Today's Letters: Our health care system is just a disaster
By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published July 11, 2007
Canada boasts health care for all - in time July 8, story
In Sicko, Michael Moore shows the brightest side of the Canadian and European systems of health care. I lived in Belgium for more than a year. I had two occasions to seek care and never paid a penny. I wasn't a Belgian citizen. Free health care was available to anyone residing there.
The escalating costs for health care due to new technology and advancements in management make such care expensive. All countries that have universal health access struggle with costs. I have supported a Canadian- like system with co-pays. Co-pays are the best solution to curbing patient abuse.
Since Harry Truman, we have been unable to follow Britain's lead and institute universal health coverage. That fact is shameful. Our health care system is a fragmented disaster that leaves 50-million people uninsured and forces hospitals to take draconian measures to survive.
Those numbers of uninsured are growing and the fastest-growing group is affluent self-employed Americans. I haven't even addressed the underinsured. The abuses by U.S. health insurers are legendary.
I have talked to many Canadians. Whatever the faults in their system, it is quite clear they would never trade theirs for ours.
I thought Moore's film was right on target. I shed tears watching it. I found it profound when our 9/11 workers were received with honor by Cuban firemen.
Marc J. Yacht, M.D., Hudson
Insidious equality
Susan Taylor Martin recently wrote an excellent article balancing Michael Moore's claims in his new movie Sicko with the reality of the health industry. Moore's picture of a pristine Canadian industry is just as flawed as the picture some in this country would paint of our own system. The truth is that there is no easy answer.
However, I would call attention to the last quote in the article, attributed to Julie Mason: "I see people a lot wealthier than me and a lot poorer than me and I know everyone is getting the same care. And for me, that's as important as getting my own care."
Is this what we've come to then, that the quality of care is not the issue at all, that the real point is everyone gets the same level of care - be it horrendous care or otherwise? She actually says it's just as important that everyone be equal as that she have any care at all for herself.
What a revolting thought. I hope this country never comes to a point where we share such a sentiment collectively. The government exists to ward the community from injustices, not walk around to each desk and make sure everyone has the same color pencils. A system that places equality above liberty will always fail, and bears no resemblance to the American ideals that this country was founded upon.
Jason Bellomo, Tampa
Time to demand a single-payer plan
Canada boasts health care for all - in time July 8, story
So Canadians may have to wait months for an MRI? Tell me, how long would a working-class, uninsured American wait? I dare say it would be a lot longer! And the "thousands of Canadian-born doctors" would not have left the country if the United States had not dangled the carrot of the HMOs' "attractive bonuses."
As a cancer patient who owes almost a half-million dollars to the hospitals and doctors who have treated me (yes, I was insured - the HMO denied my claims), I urge you all to see the movie Sicko. Then don't just sit there, do something: Demand that your congressional representatives give us single-payer universal health care for all Americans. Nobody should profit from the illness, misery and suffering of a fellow human being.
Lynn Landseadel, RN, Spring Hill
A disgraceful system
Susan Taylor Martin's pejorative view of Michael Moore's Sicko offers a bizarre conclusion: that it's preferable to receive no treatment than to have to wait for treatment. Meanwhile, the U.S. health care nightmare continues. To call it a "system" is to award a label it doesn't deserve. It's an international disgrace.
Single-payer, federally administered coverage is the only answer. Socialized medicine? Absolutely, and the sooner the better.
Nick Hobart, New Port Richey
Kucinich has a plan
Health care shapes '08 race July 6, story
This article fails to mention that there is only one Democrat who supports single-payer health care: Dennis Kucinich, who has introduced HR 676, "Medicare for All."
Michael Moore's movie Sicko shows that people who have insurance still cannot afford the health care they need. We have a government-run military, police and fire departments, why not health care, too? We are paying for it, we're just not getting it.
Ron Kuhler, Lutz
Government benefits
Support each other
I read several disturbing letters from people who do not receive health care or retirement benefits from their jobs. They seemed very angry that the government takes care of its employees. Is this what happens when we enter hard times? We start chewing each other apart?
I worked for the state and Hillsborough County for more than 33 years. Are some employees overpaid for their jobs? Is there waste? Of course. There are also some exceedingly dedicated people who believe in serving the public. Take any organization and you will find identical problems.
I retired at 65, only because I had had hip surgery the previous year and knew I wasn't able to give my job 100 percent.
I am not sure how I would have had a decent life without insurance and retirement benefits. I was not a highly paid executive when I retired, but I was comfortable for several years. Inflation, insurance and taxes have caught up with me, the same as with others.
We all share the same fears of illness, loss of income and possibly loss of our homes. This is a time to support each other, not throw rocks.
MaryLou Tuttle, Tampa
Drug import risks
Capitalist ideals get stir-fried June 29, Harold Meyerson column
Harold Meyerson ignores crucial facts about serious safety risks of drugs imported from other countries.
The Food and Drug Administration has said repeatedly it cannot assure the safety of medicines brought into the United States from other nations, including Canada. And Health Canada, the FDA's Canadian counterpart, has also said it cannot guarantee the safety of drugs shipped from Canada to the United States. What's more, Canadian authorities have reported counterfeit drugs being sold in their country at alarming rates.
The good news is patients in need in the United States have safe alternatives at home. For example, they can turn to the Partnership for Prescription Assistance (www.pparx.org or 1-888-477-2669), a single point of access to more than 475 patient assistance programs that provide free or nearly free FDA-approved medications. Sponsored by America's pharmaceutical research companies, which also sponsor nearly 200 of the assistance programs, the PPA has so far helped almost 4-million American patients.
Ken Johnson, senior vice president, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), Washington, D.C.
Shameful behavior
Makings of a major-league fuss July 7, story
I'd never heard of the New Tampa Little League or Fred Grady prior to this. Grady has revealed himself to be a petty, little man. He must have been the victim of schoolyard bullies as a child and is now taking out his pent-up anger on the NTLL. But instead of throwing punches with fists he is throwing punches in the form of legal threats. He should be ashamed of himself!
With all the good things youth sports does and their efforts to curb abusive parents, they deserve better treatment than this. Three cheers for the New Tampa Little League! Stand your ground.
Tim Robinson, St. Petersburg
Childish bickering
Makings of a major-league fuss July 7, story
Fred Grady is acting like a great big bully by using his law firm to intimidate the New Tampa Little League. It's easy to imagine that his behavior on the field was similar to the behavior he is now displaying off the field.
And it's unfortunate that a prestigious law firm like Holland & Knight would allow itself to become involved in this childish bickering.
Margaret Little, St. Petersburg