The New York Times, Letters, Aug. 27, 2012
To the Editor:
Re “A Reluctant Crash Course in Health Insurance 101” (The Agenda, Aug. 21): Suleika Jaouad’s dispassionate account of the added burdens imposed by our fragmented system of health insurance on those unfortunate individuals who become sick is powerful in its lack of sentimentality. With an unconscionable 45,000 excess deaths a year due to lack of health insurance, we remain the only country in the world where getting seriously ill or hurt, as if that weren’t bad enough, significantly increases one’s risk for financial ruin — even with health insurance. More than half of personal bankruptcies in the United States result from medical bills, and of those, 75 percent of the cases are people who had medical insurance when they got sick or injured.
Until the for-profit health insurance industry is replaced by a single-payer national health insurance program, Americans will continue to suffer and die for the sake of excessive corporate salaries and shareholder profits.
Elaine Fox, M.D.
Southampton, N.Y.
To the Editor:
Only in the United States would a young patient be burdened with tens of thousands of dollars of medical bills and a mother who should “be able to spend less time with my bills and more time with me” — while insurance companies bet billions on the increased profits they’re going to reap once the so-called Affordable Care Act brings them millions of new customers. While every other advanced country has achieved universal access to health care and removed from patients the burden of worrying about medical bills, we increasingly saddle patients with co-pays, deductibles and skimpy provider networks.
Medicare, which has largely removed these burdens from the elderly, while controlling costs better than the private sector, points the way. Until we expand and improve Medicare to cover everyone, patients will suffer while corporate stockholders smile all the way to the bank.
Leonard Rodberg
Flushing, N.Y.
The writer is research director for the New York chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program.