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Honor ‘general welfare’
A March 18 letter states: “Health care is not a right. The federal government has no constitutional role in it.” Wrong. The Preamble of that Constitution clearly states: “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union… promote the general Welfare…”
Surely, general welfare includes health care.
When the Constitution was written, health care was nowhere as complex as now. Consider, the greedy pharmaceutical industry apparently controls the Food and Drug Administration instead of the other way around, and charges exorbitant prices for life-saving drugs.
Instead of replacing Obamacare with a far worse GOP American Health Care Act, Congress should be studying the far better single payer health care systems of Canada and Europe. Of course, taxes would be raised to pay for it, but it would be far less expensive than the way we support an unnecessary insurance industry.
Joseph Henry Wythe
Sandpoint