To the Editor:
David Leonhardt (“Limits in a System That’s Sick,” Economic Scene, June 17) makes no mention of the most egregious form of medical care rationing—the decisions by insurance companies to pay or not to pay for medical procedures, decisions that are routinely based on cost rather than on sound medical practice.
Health care reform will get nowhere until the public understands that the insurance companies are the ones currently making the rationing decisions. The objection to a government-run plan—that it would compromise the relationship of doctor and patient—overlooks the fact that the relationship is already severely compromised by the insurance companies.
Howard Nenner
Whately, Mass., June 17, 2009
