Doubting Thomas' views of health reform

The Daily Herald recently called for its readers to "learn the facts and then join the dialogue" on health care. Ironically, the very same page featured a column by Cal Thomas perpetuating the most egregious right-wing lies concerning health care reform.

Thomas claims that, while the Christian right values life (issues of war excluded, presumably) the "secular left" sees life as expendable, and the elderly in particular as a "burden." Thomas conveniently ignores the facts in order to stoke irrational fears about government "death panels." So let's put pseudo-philosophical nonsense aside and look at the facts of life under profit-driven health care.

Currently, 47 million Americans are uninsured and another 100 million are underinsured. Although 15 percent of Americans have no insurance, we still pay the highest percentage of gross domestic product of any country in the world on health care: 15 percent in 2007. In 2007, we spent $2.2 trillion on health care, or about $7,500 per person, far higher than Great Britain's $160 billion per year, and Canada, which capped its spending at 10 percent of the GDP and spends about $3,500 per person.

These higher costs don't necessarily equal better care; the U.S. is ranked 37th by the World Health Organization in overall performance and 72nd in overall health. In the U.S., two-thirds of all personal bankruptcies are due to health care costs. Finally, the Institute of Medicine estimates that 22,000 Americans die each year from lack of insurance. As the facts make clear, it is Thomas' beloved free-market that puts a price tag on life, treating the elderly and indigent as "a burden."

Maybe Thomas can explain how allowing people unable to afford private insurance (i.e.: those whose lives are deemed unprofitable by the insurance companies) to buy into a public Medicare-style plan amounts to a devaluation of life?

Charles Tyler

Wheaton