Big insurance worse than Big Oil

Last summer during the fuel crisis when gasoline prices went to over $4 per gallon, the oil companies reported record profits and there was universal outrage in the public and in Congress. These companies dig thousands of feet in the ground, extract oil, transport it thousands of miles, refine it, get it to our local gas stations and sell it at a cost less per gallon than bottled water.

We now have a health care crisis and the insurance companies are making billions of dollars in profits. Insurance companies do not manufacture a product, they do not offer a tangible service - their sole goal is to increase profits for their stockholders and executives. It seems their main objective is to create every possible roadblock to actually paying for health care, as any physician, hospital or patient can tell you. In many communities there are two or three major health insurance companies that have a near-monopoly and are free to set their prices as they see fit. And yet we don't hear a single word in all the discussion of health care reform about it. Where is the outrage? Where are the Congressional hearings?

Eliminating insurance companies is the only way to fix our health care system. National health care can provide excellent health care to all Americans with the same amount of money currently spent on the 85 percent fortunate enough to have insurance. Call your senators and congressmen and women and urge them to support National Health Care.

Ronald Hirsch

Elgin