Everyone deserves access to medical care

A letter published Oct. 24 argues that “until we clearly identify and quantify the too-high costs, we shouldn't pursue remedies (laws)” for health care. The writer goes on to identify six kinds of costs, all of which would take years to quantify, changing all the while.

In other words, this writer is proposing a formula for putting off change indefinitely.

Our trouble is that we tackle costs first. This is pinpointed in an important new book by longtime Washington Post correspondent T.R. Reid, “The Healing of America: a global quest for better, cheaper, and fairer health care.” Everywhere Reid went - to France, Germany, Japan, Great Britain, Canada - he was told “this approach gets things backward.”

“Universal coverage has to come first,” Reid writes. “Covering everybody in a unified system creates a powerful political dynamic for managing health care costs (p. 238).”

In his prologue, Reid argues, “The primary issue for any health care system is a moral one. ... Should we guarantee medical treatment to everyone who needs it? Or should we let Americans die from a lack of access to health care (p. 3)?” And in his concluding chapter, Reid points out, “Every developed country except the United States has reached the same conclusion: Everybody should have access to medical care” (p. 239).

And every developed country provides it at far less cost than the U.S.

Harland Nelson

Decorah