To the Editor:
Congress created Medicare 50 years ago to provide seniors with health care, giving them protection against financial ruin and peace of mind. Five years ago Congress could have and should have extended Medicare to cover all Americans, creating a single-payer system with the much freer choice of doctors and hospitals that seniors enjoy. Instead, it passed the hopelessly complex Affordable Care Act, which has kept the wasteful and bureaucratic insurance industry in health care and left millions uninsured and millions more with woefully inadequate coverage. It has also cost far more than simply extending Medicare.
It is well known that people without insurance or with high deductibles wait longer to seek medical care; thus their illnesses or problems become more difficult to treat. And sometimes they die because they have no insurance (an estimated 50,000 every year). Those with Medicare have more protection against the devastating effects of illness and injury, get more help overcoming or living with disabilities, and are protected against financial ruin.
“Equal protection” has been used, with some success, to improve access to education and, now, to allow same-sex couples to marry. It seems that an even stronger case can be made regarding access to health care—which is considered a rightin every other developed nation.
ANN TROY
San Rafael, Calif.
The writer is a pediatrician.
Note from KBJ: I don't understand people's faith in government. How many of you have good experiences at the United States Postal Service or the Department of Motor Vehicles? This is what health care will be like if and when it's taken over by government. It will be a nightmare. And yes, Sarah Palin was right: There will be death panels.
