LETTER: In favor of single-payer health care

I’m for a single-payer health care system.  Why?

A single-payer health care system would ensure everyone had affordable insurance.  I would like to correct a lot of misinformation floating around about the single-payer system.  Some is politics and some is lack of knowledge.

Misinformation – some are spreading lies that government programs are not efficient. 

A single-payer system option, run by the government at cost, would force down the price of insurance.  Anyone wanting to continue with their present insurance plan could do so. 

We already have government run programs that are very efficient – Social Security, Medicare and Veterans Insurance.  I have not heard of anyone on these programs wanting to get rid of them.  Some say they don’t want the government forcing them to do anything. 

They already require you to have auto, driver, hunting, and fishing licenses.  Then you have beauticians, barbers, doctors, etc. who need a license to do business.  So why not have government help so everyone will be medically insured.

 A major problem with our system is, if you have pre-existing conditions you cannot get affordable, or sometimes no insurance. 

The insurance companies want to cherry pick young, healthy people who do not have medical conditions.  Ones who have medical problems have to pay exorbitant premiums they cannot afford so they usually don’t have the needed insurance.  If the uninsured then use University of Louisville Hospital, the taxpayers are still footing the bill.

The high cost of insurance affects companies, large or small, who cover their employees with health and drug insurance, since they are competing with countries whose governments pay for all health insurance. 

I do not know of any country who wants our type of medical coverage.  We have been trying to get their system since Franklin Roosevelt.  This includes Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon,William Clinton and now President Barack Obama.

Some politicians and others call any type of program to help the needy and poor socialism.

 But they call it Capitalism when CEOs get huge bonuses and companies are bailed out of financial trouble (in part caused by excessive bonuses and salaries). 

I call it taking care of the greedy instead of the truly needy.

Owen D. Humphress

Simpsonville