To the editor:
A few days ago I read an article that went to some length to demonstrate how unaffordable single payer healthcare would be for this country. I suggest that the current healthcare financial system is what is unaffordable.
Let’s back up the bus here for a moment and think about this. We see these misleading articles because the health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and corporate providers are suitably terrified that single-payer healthcare will come to pass. So they are doing anything and everything they can and spending any amount necessary to prevent it. If your golden goose was about to be cooked wouldn’t you?
Therefore, they intentionally fail to mention that the U.S. is the only western country not using single-payer, that we currently spend double the amount per person, and have worse outcomes than any of those other countries. On average thirty cents of every healthcare dollar spent by our citizens and employers does not go to the delivery of healthcare, but to the overhead and profits of the aforementioned industries. The financial burden of this for-profit healthcare system is crippling our ability to compete on the world market and driving people into sickness and financial ruin. Our healthcare providers are fully capable of being the best in the world but the profiteers are limiting our access with their greed.
We should all be tired of making CEO’s of these companies into billionaires while the rest of us struggle to pay for care. It is immoral that the healthcare insurance, pharmaceutical companies, and corporate providers are getting rich on the pain and suffering of our citizens. We must end for-profit healthcare.
Jeffrey C Dickler
Rindge