Public option foes should look at facts

Nearly 46 million Americans are uninsured, and two-thirds of all personal bankruptcies are due to health care costs. People are suffering and dying because of the failure of our current system. We cannot wait any longer for real health care reform.

The Obama administration has proposed a "public option," a government run health insurance program open to anyone, while leaving the private insurance system in place. Republicans argue that this plan would cost too much, that our health care system is already "the best in the world." They say this will lead to socialized medicine, like they have in Britain, where health care is "rationed."

Let's look at the facts. The Aug. 18 issue of Time compares the British National Health Care system to U.S. health care and states that, overall, British citizens have "longer life expectancy and lower infant mortality."

In addition, Britain spends "proportionally less on health care than the U.S. - about $2,500 per person compared with $6,000 in the U.S." The World Health Organization ranked Britain 18th worldwide. The U.S. ranked 37th.

And why are we paying more for less care? Because 20 to 30 percent of our payments go to insurance company administrative costs. Never forget, insurance companies are profit driven. They profit from denying you coverage. It is that greed that is motivating the insurance industry to spend millions and millions of dollars to lobby against the public option, which would take away their monopoly.

Many of the arguments being used by Republicans to sabotage the public option come directly from the insurance industry's playbook.

This is a moral issue. If you want real health care reform, I urge you to call or e-mail your representatives in Washington today and tell them to support the public option.

Janet McDonnell

Arlington Heights