurance. In 2008, according to records available at OpenSecrets.org, Blue Cross/Blue Shield spent nearly $14 million lobbying Congress; $14 million would pay for a lot of health care. And that is only one insurance company. Add to that the savings possible if approximately 25 to 30 percent of health care dollars, which are now used for administration, overhead and profits by insurance companies, is replaced by 3 to 4 percent administration costs under a single-payer plan like Medicare.

The public-option health care plan would at least give Americans a choice between private and public health care. That would be a good start to health care reform.

Linda Krogh

Spokane