Los Angeles Times
May 28, 2002
Letters to the Editor
Re “County Health System Faces Dire Options,” May 23:
Most Americans remain reluctant to support tax increases to assure access to health care for the uninsured or to replace their current coverage with a comprehensive program of public insurance.
The lack of funding for the uninsured has resulted in the drafting of plans that, at a minimum, would close the King/Drew trauma center. Even affluent auto accident victims are threatened by a system that causes them to bypass a locked-up trauma center as they are transported to an overcrowded facility through heavily congested city traffic. People will die no matter how much money they have.
The recent California Health and Human Services landmark study of health-care reform demonstrated that we already are spending enough to provide truly comprehensive care for absolutely everyone. But what we lack is a rational system to properly direct those funds.
Our current system of private health plans, government plans and no plans at all is egregiously wasteful of our resources. The study revealed that merely replacing this sick system with a single, more efficient program of universal health insurance would solve most of the problems in funding and access in health care without significantly increasing costs. Why aren’t we taking a serious look at this proposal?
Don McCanne MD
San Juan Capistrano