To the Editor: American Medical Association News.
Public plan a must for choice
Sirs. As one without any health care, I want to make some points about the current crisis and pending solutions.
For over a generation we have waited for "reform" only to see greed and profit constantly winning over providing care.
A great friend, now deceased, was a surgeon and he always made it
clear that the practice of medicine was first and foremost about
providing the best possible care to patients. Money should always be a
minor concern in such matters. He said his oath was to do no harm and
that to deny treatment based on a patients ability to pay was doing a
grave harm to that patient.
Your association states it is in favor of assuring patients have a
choice. Under the present system I have no choices because I have no
cash. I am becoming more crippled by the day due to arthritis but have
no where to turn unless I can walk in with $40,000 for a new hip.
I want choice. I want the choice of a public plan that is not
designed by a corporation to maximize profits at the expense of care.
We in America "enjoy" the most costly care in the world but we are ranked in only 37th place among nations. It is
shameful to see "special interests" cite we have the "best" in order to
scare the uneducated into fearing another option. We all know this ploy
is to protect profits, not to assure every American can actually have a
choice.
If your organization sides with quality care and not with insurance
giants, you will support another option for those with no options now.
Only a pubic option amounts to reform. Anything less is more of the
same, leaving millions remaining without basic care.
Sincerely,
Paul Kruger
Interlachen, FL
