Healthcare fix makes us freer

All the fear mongering about the proposal to reform the delivery of health care in our nation is very short on rational analysis about the problems within the system. The fear mongers who are led by the health insurance industry drone on and on about how WE will lose our freedom.

Well, at this point about 15-20 percent of Americans have absolutely no health care coverage. They have the freedom to die or go bankrupt. Another 15-20 percent of Americans are covered by Medicaid, which gives them very limited access to health care with either long waits or using expensive emergency room treatment for conditions that could best be treated in an outpatient setting. They have very little freedom either. Another 20-30 percent of Americans have insurance coverage that is really bad, like HMO's or severely limited policies. They have the freedom to become so frustrated in trying to access care that the stress of it makes them sicker.

For somewhere between 50-70 percent of Americans there is no real freedom in terms of accessing health care.

Real health care reform would begin with leaders who had the courage to stand up to the health insurance industry and tell them that we were moving to a single-payer system. This system works better than what we now have for more than 50 percent of our population. I have talked to Canadians who have also lived in the USA and they say that overall access to care is much better in Canada. They also very clearly say that life threatening illness is treated very promptly and thoroughly.

Len Lempa

Elgin