Remove insurance companies from picture

If some of the initial reports on plans for health care reform turn out to be true, the American public is about to get sold down the river. If there is not at least a strong push for a single-payer, publicly-funded system like most of the world has, I will be disappointed.

I work in health care now and have worked for a large health insurance company in the past. The health insurance industry is a parasite that siphons billions of dollars away from providing health care to lining the pockets of their executives and stockholders. And if the trial balloon I read about the other day about the government subsidizing the purchase of insurance from these people is true, it will be another case of those who need to be controlled writing the plan for health care. The insurance industry will have written the health care reform bill just like the pharmaceutical industry and the insurance companies wrote the Medicare drug benefit. These companies will continue to siphon money away from the health care system reaping huge profits and massive bonuses for their executive and the taxpayers will subsidize it.

Len Lempa

Elgin