Letters to the Editor
Patients first
As a passionate patient advocate, I dread the lower quality, higher cost, lack of choice, loss of privacy and self-determination that comes with government-run health care. We don't have a health care crisis that needs to be fixed, but a government-caused crisis in the cost of health care.
Since government intrusion caused the crisis, it cannot be solved by more government.
Forty-five years of Medicare/Medicaid and 36 of HMOs demonstrate government not only can't control spending — cost escalates.
How did government cause the crisis?
First, insurance premiums soared with government mandates that policies cover every service.
Second, government-run insurance, like Medicaid, Medicare, increase administrative costs because of the bureaucracy and paper-work.
Third, low reimbursement by government-run insurance is not enough to run a medical practice. Medical care providers must decline seeing these patients or shift cost to those with other forms of insurance, and that raises premiums.
Fourth, with low co-pays and premiums 'subsidized by taxpayers' of government-run insurance, patients use more services because they get the impression health care is free or nearly so. It is mainly government-insured patients that overuse ERs, and that raises health care cost.
Fifth, the government's unwillingness to reform tort law drives up physician malpractice premiums, and that cost is passed onto patients.
U.S. health care is unsurpassed, and citizens will not tolerate the increased taxes or mediocrity of care found in socialist countries. U.S. consumers demand world class health care with quick access to the most trustworthy doctors.
Compared to other nations, we spend a higher percent of Gross Domestic Product on health care because we can and because we want the best.
Senators Tester and Baucus are supporting a costly legislative monstrosity that will further entrench government control over our lives and obliterate the superior quality of care patients deserve.
Annie Bukacek
Kalispell