AMERICANS ARE DEMANDING A HEALTH-CARE CURE
(MONEY Magazine) – Thank you for your May Editor's Notes about America's need for better health insurance. Our lack of a national program for meeting health-care costs for all our citizens is a true disgrace. I heard a woman interviewed on television about her father, who had recently undergone triple-bypass surgery in Canada. His total medical bill? The charges for renting a color TV in the hospital. Judith Walker Guilford, Conn. We need to return to the concept of health insurance to cover the unusual rather than every routine medical cost. Perhaps a good place to start would be a basic plan that made individuals responsible for 20% of their medical costs, subject to an out-of-pocket annual limitation of $5,000 per family. To foster competition and keep premium rates down, allow a number of insurance companies to offer this basic plan and let the companies share in insuring people who are a bad risk. The government could pay for part or all of the premiums of any people below a certain income level. Perhaps the unemployment-compensation system could be restructured to pay or help support premiums for those who are temporarily out of work. Philip K. McCullough, M.D. Chicago If the government of the United States can underwrite welfare, Social Security, the S&L bailout and the Persian Gulf war, to name just a few, then it certainly can -- and should -- provide health care for all of its citizens. Lane Stokes Atlanta |
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