My latest LTTE -- not health insurance; healthCARE

[MindPilot]

We need to get the word “insurance” completely out of the debate.

Insurance is by definition a gamble; it is a bet I make with Allstate over whether or not I will crash my car or burn down my house. The whole object of the game is for the insurance company to collect as much as they can in premiums while paying out as little as possible in claims. That’s OK when it’s over the value of my ’02 Chevrolet; it is not OK when I need an appendectomy.

Over the past few decades, it has become obvious that the insurance model is unsustainable when applied to healthcare.

The discussion should not be about “insurance reform”, but rather healthcare as a right which is accessible to all, the personal responsibility and obligation of everyone, and remove the burden of providing insurance from employers.

As for paying for it; we are already paying for it in the form of insurance company profits, excessive administrative costs, defensive medicine, and tax write-offs for provider losses. None of which actually delivers treatment to patients. Unless you want a scenario in which a truck drives by every day with a loudspeaker blaring “bring out yer dead”, we will continue to pay for it…one way or another.

[Joanie Baloney]

1. Right on!

I don't even take insurance in Vegas at the blackjack tables. Why would I play Russian roulette with health insurance? If universal care is socialist...then so be it.

Great letter!

-JB