Free-market health system has no cures

President Barack Obama and First District Congressman Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, SHOULD be planning insurance reform and a public option. The Republicans as well as the “free market” system have failed miserably to respond to the millions of Americans who cannot afford health insurance premiums. If the free market can't, the next best thing is government.

While living in Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1971, we noticed our 9-month-old son had a “lazy eye.” We visited our small town doctor who got us an appointment with a specialist within days. Surgery was completed within two weeks with no complications.

Friends and relatives who have lived in Canada have never made major complaints about the Canadian health care system to us. In 1993 here in the U.S., my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer and denied a bone-marrow transplant by the insurance industry (death panel?), this after years of $1,000-plus monthly premiums. That decision was eventually overturned but time was wasted in delayed treatment.

Think twice before accepting that the market will solve all problems; 45 million Americans are still waiting.

Gary Nafziger

Wellman