Borrow health care ideas

Sue Lani Madsen’s articles about our nation’s health care system have valid points. Earlier she cited costs we pay for poor life habits. Blood, plasma and platelets are in limited supply. Working in a Hawaii hospital lab, I pondered the choice of giving them a fourth time to a drug addict vs. a child who needed them. It was theoretical, but the issues are real, and health insurance should have lower fees for people making healthy choices, yet cover pre-existing conditions, extra benefits and bad luck.

Why are “price controls a non-starter”? Maybe we need to change our values on costs and payment. In many countries with better care, people never go bankrupt because of illness. Here it’s far too common. People don’t want to lose their Medicare, so it shows government can work. “Market forces” may not always be better. Single-payer insurance would cut a lot of costs and be more efficient. Unsustainable? It’s working other places.

She and I who have more money might have to pay more taxes, for the good of the whole.

View “Sick Around the World” from PBS, “Sicko,” and “Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Health Care” to get ideas.

Roz Luther

Spokane