By Elizabeth Springer
Opponents of reforming the health care system make claims that are simply not true. Only the insurance companies benefit from them. Charles Nichols has written a fair assessment of government run health care, in my opinion.
Our son has lived in Canada for 27 years. He had worked in the state engineer”s office in Sacramento for 11 years and went to Canada on an engineering job and never came back. He loves the work and has been treated fairly by private and public firms there. He and his family have been provided health care, including most care for eyes and teeth, plus insurance. The waiting for care has not been a problem. He had suffered for years from acne scars, which were treated in the United States. The Canadian system used three systems of treatment, each of which produced some relief, as had the U.S. treatment.
The waiting for treatment has not been long. The one complaint I recall was fairly recent when they wanted to visit us here and the system refused to approve their visiting here for six months after our daughter-in-law had surgery. She had been treated here before, while traveling in the United States and the charge had been much more than in Canada, and the system protested the cost, but finally paid it.
We have also had the opportunity to observe the Australian health system first-hand. We were impressed with it, including the provision for airplane service for doctors needed to visit patients in remote areas of the country. Their treatment is also government-run, as is our wonderful Medicare system, Medicaid for low-income citizens and care for veterans. Hopefully, these will all be improved if we can develop a new system. To do this, we will need to defeat the present, lucrative business of the insurance companies. Recent news reported that they are contributing up to $10 million dollars to the campaigns of senators who voted against the present proposal for the health care system.
We hope the president and legislators come up with a plan that gives us a choice for our health care, as most developed countries have. It would be great, in my opinion, if a public plan were one of them.
Elizabeth Springer
Kelseyville
