Letter to the Editor
Honolulu Advertiser
July 15, 2009
Health care
President Obama has said he wants health care reform that does three things: reduces costs, ensures free choice of providers for patients and ensures universal access. He also said we need to “build on what works” in health care and, “If you’re happy with the insurance you have, you can keep it.”
However, the only ones who are happy with their health insurance these days are the ones who have not had to use theirs recently. If Obama really wants to know what is not working, he should spend an hour reading some of the thousands of “Health Care Stories for America” submitted to his own Web site. They add up to a devastating indictment of the health insurance industry. The for-profit health insurance industry is not “what works,” it is the cancer that is killing U.S. health care and driving its cost into the stratosphere.
The only reform that will actually achieve Obama’s goals of reduced cost, free choice and universal access is more than just a “public option,” it is single-payer public financing of private care delivery and elimination of the U.S. health insurance industry.
Stephen Kemble, MD
Honolulu