Fee-for-service system costing us greatly

Regarding the letters in the July 24 Gazette: I cannot believe there are still people who defend our broken health care system. Our country ranks 37th in health care in the world. We have the highest infant mortality rate in the Western world and lower life expectancy than nearly every other advanced nation, and yet spend more than twice as much as any of them. We have a system which denies millions of people coverage.

As the late Walter Cronkite said, “America's health care system is neither healthy, caring or a system.”

One major reason we spend far more on health than any other advanced nation, with worse results, is the fee-for-service system in which hospitals and doctors are paid for procedures, not results. This creates an incentive for health providers to do more tests, operations and so forth, whether or not they actually help patients. Medical costs cannot be contained without addressing this fundamental issue and when insurance companies take the cream off the top of every insurance dollar.

We have a chance to take a positive step toward fixing our health-care embarrassment, but the debate is off-the-charts ridiculous. Do you want to keep getting taken by the corporate health insurance companies, or do you want to move toward fair, moral and universally accepted health care?

Stephen Fitzhenry

Marion