As Jon Mays says in his column (“Solving our health care problem for all," July 9) the transition to a single payer system will be costly. What he does not say is that private insurance companies will bear most of the cost. The public will end up paying less. Based largely on private insurance, health care in the United States is the costliest in the world, $10,586 per capita in 2019 compared to $7,317 per capita in Switzerland, the next most expensive. For all that expense, 26 countries had longer life expectancy than we did in 2019 and 10 had better one-month survival after acute myocardial infarction (heart attack). In 2015, 21% of Americans with medical bill problems who had health insurance reported that they had declared bankruptcy.
Mays notes that “unions have negotiated options for excellent insurance plans for their members” but fails to point out that in the pandemic of 2020 as many as 3 million people may have lost employer-based health care coverage along with their jobs.
Mays argues “it is difficult to imagine going to a state-run system-especially as you age,” but Medicare, a state-run system, has provided medical care to all citizens 65 and over since 1965. Its health care and administrative costs are far lower than those of private insurance companies.
Mays concludes that we should “provide coverage for those who need it for a cost that is reflective of their ability to pay.” That perpetuates inequality in heath care. Adequate health care should be a right for everyone. It is in most other developed countries.
Recommended for you
References to the data are available on request to the editor.
Neil A. (Tony) Holtzman, M.D.
Menlo Park 94025
The letter writer is emeritus professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.