A recent letter writer indicated that she doesn’t know anyone who is unhappy with their health care. 

I don’t know who she hangs out with, but I’m thinking her friends are either Medicare recipients (a PUBLIC health plan) or union workers with “Cadillac” health plans (and there are fewer and fewer of those jobs). 

People I know are either uninsured because they can’t afford it, under-insured because they can’t afford better policies, or fear losing their health insurance because they either lose their job or get sick and get dropped.  I know people who can’t get insurance because of pre-existing conditions.  Hospitals are struggling with emergency room visits by people without coverage, small business are struggling to pay for coverage, and medical bills are the number one cause of personal bankruptcies, a majority of those by people who actually HAVE health insurance. Those bankruptcies hurt everyone.

 All of these issues are addressed in the proposed health care legislation.  That legislation is flawed, to be sure, but what I would consider to be perfect, another would consider fatally flawed.  It’s never going to be “perfect.”  We should pass it, and then work together to improve it.

 When polls ask Americans if they support changes that get everyone covered, require insurers to cover pre-existing conditions, and not charge exorbitant rates based on how well you are, a vast majority support that.  That is exactly what these proposals do.

 The Office of Management and Budget reports that this legislation will REDUCE our budget deficit, that it will cost less in the long run to improve our health care system.

What I hear from the letter writer is, “I’ve got mine—you get your own!”  And I wonder if that is what the voters in Massachusetts also meant.  They already have universal health care coverage, so they have no interest in whether the rest of us get it.  Some people may think that is the American way, but I want to live in a more compassionate America, where everyone has decent access to decent health care.

Linda Ganister

Ely, Minn.