Joan Beck (Op-Ed, Aug. 28) tries to make a case for free-market solutions to our health care crisis. It is precisely the free-wheeling insurance industry, private health care providers and private drug companies with their price-gouging that have brought us to this sad state.
Our present system is the only one in which people can be forced into bankruptcy to meet the cost of long-term health problems. Where else do people lose coverage due to a pre-existing condition? Our present plan means: “Just don’t get sick.”
The insurance industry has done a great job of brainwashing and lobbying Congress. Insurance companies shouldn’t be running health care any more than I should be administering the space program. A single-payer plan, provided by doctors and hospitals of your choice, is the answer. The government need not be paying premiums to insurance companies for the uninsured and underinsured.
