Medicare is way forward

True to form, Sue Lani Madsen has again created more confusion than enlightenment on health care reform (July 29 column). International documents declaring food, shelter, health care, etc. human rights are not calling for legal enforceability, but rather that properly functioning governments should do their best to ensure that everyone has reasonably available and affordable access to quality goods and services that make life possible and potentially fulfilling. This interpretation is also consistent with the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, which includes promotion of the general welfare, and the Declaration of Independence, which specifies the right to life and the pursuit of happiness.

This does not mean forcing people to “reap what they sow,” providing only limited emergency services to those with unhealthy lifestyles, but neither does it mean unlimited therapy sessions for depression and drug abuse or unlimited hospitalizations for incurable conditions. While different national systems define essential care differently, when essential care, especially evidence-based preventive care, is guaranteed for everyone through taxation, additional health care and insurance actually become affordable, and the fear of bankruptcy from an illness dissipates.

While Madsen falsely labels Medicare for All “unsustainable,” improved Medicare for All is really the only way forward from here.

Cris M. Currie

Mead