Letterbox - Health Care

Editor’s Note: The opinions in letters to the editor do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Whatcom Watch. Letters were edited for grammar and punctuation only.

To the Editor:

The Bellingham Herald on Saturday, August 1, printed a letter from Dr. Christ [sic] Covert-Bowlds that said, “A single payer system is the most efficient, cost-effective approach that would allow us to rein in the outrageous waste of money, time, and, more importantly, suffering and premature deaths of 18,000 Americans a year simply due to lack of health insurance.”

The pharmaceutical and health insurance companies are bankrupting the rest of our society to continue their high profits and executive salaries. As for me, I think we should learn something from Europe where healthy [sic] care is cheaper and human life and longevity is longer than in the United States.

When my doctor retired, I had difficulty in finding a new doctor. I am a retired senior citizen who is on Medicare, a single payer system. The problem I find is that some doctors won’t take patients on Medicare because it does not pay them enough. My doctor retired recently and the doctor I wanted to go to would not accept me as a patient because I am on Medicare. That problem could be reversed by Medicare paying doctors more. In the end, cost to the federal government would be considerably less than the cost of insurance companies.

A doctor who commonly comments on ABC television said that health care reform won’t work if there are not enough doctors who are general practitioners. For example, when my doctor retired, her patients including me had difficulty in finding another doctor. The trouble is that the American Medical Association is the most powerful labor union in American [sic]. It limits the number of students studying to become doctors to keep the earning power of practicing doctors high. The federal government should fund the cost of qualified medical students with the understanding that on graduation they will become general practitioners where needed. If necessary those students should be sent abroad to study in some country like England.

It is not just smoking, insurance companies, and the American Medical Association that would shoot up the cost of any universal health care cost in American [sic]. It is obesity. Obesity causes heart disease, diabetes, and other problems that cause the cost of health care to escalate. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that about one third of Americans are obese. In the August 8, 2009, Newsweek magazine, Dr. Iric Tinkestein said that medical care for an obese person in the US costs $1,429 more per year than a normal person. That would amount to $147 billion per year in the US for universal health care.

The chief factors causing weight gain are what and how much food is eaten, and when, and how much exercise is done. There has been a culture change in eating habits. In the US there were these three meals: breakfast, dinner and supper. The first two were early meals when physical activity was soon to follow. Later when most of the population lived in cities, breakfast was a light meal, lunch at noon, and dinner in the early evening was the main meal when very little physical activity followed, and with the advent of drive up coffee shops and fast food restaurants, breakfast became less and less. One girl I know didn’t eat breakfast at all but ate a substantial dinner. She was a beautiful young girl that put on a lot of weight and became far less attractive.

The book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollen [sic], tells the story of how super-sized meals in restaurants came to be. A man in the restaurant business wanted to learn how he could make more money, so he went to restaurants and watched what people ate. He noticed that people would not order a second helping. By making the serving large and charging more for them he was able to make a larger profit. That was the beginning of super-sizing and super servings, the appearance of which is remembered by people about 50 years old or more.

What can be done to reduce obesity and health care costs will be known only when the public is fully aware of the problem and there is public discussion.

To the Editor:

I attended Jay Inslee’s town meeting in Edmonds, Wash., and would like to correct some misstatements that he and other supporters of Obama’s health bill are making.

Rep. Inslee: you said there is “no death panel” in the bill. You addressed the end of life counseling, but that is not what most of us think of as the “death panel.” We consider the panel that will determine the cost/benefit ratio of procedures to be the true death panel.

I am 75 years old and have seven stents, three joint replacements, kidney cancer and diabetes – all paid for by an excellent insurance program from my work. (Yes, I am still working full time.) However, under the cost/benefit ratio analysis panel, it would never have been considered cost-effective to fund the surgeries that have kept me a working, contributing human being. Too old, too many problems - much better to give her pain medication, let her go and concentrate on younger people instead.

Scared? You bet!

Especially since your (and O’s) [sic] statement that “if you like your insurance, you can keep it.” Not if the government sets up a system that will encourage my employer to drop the private insurance plan. I was talking to our company owner and he said if the government forced through a public option and just fined him a couple thousand dollars for not covering his employees, in this economy when he is trying to keep our small, 30-year-in-business company operating, he would have no choice but to end the private insurance and pay the penalty. It would be the most cost-effective step he could take and might be the only choice left to him economically. In other words, “you can keep your insurance for now” but (unsaid) “I am going to make it so that, in the end, you will have no choice in the matter.”

You and other supporters of the bill have interpreted these items one way. Now you have my interpretation which, I assure you, is the way the vast majority of people my age look at the O [sic] plan.